Thanks to Lynn Lockhart at and Eric Frazier at the Library of Congress, for enabling my reading of The Vain and Prodigal Life and Tragical Penitent Death of Thomas Hellier. I could not have embarked upon this novel quest without your kindness. When I began researching the roots of modern boxing two decades ago, I had no clue that it would bring me to this perspective.

And also, I owe a debt for repeated kicks in my creative posterior to “write this thing” by my brother in moral dissonance, Mescaline Franklin.