Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion (Candlewick Press, September 2023) is the newest book by Coretta Scott King Award-winning author and speaker Charles R. Smith, Jr.
The new book features illustrations by artist Leo Espinosa, whose drawings have been featured in The New Yorker and elsewhere.
You can meet the author on Zoom with us January 23 and first registrants for our September 7, 2024 Celebration Ride can get copies!
Meet the author via Zoom for free at 6 pm Tuesday, January 23
The national Major Taylor Association, made up of groups honoring Marshall “Major Taylor” around the country, is hosting a free online meetup with author Charles R. Smith, Jr. and you are invited!
When: 6 p.m. Central Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024
Where: On Zoom (click here to join the event)
No registration required, just mark your calendar and plan to join us by clicking this link when it’s time to go to the webinar: tinyurl.com/go-major.
More about the book
Major Taylor: World Cycling Champion is a “rousing picture book biography-in-verse of legendary African American cyclist Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor and the Six-Day Race,” write publishers Candlewick Press on the Amazon and Bookshop online store sites.
“One hundred years ago, one of the most popular spectator sports was bicycle racing, and the man to beat was Marshall “Major” Taylor, who set records in his teens and won his first world championship by age twenty. The first African American world champion in cycling and the second Black athlete to win a world championship in any sport, Major Taylor faced down challenge after challenge, not least the grueling Six-Day Race, a test of speed, strength, and endurance.
“With energy, heart, and pounding verse, Charles R. Smith Jr. evokes the excitement of the crowd at Madison Square Garden as Major powered through exhaustion, hallucinations, and racist abuse from fellow riders, who tried to crash his bike throughout the competition. Leo Espinosa’s dynamic illustrations capture the action, and as day six draws to a close, and Major’s odds narrow, there is little doubt that his triumphant rise and legacy as an international cycling champion are assured–whatever the outcome of one race–in this high-octane tribute to a trailblazing athlete.”
Free copies for early 9/7/24 ride registrants
While supplies last, we are giving away free copies of the of the book to the first five of every team who registers for the 2024 Celebration Ride on Saturday, Sept. 7 at Dan Ryan Woods, Grove 15 & 16 (just off 83rd Street).
That’s right – if you save your place and register now for next year’s Major Taylor Trail Keepers’ Annual Celebration Ride, you can get a copy of the this new children’s book!
We also plan to have a few copies to give away at the ride itself. The registration fee for the ride, which also includes lunch, will remain the same as this year: $35.