The story of Marshall “Major” Taylor is well-known in cycling circles, but what else can be told? As it turns out, quire a bit, in John Kennedy Howard and Rene Maurer’s biography, “The Black Cyclone, Major Taylor: A Hero the World Forgot.”
“Fifty years before Jackie Robinson, a decade before the ascendance of heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, there was one young man who was the highest paid athlete in the world. His name was Marshall Taylor and he was a worldwide bicycle racing superstar, a sensation in America, Europe and Australia, setting world record after record. He was also Black…and now long lost to history.”
In this Five by Five, John shares his own knowledge of Major and what inspired him to write thisbook. He shares the research, which included interviews with Major’s daughter and friends, what he learned a lot from other biographies, and the new facts gleaned in the writing process.
How did you become aware of Marshall’s story and why did you want to make them the subject of your book?
Major Taylor was my boyhood hero, it was not hard to find him. But, I knew I had to finish what I started writing soon after I read his original autobiography. Ironically, I also had a stellar career in cycling and it happened that we were both inducted into the USA Cycling Hall of Fame in `89. I had met his daughter, Sydney Taylor Brown, in about 1986 when she was in her mid-80’s, still a quick-witted women with a very good memory. We became friends and I interviewed her in her Pittsburgh home several times to better understand her memories and her relationship with her father.
What did you know about Marshal and how much research was needed for the book?
Cycling history is well documented and mainstream in the day. Today, cycling could best be described as almost subculture compared to the ball sports. My research was ongoing and lasted an embarrassingly long time, 40 years when I do the math!
Because of my patience, I had the benefit of reading all five of the excellent Major Taylor biographies, all of which revealed new information about the man, his family and his associates. I traveled to Europe and mined the microfiche labs in libraries from Paris to Sydney, Australia. The information was vast and allowed me to get a better view of Taylor, both his well-documented strengths and also his never discussed vulnerabilities.
Any particularly interesting facts uncovered through the research?
The facts of Major’s life are well written about, most—cycling enthusiasts-- who know of him can recite his life story fairly well, but it was the information gleaned from Sydney and a few of his contemporaries, some of who I caught in the closing months of life that revealed to me how complicated and conflicted this man was, and that is the lifeblood of my story.
The depth of my research gives substance to the choice of a different genre—biographical novel—whereby we give Major and his contemporaries voices. My book tells the story from the perspective of his childhood friend, Josh, who became a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and actually traveled with Taylor to quite a few of his races. They grew up together in Indy and received a tutored education, courtesy of the Southard family, a wealthy railroad executive.
How did you know when the book was “done”?
Unlike the speculation loosely described in the biographies, I wrote of his little-known failures after retirement, his difficult relationship with his wife and daughter and her memories of his disappointments, his heroics, his humor and then shifted the story back to Josh who describes his treatment of his former trainer and how that played out. Josh and Major had a disagreement about who should ultimately tell his story. Josh very much wanted to document Major’s life in his own biography which he called “Requiem For a Wheelman.” My coauthor and I gave the ending a twist, so ultimately it was Major’s slightly ponderous “world of I” version that you can read today.
What’s your takeaway from Taylor’s story?
In spite of the intense racism that defined his life, he believed in humanity and held no grudges. The man was a staunch Christian and while that cost him dearly after retirement when revenue was shirking during the Depression years, his work as a civil rights advocate — before the term existed — his exemplary.
His relationships with Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson are all discussed and elaborated. Although he ultimately ended up in a pauper’s grave with no family at his internment, he was later recognized by Frank Schwinn, who had his body placed in a prominent location in a Chicago cemetery. Today his legacy lives on with hundreds of clubs and a social network of perhaps millions of followers.
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