American Colossus: Big Bill Tilden and the Creation of Modern Tennis

Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Bobby Jones, and Bill Tilden were the legendary quartet of the 'Golden Age of Sports' in the 1920s.

They transformed their respective athletic disciplines and captured the imagination of a nation.

The indisputable force behind the emergence of professional tennis as a popular and lucrative sport, Tilden's on-court accomplishments are nothing short of staggering.

Tilden was a showman off the court as well. He appeared in numerous comedies and dramas on both stage and screen and was a Renaissance man who wrote more than two dozen fiction and non-fiction books.

But Tilden had a secret - one he didn't fully understand himself.

After he left competitive tennis in the late 1940s, he faced a lurid fall from grace when he was arrested after an incident involving an underage boy in his car. 'American Colossus' is a thorough account of his life.