Last week Squash: A History of the Game was officially published again. The hardback version came out in 2003; now Scribner has released a revised, updated paperback.
The new book is written by James Zug, US Squash’s longtime senior correspondent. It covers every aspect of the game in America: women’s and men’s play; urban squash and community squash; juniors, intercollegiate and masters; singles and doubles; amateurs and professionals. The late George Plimpton wrote the original foreword just weeks before he died in 2003. Zug “has produced the definitive book on the game,” Plimpton said in the foreword, and then he wonderfully described giving a squash exhibition in Detroit in the 1960s with the great icon of squash Hashim Khan.
The book received glowing reviews when it was first published. “Zug excels in describing the game’s outsized personalities and how they won clubhouse fame and infamy,” wrote the New Yorker. “For a game said to require, simply, ‘a bat, a ball and a wall,’ its lore is rich, and Zug is a good storyteller,” the New York Times wrote.
Squash: A History of the Game answers the age-old questions surrounded the game: how did it first make its way to the States; why did two different versions—hardball and softball—emerge in the twentieth century; and why did America switch to softball in the 1990s? A new final chapter updates the story for the twenty-first century, analyzing the trends that led to the Arlen Specter US Squash Center and to squash gaining admittance into the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
You can pre-order from Zug’s favorite neighborhood bookstore or wherever you buy books:
