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(SPORTS--CYCLING.) TAYLOR, MARSHALL W. "MAJOR." The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World. The Story of a Colored Boy's Indomitable Courage and Success Against Great Odds. Frontispiece and additional illustrations. Large, thick 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt; in the original pictorial dust-jacket with some chips and closed tears; still mostly present. Worcester: Wormley, (1928)
first edition of a very scarce, self-published book. Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor (1878-1932) was an African American cyclist who won the world 1 mile (1.6 km) track cycling championship in 1899 after setting numerous world records and overcoming widespread racial discrimination. He was the first African-American athlete ever to achieve the level of "World Champion" and only the second black man to win any world championship-after Canadian boxer George Dixon. Major Taylor won his first significant race in 1895 at the age of 16. The 75 mile road race, near his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana, came amid racial threats from his white competitors. Taylor turned professional in 1896 at the age of 18 and soon emerged as the "most formidable racer in America." One of his biggest supporters was President Theodore Roosevelt who kept track of Taylor throughout his 17-year racing career. But, as an African-American, Taylor was banned from bicycle racing in Indiana once he started winning and making a reputation as "The Black Cyclone." In 1896, with the help of his friend and benefactor Louis D. "Birdie" Munger, he moved from Indianapolis to Worcester, Massachusetts, then a center of the United States bicycle industry. In Worcester, with half a dozen factories and 30 bicycle shops, many owned by Munger, Taylor was free to work as a racer for Munger's team. Taylor was still breaking records in 1908 but age was starting to "creep up on him." He finally quit the track in 1910 at the age of 32.While Taylor was reported to have earned between $25,000 and $30,000 a year when he returned to Worcester at the end of his career, by the time of his death he had lost everything to bad investments ----including the self-publishing of this autobiography.
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