Arthur Ashe: A Life

The author of the best-selling books “Freedom Riders” and “The Sound of Freedom,” Raymond Arsenault says that his new exhaustive biography of the late Arthur Ashe was born out of a longtime fascination with his legendary subject, a Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion who spoke out against injustice and was eager to break down society’s color barriers even as he was battling the AIDs virus.

According to Arsenault, who spent nine years researching and writing the biography,  Ashe was "so honest and candid, revealing his soul, which is interesting because he had this reputation of being kind of cool and aloof. He was way Obama-esque. I swear sometimes that they were separated at birth. "

Read my Richmond Magazine interview with Raymond Arsenault, the author of "Arthur Ashe: A Life," by going right here.

Click here for more on Arsenault and the book, published by Simon and Shuster.

(Photo by Rob Bogaerts / Fotocollectie Anefo / Nationaal Archief)