Titanic Thompson
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Kevin Cook s biography vividly illuminates the life of Titanic Thompson, perhaps the craftiest golfer and poker player and certainly the most dangerous hustler of his, or just about any, generation. --James McManus, bestselling author of "Positively Fifth Street" and "Cowboys Full"
Product Description
The True Story of the Card-Sharking, Gun-Slinging, Golf-Hustling American Legend who inspired the character of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I wish I had his life,
By
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Hardcover)
He really did live a fascinating life. He was a legendary gambler, brilliant Golfer, married five very young wives and killed five men in self defence.Many of the stories really are fascinating and the ways in which he won many of his "proposition" bets was incredible. If I wasn't so lazy I might try to use some of them down the pub to win a bit of money. Despite being functionally illiterate he had a superb grasp of probabilities and memory for numbers and he even consulted with a professor of mathematics. Despite this he still managed to lose vast sums of money betting on the horses. The bright and breezy writing style of the author suits the subject matter very well. Occasionally it did seem like there was one anecdote after another and I would have liked more analysis and for him to have expanded on some of the events and also heard more from the people that didn't like him. Sometimes I felt the book went a bit easy on him when he abandoned yet another wife. Some of the marketing slightly oversells his meetings with celebrities from the entertainment industry. Most of the famous people in the book are gamblers, golfers and gangsters. I was amazed to learn about how good he was at Golf and how he had played with and beaten many legendary figures of the game. Despite its reputation nowadays for probity and strict rules, it was a huge gambling game and players could win more in side bets than for winning major tournaments. There is an interesting bit at the end in his note on sources where the author comments on how accurate all the stories are. He claims that he believes the vast majority of the stories in the book are accurate and when he isn't certain he says so. Titanic Thompson was quite a well know character and had many articles written about him and many well know characters included stories about him in their own autobiographies. I now have the urge on meeting people to immediately offer them a bet.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The life & times of the worlds greatest grifter,
By
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Hardcover)
I'm not sure where to start with this review - there's so much I could say and so much about this book I liked.I'd never heard of Titanic Thompson before - and as with all men of legend, it's hard to separate fact from fiction and tell man from myth. Over the years, stories get told and retold, grow and take on a life of their own. Certainly though, this all adds to the mystique of the man known as Titanic; a name he earned after a wager in a pool hall: ''I don't rightly know what it is [his name], but it ought to be Titanic - he sinks everybody...'' I loved Kevin Cook's writing style. I really enjoyed it, and the way the storytelling was approached was perfect for the subject and seemed to match Titanic's bold confidence and swagger step for step. It captures the spirit of the time and is littered with great turns of phrase - meaning what could have easily tumbled into a bland acount of dates, facts and figures, soon became a vivid account of a grifter's escapades, brought to life by Kevin's sterling storytelling. I'm sure poetic licence was taken quite liberally to bring scenes alive - but the book is all the better for it. Titanic was clearly a man of great talent. He had a savant like gift for numbers matched only by charisma, charm and balls of brass - the essential tools of any good confidence man. He was ruthless, yet generous; knew people better than they knew themselves just from watching them - the way they thought, worked, moved and acted. He was bold and fearless, as well as diligent, and hardworking. And it's also clear that the man was devilishly clever... So what lessons, if any, can you take away from such a great man? Hmmm, is great the right word - perhaps exceptional is better suited... Well, however you describe him, there are lots in fact. But perhaps the most important lessons to be taken from these pages are that of hard work, practice, persistence and perseverance. It took him years to perfect the skills needed to become such a successful con artist and achieve the 'seemingly' impossible (such as tossing hotel room keys into door locks. A trick that earned him many free nights in all the best hotels of the time) . The man himself tells us: ''If a things hard to do, most folks are too lazy to do it... That puts me one up on 'em." By the end of the book you'll have learnt a lot about all sorts of history, cheats, games and scams, and read tales about all sorts of colourful characters that fell for the man's charms and hustles; Al Capone, Howard Hughes, Harry Houdini, Arnold Rothstein and Minnesota Fats; who said of him: ''Titanic was like a magician. He had the hands of an artist." In his lifetime Titanic won and lost millions, married 5 women and murdered 5 men; though he'd tell you: ''They'd all agree they had it coming...'' and I could go on and on telling you about the games he played, the rackets he ran, and the scrapes he avoided. But I don't want to spoil the fun. In the end I think it best you find them all out for yourself. But I will tell you this: this gun-slinging, card-sharking, fast-living American became known as 'The man who will bet on anything' and in the true spirit of Titanic himself, I bet you - once you start reading this book, you won't be able to put it down.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews) 26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Titanic stays afloat! A great Christmas Present,
By David A. Barnes - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Hardcover)
Having just finished Kevin Cook's, Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything, it's my pleasure to highly recommend this thoroughly enjoyable book. Unlike some reviewers, I had no previous knowledge of the subject and I thank Mr Cook for introducing me to a man who was without question one of the most colorful real life characters of the 20th century. From humble origins in Arkansas to Al Capone's Chicago, Damon Runyon's New York and Howard Hughes' Hollywood, the man was like "Zelig" with a bankroll: traveling through America's cultural landscape in pursuit of his own version of the American Dream. If you've ever swung a golf club, bowled a bowling ball, pitched a horseshoe, played poker or have done any of the myriad things Titanic excelled at and bet on, this book is for you. Titanic Thompson was the king of road gamblers and Kevin Cook has written a sure thing.
36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My dad's story brought to life.,
By Latrice W Thomas - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Hardcover)
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Hardcover)My wife, Latrice Thomas, and I both think this is the best book ever written about my dad, Titanic Thompson, [Alvin Clarance Thomas]....True insight into the life of a professional gambler. The interviews bring to life the amazing feats of my dad that in the natural would seem impossible. I was with him when he made three hole in ones on par three golf courses while in his early seventies. Being a professional gambler and card shark for 32 years I can tell you that in the world of gambling there has never been anyone like him. When you read about his life and the amazing things he did you will escape into a time in America that was made to order for the life of Titanic Thompson. Tommy Thomas howtobeattheodds.com 13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive biography of this legendary gambler,
By John W. Porter - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet on Everything (Kindle Edition)
Having just finished this book, my' first thought is that there will probably never be another biography of Titanic. I say this because no one would want their effort to be compared to this one. I knew Titanic back in the 1960s,' but I understand him better now after reading the book than I did when I was around him on a daily basis. Rich in detail, literate, and always with a "ring of truth," the book was one of the best reading experiences I've had in quite a while.More than just a re-telling of the many stories about Titanic and the bets he won, Cook's book brings in a variety of other interesting and colorful characters and gives us a look at what was going in America during the first half of the last century. By the way, I can remember running into Titanic's son Tommy about 45 years ago when he and a top pool player (Richie Ambrose) came into a pool hall in Dallas, Texas (Time Square Cue Club). As I recall, Richie ran over me playing 9-ball and the two of them drove off in Tommy's fancy car. As Tommy said in his review, there was no one else who came close to accomplishing Titanic's gambling feats and he did it for over 50 years. |
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
