Eustace Cockrell was a pioneer television writer who contributed to many of the early western shows including
Have Gun Will Travel
and
Gunsmoke
. He also wrote for such high-profile television programs as
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Naked City.
Prior to his Hollywood career Cockrell was a prolific writer of short stories. Over a 25-year period beginning in 1932, his works appeared regularly in pulp fiction magazines including
Blue Book
Argosy
and in "slicks" like
Collier's
Saturday Evening Post
.
While Cockrell's short stories covered a broad range of fiction categories - detective, adventure, romance and even science fiction - he was primarily a writer of sports stories with the boxing ring being his favorite setting.
In 1940, Cockrell created one of the first African American fictional heroes in the person of boxer Refugee Smith.
The complete collection of 16 Refugee Smith stories, edited by Cockrell's son-in-law, Roger Coleman, are combined in this volume for the first time. Also included are 10 additional "stories of the ring" written by Cockrell between 1936 and 1957.
Cockrell's plots are often complex. Fighters enter the ring for a reason and the discovery of that reason is what makes Cockrell's tales relevant in a world where boxing, once America's favorite sport next to baseball, no longer holds the attraction it held for previous generations.