Billie Jean King's All In is a grand slam among sports autobiographies. One of the greatest tennis players of all time has written a memoir so revealing, honest and reflective that she has once again set the highest of bars for those who follow. In 1966, 22-year-old King was the number-one tennis player in the world. Using her spotlight, she fought inequities between men and women in tennis and helped create the Women's Tennis Association.
She vividly recalls the media blitz when she and Bobby Riggs competed for $100,000 in the "Battle of the Sexes" exhibition match in 1973. The media was even more aggressive in 1981, when King was outed as a lesbian when her personal secretary slapped her with a "galimony" lawsuit. Against her management's wishes, King held a press conference and admitted the affair. But her attempts to avoid tarnishing women's tennis and save endorsements led her to equivocate, which she now deeply regrets. "Who turns being outed into a way to burrow deeper into the closet?" King writes. "But that's what I did." Her husband of 16 years publicly stood by her. Behind the scenes, their marriage had been amicably ending for years. Also unknown at the time, King had started a serious relationship with tennis pro Ilana Kloss (a union that continues more than four decades later).
King's remarkably candid and meditative memoir captures the excitement of her high-profile career and human rights advocacy. Like an exciting tennis match, All In is brisk and nimble and will leave fans cheering. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant