"Touching and courageous...All of it--the man, the life, the book--is rare and beautiful." COSMOPOLITAN DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all.... AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB Before reading this book I was aware of Arthur Ashe as only the tennis commentator that got AIDS, but after finishing DAYS OF GRACE, I realized that he was a truely influential figure, and not just in the previously white world of tennis. As an energetic and unselfish crusader for racial and social justice and as a mouthpiece on AIDS issues, this book will show you what an amzing person Ashe was. The world is a worse off place without him in it. The conclusion of the book, where Ashe writes a letter to his daughter in anticipation of his death, should move even the most cold-hearted of people to tears. It's a shame that there can be no follow up, because I'm sure if Ashe had lived, his actions and thought would've been more than worthy enough to fill another book . Living in New York, the site of the US Open, has showed me that Ashe's legacy lives on. The charitable works that continue in his name, especially those surrounding the US Open, are a testament to Ashe and to the people who, like him, are committed to a cause. DAYS OF GRACE is not just a memoir by a sports figure, it's a book that teaches us how we might live our lives. "Touching and courageous...All of it--the man, the life, the book--is rare and beautiful." COSMOPOLITAN DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all.... AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB "Touching and courageous...All of it--the man, the life, the book--is rare and beautiful." COSMOPOLITAN DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all.... AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) was a tennis champion, AIDS activist, and tireless crusader for racial and social justice. He was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993. Arnold Rampersad,  the Sarah Hart Kimball Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at Stanford University, has also taught at Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities. His books include  The Life of Langston Hughes  (two volumes); biographies of W. E. B. Du Bois, Jackie Robinson, and Ralph Ellison; and, with Arthur Ashe,  Days of Grace: A Memoir.  Among his numerous awards and honors are a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1991 and the National Humanities Medal, presented at the White House in 2011. Chapter One   My Outing   IF ONE’S REPUTATION is a possession, then of all my possessions, my reputation means most to me. Nothing comes even close to it in importance. Now and then, I have wondered whether my reputation matters too much to me; but I can no more easily renounce my concern with what other people think of me than I can will myself to stop breathing. No matter what I do, or where or when I do it, I feel the eyes of others on me, judging me.   Needless to say, I know that a fine line exists between caring about one’s reputation and hypocrisy. When I speak of the importance to me of my reputation, I am referring to a reputation that is deserved, not an image cultivated for the public in spite of the facts. I know that I haven’t always lived without error or sin, but I also know that I have tried hard to be honest and good at all times. When I fail, my conscience comes alive. I have never sinned or erred without knowing I was being watched.   Who is watching me? The living and the dead. My mother, Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, watches me. She died when I was not quite seven. I remember little about her, except for two images. My last sight of her alive: I was finishing breakfast and she was standing in the side doorway looking lovingly at me. She was dressed in her blue corduroy dressing gown. The day was cool and cloudy, and when I went outside I heard birds singing in the small oak tree outside our house. And then I remember the last time I saw her, in a coffin at home. She was wearing her best dress, made of pink satin. In her right hand was a single red rose. Roses were her favorite flower, and my daddy had planted them all around