The Harder They Fall

For 2026, the writer Andrew Rihn conjured up an informal book club called "Hitting the Books," consisting of four boxing-themed novels with the first being Budd Schulberg's The Harder They Fall.

Schulberg was raised in Hollywood and grew up a big boxing fan. His father, B.P., was a famous movie producer. Budd became friends with Jewish boxers Jackie Fields, Mushy Callahan, Newsboy Brown, and Maxie Rosenbloom among others.

First published in 1947, The Harder They Fall is loosely based on the career of former heavyweight champion Primo Carnera. Toro Molina is plucked from his job as a strongman in the circus back in Argentina and used by an amoral manager, Nick Latka, to enhance his bankroll. Unbeknownst to "the big bum," Molina's fights are all fixed and it's the job of the narrator, Eddie Lewis, to build up the fighter in the eyes of the public and the press.

Though explicitly Gentile, Lewis is at heart a Jewish character. A New York schmoozer, who constantly grapples with the morality of his occupation, he's always questioning himself and his surroundings. An aspiring playwright, Eddie feels more comfortable in the often contradictory world of boxing. By the end it's clear that he is nothing more than a schlemiel, destined to remain in the shady realm of pugilism.

The novel is littered with actual Jews, from Bummy Davis to Daniel Mendoza, Lew Tendler, Abe Attell, Callahan, and Benny Leonard. An Irishman named Danny McKeogh, who along with the Jewish hunchback Doc Zigman, train Toro Molina. The fictional McKeogh had been knocked out by Leonard in the first round and then became the trainer of Leonard's potential successor, Izzy Greenberg.

Schulberg's novel is immensely quotable and one of the less profound is about the fictional Greenberg, who traveled around the world fighting "the Australian champion, the Champion of England, the Champion of Europe, which is not as much trouble for Izzy as slicing Mazoth balls with a hot knife."

Danny is the impetus for an observation from Eddie, "There's nothing duller than an old ball player or an old tennis star, but an old fighter who's been punched around, spilled his blood freely for the fans' amusement only to wind up broke, battered and forgotten has the stuff of tragedy for me." It's hard not to concur.

Boxing is "a genuinely manly art, dragged down through the sewers of human greed," Eddie explains the thesis of the novel toward its end. It's a profound statement that still resonates today.

Though Schulberg published The Harder They Fall over 75 years ago, he sums up not only boxing, but the American political climate when he writes, "Hope is the blind mother of stupidity."

As Eddie tries to sell Toro Molina to the press, he encounters a skeptic and laments, "A historian yet! In every town you hit, there's always one jerk like that, the natural enemy of the press agent, the guy with integrity." For over fifteen years, the founder of The Jewish Boxing Blog has strived to be that jerk.

The next Hitting the Books entry is The Professional by W.C. Heinz.