Books: Battling Boykin

POOR NIGGER—Orio Vergani—Bobbs-Merrill ($2.50). George Boykin, true to the best African tradition, was conceived, born and bred in total darkness. Bandied by harlots, sailors, soldiers, he saw much of life, understood little. While employed as a pimp in a Senegalese seaport, he first met Madame Germaine, relict of a French engineer; later went to her house after he had been shot in the shoulder in a cafe brawl. Madame Germaine, philanthropic, took him to France with her; lost him as soon as the boat landed. He worked as bootblack, ice-boy, thief, until he met Tommy Walsh, onetime fisticuffer, who maintained a third-rate boxing school and an oversexed wife, Martha. George entered the school, dazzled oldtimers with his monkey-like agility and his sure-fire punch. With success came Martha Walsh. George felt sorry when Tommy found out. When the World War broke out, George enlisted, drank vast quantities of liquor, did nothing startling. After it was over, he returned to boxing, won a battle with the world champion. Unsatisfied with his fame and wealth in Europe, he came to the U. S., found New York too much for him; learned what it was to be a "poor nigger," reverted to type, because he did not know anything else to do. The Author. Orio Vergani is 31 years old, is an Italian. Onetime manager of Dramatist Luigo Pirandello's theatre in Rome, he is the author of six books, is a journalist on Milan's Corriere delta Sera, likes boxing, traveling, the cinema. In 1922 he went to Paris to see the championship bout between Frenchman Georges Carpentier and Battling Siki, onetime Senegalese phenomenon; he became interested in Battling Siki, modeled George Boykin after him.