By the Sword
A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions; 10th anniversary edition
“Like swordplay itself, By the Sword is elegant, accurate, romantic, and full of brio—the definitive study, hugely readable, of man’s most deadly art.”—Simon Winchester
With a new Preface by the author
Napoleon fenced. So did Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Grace Kelly, and President Truman, who as a schoolboy would practice fencing with Bess—his future wife— when the two of them returned home from school. Lincoln was a canny dueler. Ignatius Loyola challenged a man to a duel for denying Christ’s divinity (and won). Less successful, but no less enthusiastic, was Mussolini, who would tell his wife he was “off to get spaghetti,” their code to avoid alarming the children. By the Sword is an epic history of sword fighting—a science, an art, and,…
$32.00
August 5, 2003
Richard Cohen is the author of Chasing the Sun and How to Write Like Tolstoy. The former publishing director of two leading London publishing houses, Cohen has edited books that have won the Pulitzer, Booker, and Whitbread/Costa prizes, while twenty-one have been #1 bestsellers. Five times the U.K.’s national saber champion, Cohen was selected for the British Olympic fencing team in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984 and has been four times world veteran saber champion. He has written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times Book Review.
Jesus Wept
Philip Shenon
How to Write Like Tolstoy
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Chasing the Sun
Richard Cohen