From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Madeleine Blais, the dramatic and colorful story of legendary tennis star and international celebrity, Alice Marble In August 1939, Alice Marble graced the cover of Life magazine, photographed by the famed Alfred Eisenstaedt. She was a glamorous worldwide celebrity, having that year won singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles tennis titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open, then an unprecedented feat. Yet today one of America’s greatest female athletes and most charismatic characters is largely forgotten. Queen of the Court places her back on center stage. Born in 1913, Marble grew up in San Francisco; her favorite sport, baseball. Given a tennis racket at age 13, she took to the sport immediately, rising to the top with a powerful, aggressive serve-and-volley style unseen in women’s tennis. A champion at the height of her fame in the late 1930s, she also designed a clothing line in the off-season and sang as a performer in the Sert Room of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York to rave reviews. World War II derailed her amateur tennis career, but her life off the court was, if anything, even more eventful. She wrote a series of short books about famous women. She turned professional and joined a pro tour during the War, entertaining and inspiring soldiers and civilians alike. Ever glamorous and connected, she had a part in the 1952 Tracy and Hepburn movie Pat and Mike , and she played tennis with the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, and her great friends, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. However, perhaps her greatest legacy lies in her successful efforts, working largely alone, to persuade the all-white US Lawn Tennis Association to change its policy and allow African American star Althea Gibson to compete for the US championship in 1950, thereby breaking tennis’s color barrier. In two memoirs, Marble also showed herself to be an at-times unreliable narrator of her own life, which Madeleine Blais navigates skillfully, especially Marble’s dramatic claims of having been a spy during World War II. In Queen of the Court , the author of the bestselling In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle recaptures a glittering life story. Praise for Queen of the Court “This deeply researched biography offers an illuminating look at a major star of her era—but it also portrays a woman whose later life was marked increasingly by loneliness, economic hardship, and perhaps some self-delusion . . . Full of indelible scenes of just how lively and unconventional a person [Marble] could be.”— Daily Hampshire Gazette “An enthralling biography of pioneering tennis player Alice Marble . . . Blais’s handling of Marble’s spurious claim to have served as a spy during WWII showcases the author’s dogged research and empathetic analysis, pointing out travel records that contradict Marble’s story and suggesting that it may have stemmed from the former champion’s yearning to hold the public’s attention as her star power declined. This will likely stand as the definitive account of Marble’s life.”— Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review) “Extensively researched and beautifully written . . . The author’s journalistic strength shines throughout, especially navigating conflicting and inconsistent aspects of Marble’s life detailed in her memoirs (was she a WWII spy? married?). The appendix includes Marble’s most lasting and radical legacy: her courageous 1950 editorial in American Lawn Tennis advocating for Gibson to play in the U.S. National Championships, which helped to break the sport’s color barrier. Essential addition to tennis and sports history collections.”— Booklist (starred review) “Illuminates the icon’s life in this biography that details not only her rise in the sport of tennis but also her work as a writer, fashion maven, and civil rights activist . . . This book reminds readers that this sometimes forgotten figure earned her place in the chronicled events of tennis as well as in the annals of women’s history overall. An informative and intriguing story of the life of a formidable woman. An essential read for anyone who loves learning about the women whom history threatens to forget or erase.”— Library Journal “An adept biographer chronicles the life of a resilient Renaissance woman and tennis champion who should not be forgotten . . . The high level of detailed research and compelling writing show why tennis player Hazel Wightman described Marble as ‘the first girl who became sensational.’ An engagingly thorough biography of a dazzling woman.”— Kirkus Reviews “Madeleine Blais, one of my favorite all-time writers, has brought Alice Marble back to life in all of her splendid contradictions, breaking through the mythology to restore the too-often overlooked tennis great to her rightful place in the history of women in sports.”— David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe “Alice Marble took up tennis on public park cour