<div dir="ltr"><div>All, </div><div>Please find attached and below my review of Kastner, <i>Race Across America: Eddie Garner and the Great Bunion Derbies.</i></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>Duncan</div><div><br></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Kastner, Charles B. <i>Race Across America: Eddie Gardner
and the Great Bunion Derbies</i>. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,
2020.<span> </span>Xv + 319 pp.<span> </span>Maps, illustrations, appendices, endnotes,
bibliography.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Reviewed by Duncan Jamieson,
Ashland University<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>Racism
has been a constant in American society for four hundred one years.<span> </span>In 1619 twenty Africans were sold into
slavery in Jamestown, Virginia Colony. In 1903 the civil rights activist W. E.
B. DuBois (1868-1963) wrote <i>Souls of Black Folk</i>, a classic in race
relations.<span> </span>Unlike his more moderate
contemporary, Booker T. Washington, DuBois demanded equality across the board,
bringing the lie to the belief that African Americans were intellectually
and/or physically inferior to Caucasians.<span>
</span>The African American, Eddie “The Sheik” Gardner (1897-1966), along with
many others, proved DuBois to be right with their participation in the 1928
(Los Angeles to New York City) and 1929 (New York City to Los Angeles) Bunion
Derbies, officially the Transcontinental Foot Race Across America. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span><i>Race
Across America</i> is an interesting, stride by stride accounting of the epic
run organized by promoter (huckster?) Charley Pyle.<span> </span>Perhaps if I were a long-distance runner,
rather than a long-distance bicyclist, my thoughts, and therefore this review,
might be different.<span> </span>This is a good book,
interesting and well worth the read.<span>
</span>However, it is not, as the blurb at the bottom of the front cover touts,
“a truly epic book!”<span> </span>But then the blurb
is written by the winner of the 1992 Trans America Foot <b>Race</b> rather than
a participant in the 1991 Pedal for Power, the Trans America Bicycle <b>Tour</b>.<span> </span>Kastner has previously written a book about
the 1928 race, published by the University of New Mexico Press (2007) and a
book about the 1929 race, published by Syracuse University Press (2014).<span> </span>Kastner is a long-distance runner himself,
beginning with cross country in high school.<span>
</span>He has run twenty-five marathons and one ultramarathon, accomplishments
which give him a firsthand knowledge of his subject, backing that up with an
advanced degree in history.<span> </span>Kastner is a
Seattle based writer, which gives him a geographic connection to Eddie Gardner,
who lived and raced most of his life in Seattle.<b><span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>Medical
science was barely out of its infancy in 1928, the year of the first bunion
derby, and the year that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first
true antibiotic.<span> </span>Sport science was
equally primitive, with both the medical professionals and the sports world
conflicted about the value or harm of long-distance running.<span> </span>Running equipment consisted of shorts,
t-shirts and sneakers.<span> </span>Many of the 199
runners who registered in 1928 with the hope of winning the $25,000 first place
prize (equivalent to $630,000 I today’s dollars), had little or nothing in the
way of support, relying on the generosity of spectators or residents in the
towns where they spent their nights.<span> </span>The
youngest runner, a fifteen-year old African American, had his family following
him in a beat-up automobile.<span> </span>No one had
anything like the support teams that exist today. <span> </span>For the first race, with no rest days the
finishers covered 3,442 miles in eighty-four days, averaging 40.7 miles a
day.<span> </span>The first day was the shortest at 16
miles, while the longest came near the end when the bunioneers covered 74.8
miles.<span> </span>In 1929, veterans of 1928 and
novices ran 3,554 miles in seventy-eight days, averaging 45.5 miles a day,
ranging from a short day of 21 miles to the longest at 78.5 miles.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>In
the west they ran along the “Mother Road,” U. S. 66, which was not completely
paved.<span> </span>Roads in the east generally had
paved surfaces.<span> </span>On unpaved roads in dry
conditions the dust clogged the lungs; during rainstorms, the men ran through
ankle deep mud that clung to and weighted down their shoes.<span> </span>On the other hand, hard paved surfaces
increased injuries from the relentless pounding.<span> </span>Both races stepped off in April, so runners experienced
the extremes of weather.<span> </span>They ran across
the Mohave Desert in blazing sun and heat, but then froze in the mountains with
snow, freezing rain and sleet.<span> </span>Fierce headwinds
did not deter the committed, though the long miles, steep altitude gains and
incredible weather thinned the ranks, especially among those with no chance of
prize money.<span> </span>Still many of the
competitors continued to slog along for the glory of winning.<span> </span>Many ran day after day with painful and
debilitating injuries.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>The
most interesting and yet problematic part of the book is the focus on several
individual runners.<span> </span>I’ll admit I didn’t
know anything about Eddie Gardner or the two transcontinental foot races but
based on the subtitle I assumed he was the star of the show.<span> </span>Spoiler alert—he didn’t win in 1928.<span> </span>He was near the front and had won some
stages, but there wasn’t any consistency.<span>
</span>He finished eighth.<span> </span>Then when he
came back to run in 1929, I assumed this would be the one.<span> </span>A second spoiler alert—he didn’t win in 1929
either.<span> </span>In 1929 he didn’t finish,
dropping out due to a leg injury while running on a gravel road.<span> </span>He ran several more stages, but the
thirty-fifth day, the 73.4-mile stage to Muskogee, Oklahoma, finished his race.
<span> </span>Still, he ran nearly 1,500 miles at a
nine and one-half minute mile pace.<span>
</span>Throughout both races Kastner focused on Gardner, his times, his stage
finishes, including his many firsts and his overall standing.<span> </span>In both races while most of the time was
north of the Mason Dixon they did run through the southern states of Texas,
Oklahoma and Missouri where racism was rampant.<span>
</span>Gardner received all sorts of death threats, likely aimed at the other
African American runners as well.<span> </span>The
most bizarre was a man riding a mule who followed Gardner for miles, with a
shotgun pointed at his back, threatening to shoot him if he passed a white
runner.<span> </span>Unnerved, Gardner lost places
and time on the front runners until he determined it was time to take a stand
for equality.<span> </span>Though he never suffered
any physical harm, the threats led to mental anguish, which was enough to put
him off his pace, creating an unrecoverable loss.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>Andy
Payne won the 1928 race with an average pace of 10:03 minutes per mile for
3422.3 miles.<span> </span>Payne won while Johnny
Salo came in second.<span> </span>In addition to
second place prize money he won a job as a Passaic, New Jersey police
patrolman.<span> </span>Salo won the 1929 race,
averaging 8:53 minutes per mile.<span>
</span>Unfortunately, Charley Pyle had no money to pay the promised $25,000,
leaving Salo with nothing more than the sense of accomplishment.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>The
youngest runner in the 1928 derby was fifteen-year-old African American Tobie
Cotton, who left school to cross the country afoot, with the hope of winning
enough money to raise his family from poverty.<span>
</span>With his family as his support team following in their used, beat-up
auto, he finished the race out of the money, but the people of Harlem were so
impressed at his accomplishment they bought the family a new car to drive
home.<span> </span>At the time of this publication
Cotton continues to be the youngest runner to cross the country.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>There
are multiple stories like this that are a part of <i>Race Across America</i>.<span> </span>The race organizer, Charlie Pyle and his
second in command, football legend Red Grange, along with the covey of runners
who might be known to aficionados, Pete Gavuzzi, Phillip Granville from the
British West Indies, Mike Joyce, Arthur Newton, Smiling Sammy Robinson, Arne
Souminen, Guisto Umek and Olli Wanttinen are only a sampling.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span>If
you have no knowledge of Kastner’s first two books on the Bunion Derbies, this
you will find interesting.<span> </span>I don’t know
if it was the author or the publicity department at the press that determined
the subtitle, but it seems a bit disingenuous to me, as Eddie Gardner is not
really the focal point.<span> </span>The other
runners receive a great deal of credit as does Charlie Pyle and the carnival he
planned to entertain the locals at each night’s stop, and how Red Grange fit
into the mix.<span> </span>Finally, a more even split
between the two races would be welcome, as 1929 clearly gets short shrift. <span></span></p>
</div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Remember to smell the roses as you recumber past<br><br>Duncan R. Jamieson, Ph. D.<br>Professor of History<br>Book Review Editor<br><i>AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature</i><br>Ashland University<br>Ashland, OH 44805<br>USA<br></div></div></div></div>