Tennis is a source of cultural inspiration and an “art form” in itself, according to this lively grab bag of essays from biographer Weber (Mondrian). He profiles influential players, among them Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen, who inspired a 1924 ballet by Serge Diaghilev; her enigmatic opponent Helen Wills, an American who boasted “the longest streak of tournament victories of any player in tennis history”; and Althea Gibson, who helped “break the color barrier” in women’s tennis in 1950 when she became the first Black athlete to play at the U.S. National Tennis Championship. Elsewhere, Weber examines Vladimir Nabokov’s story “La Veneziana,” wherein characters’ playing styles subtly establish their personality traits; muses on the role of charisma in the sport; and mines the history of the phrase “Tennis, anyone?” which was first uttered by a young Humphrey Bogart on Broadway. The essays range from entertaining trivia to rapturous description, as when Weber writes of a match in which Helen Wills alternated “deep drives to the baseline with deadly little slices, with a mastery of changes in tempo worthy of… Toscanini.” Reflecting the author’s capacious love for the sport, this will be a smash with tennis fans.
The Art of Tennis by Nicholas Fox Weber will be published in the English language by Godine in November 2025.
Nicholas Fox Weber has been the executive director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation for four decades. He is the author of Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute, iBauhaus, Le Corbusier, Balthus, and Patron Saints, among others. He lives in Connecticut, Paris, and Ireland.