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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn
@andrewrihn.bsky.social
230 followers 220 following 400 posts
Multi-genre boxing writer Author of Revelation: An Apocalypse in Fifty-Eight Fights Prose poetry reader for Pithead Chapel https://linktr.ee/AndrewRihn
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · May 19
When Jack London arrived in Reno to cover the big fight, he bore a black eye from a barroom brawl.

The story behind that shiner, the ensuing court battle, his grudge with the judge, and how Jack London re-wrote it all into a story of "fantastic revenge."

www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2025/05/jack...
Jack London’s Fantastic Revenge | The Saturday Evening Post
In his short story “The Benefit of the Doubt,” Jack London turned truth into fiction, and then some.
www.saturdayeveningpost.com
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 1d
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 2d
It is shocking to see how similar boxing coverage from a century ago is to today. Article after article on boxer pay and who gets what percentage of the gate.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 2d
Jack Dempsey
The Boston Globe
Sep 9, 1926
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
oispooky.bsky.social
Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 2d
Seconds out! Round one!

THE DEVIL'S DANCE FLOOR

This isn't an official announcement from Duckworth. It's a page from my agent's newsletter and book fair rights catalogue, which is public. So, a tiny-text soft launch? Details subject to change.

A lot of thank yous and less Disney, to come.

🐻🥊👊🏾👊🏻🦁🍺
Page from literary agency Curious Minds rights guide for Frankfurt Book Fair etc. Alongside a photo of me looking slightly drunk and a lot hostile, it says, in tiny font: NEW DEALS AGENT - Eli Keren PUBLISHER - Duckworth PUBLICATION - Spring 2027 STATUS - Manuscript due April 2026 LENGTH - 80,000 words RIGHTS SOLD World English (Duckworth) The Devil’s Dance Floor Late-Victorian London and the Last Bareknuckle Boys SARAH ELIZABETH COX An 1880s’ group biography of the last of Britain’s bareknuckle boxers from the historical consultant behind A Thousand Blows (Disney+/Hulu) THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is the first popular book from Sarah Elizabeth Cox, the historical consultant behind Steven Knight’s television series A Thousand Blows and author of the historical blog ‘Grappling with History’. A group biography of Victorian boxers, THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is a cultural history that does far more than recount the true story behind the fictionalized version now streaming. Taking a narrative approach, Cox charts the decline of bareknuckle boxing over the 1880s, and, in doing so, explores subjects ranging from policing and healthcare to the press and entertainment – all while offering a personal-scale view of the melting point of Victorian London (think Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper but with a lot more getting punched in the face). The subjects themselves hail from as far afield as London’s East End and the North to the United States and the Caribbean. Each has a unique story to tell and reveals something not only about our shared history but also about the world we live in today. Sarah Elizabeth Cox was a historical consultant on season one and two of Steven Knight's 1880s’ boxing and crime TV drama A Thousand Blows. She researches biographies of Victorian and Edwardian boxers and wrestlers for her website ‘Grappling with History’ and works as the British Science Association’… 1888 portrait of boxer Hezekiah Moscow, a slim Black or Black/East Asian mixed heritage man, taken by Harry Carpenter. He is shirtless, fists raised, wearing white tights and a chequered sash at the waist. There are painted palms on the studio backdrop.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 2d
GREAT title!!
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
oispooky.bsky.social
Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 2d
I'm writing this book partly, mostly, for readers who aren't already into boxing 🥊

The Devil's Dance Floor is about pugilists, pressmen, policemen, and Alf Ball's pet puma. Murder, madness, Jem Smith's tight tights. We got wives. Bald bears. A Victorian epidemic of discarded orange peel! Smallpox!
oispooky.bsky.social
Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 2d
Seconds out! Round one!

THE DEVIL'S DANCE FLOOR

This isn't an official announcement from Duckworth. It's a page from my agent's newsletter and book fair rights catalogue, which is public. So, a tiny-text soft launch? Details subject to change.

A lot of thank yous and less Disney, to come.

🐻🥊👊🏾👊🏻🦁🍺
Page from literary agency Curious Minds rights guide for Frankfurt Book Fair etc. Alongside a photo of me looking slightly drunk and a lot hostile, it says, in tiny font: NEW DEALS AGENT - Eli Keren PUBLISHER - Duckworth PUBLICATION - Spring 2027 STATUS - Manuscript due April 2026 LENGTH - 80,000 words RIGHTS SOLD World English (Duckworth) The Devil’s Dance Floor Late-Victorian London and the Last Bareknuckle Boys SARAH ELIZABETH COX An 1880s’ group biography of the last of Britain’s bareknuckle boxers from the historical consultant behind A Thousand Blows (Disney+/Hulu) THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is the first popular book from Sarah Elizabeth Cox, the historical consultant behind Steven Knight’s television series A Thousand Blows and author of the historical blog ‘Grappling with History’. A group biography of Victorian boxers, THE DEVIL’S DANCE FLOOR is a cultural history that does far more than recount the true story behind the fictionalized version now streaming. Taking a narrative approach, Cox charts the decline of bareknuckle boxing over the 1880s, and, in doing so, explores subjects ranging from policing and healthcare to the press and entertainment – all while offering a personal-scale view of the melting point of Victorian London (think Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper but with a lot more getting punched in the face). The subjects themselves hail from as far afield as London’s East End and the North to the United States and the Caribbean. Each has a unique story to tell and reveals something not only about our shared history but also about the world we live in today. Sarah Elizabeth Cox was a historical consultant on season one and two of Steven Knight's 1880s’ boxing and crime TV drama A Thousand Blows. She researches biographies of Victorian and Edwardian boxers and wrestlers for her website ‘Grappling with History’ and works as the British Science Association’… 1888 portrait of boxer Hezekiah Moscow, a slim Black or Black/East Asian mixed heritage man, taken by Harry Carpenter. He is shirtless, fists raised, wearing white tights and a chequered sash at the waist. There are painted palms on the studio backdrop.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 3d
Newark welterweight "KO" Phil Kaplan, who fought Maxie Rosenbloom and Jack Britton (twice each), undergoes surgery n 1930, neat the end of his career.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 4d
About two weeks ago, I started getting these lovely AI spam emails regurgitating my book’s description back to me. This one threw in some new biographical detail. We’re draining the Great Lakes for this. Billionaires shouldn’t exist.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 4d
I love the Red Green Show!
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
whatashrinkthinks.com
Martha Crawford @whatashrinkthinks.com · 5d
Fuck ICE.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 4d
Stunning newspaper clipping in German of Ernie Schaaf's win over KO Christner

Washington Staatszeitung
Seattle, Washington
Feb 27, 1930
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 5d
"I’m shooting men in dreams
and waking up hoping to go to jail."

Gully by Wilson Koewing

sites.miamioh.edu/oxmag/gully-...
Gully by Wilson Koewing – OXFORD MAGAZINE
sites.miamioh.edu
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
robertbohan.bsky.social
Dr Robert Bohan @robertbohan.bsky.social · 7d
This woman is on fire in the EU parliament.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 7d
Stacking every small victory in these dark and angry days, so I'll share that I've accumulated enough of the "right" kind of essays to be counted as a nonfiction writer with Poets & Writers.
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
thebulwark.com
The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 7d
Pope Leo XIV: “Someone who says I'm against abortion but I'm in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life”
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 7d
No Abbie Hoffman?
emmy.baby
🎃Spooky Emily🎃 @emmy.baby · 8d
Okay, funny bookstore category
Book section labeled "Most Stolen Books"
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 7d
Such a well-researched and thoughtful piece, had me hooked.
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
defector.com
Defector @defector.com · 8d
Good riddance to ‘The Best American Poetry’ defector.com/good-riddanc...
Good Riddance To ‘The Best American Poetry’ | Defector
When David Lehman, a poet then working as a book critic for Newsweek, proposed the project for The Best American Poetry anthology, he was searching for a national platform. His first anthology…
defector.com
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 8d
There’s other stuff in the someday-book, some actual boxing stuff! but asking what it means to choose to look at violence in the way that boxing fans do is a major chunk.

Art, which is also looked at, offers richly analogous experiences. And a useful means to think through the sport I love.
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 8d
Francis Bacon painted brutal portraits based on photographs, but never painted a boxer’s portrait. Here, he’s painted over a magazine page of Jack Dempsey (top)

And Blood of the Floor (below) raises questions about violence, guilt, and what it means to witness
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 8d
Marcel Duchamp is a less obvious choice here. He made notes to include a boxing match in The Large Glass (top) but chose to leave the space blank instead

Most (all?) of his work is about looking, especially Etant Donnes, a life size diorama only observable via eyeholes placed in the museum wall
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 8d
First up, George Bellows. Maybe an obvious pick for a book about boxing. His Stag at Sharkey’s (top) is canon.

He only made 6 oil paintings about the sport, but he really spread his wings with lithographs, such as A Knockout (bottom)
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 8d
I posted the other day about my as-yet-unfinished-but-tantalizingly-close book project, and I mentioned that it focuses on three artists: George Bellows, Marcel Duchamp, and Francis Bacon.

I wanted to share a little about the specific artworks I’ve been writing about. 1/
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andrewrihn.bsky.social
Andrew Rihn @andrewrihn.bsky.social · 9d
There goes any chance of me having a social life!
post-doc-club.bsky.social
Warwick History Post-Doc Club @post-doc-club.bsky.social · 9d
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...
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Reposted by Andrew Rihn
post-doc-club.bsky.social
Warwick History Post-Doc Club @post-doc-club.bsky.social · 9d
Great news!
JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month

www.jstor.org/action/showL...
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