The book is available for pre-order now at all major retailers:\u00a0https:\/\/books2read.com\/TheStPaulPhantom<\/a><\/p>\n Advance Praise for\u00a0The St. Paul Phantom<\/p>\n Early reviews for The St. Paul Phantom have been exceptionally strong, with critics and boxing\u00a0historians praising its cinematic storytelling, historical sweep, boxing authority, and emotional\u00a0force:<\/p>\n Biography.com\u00a0calls the book “breathtaking and cinematic,\u201d grouping it with works”like Seabiscuit, Unbroken, and The Boys in the Boat\u201d – three nonfiction classics that\u00a0found enormous audiences on the page and the silver screen.Publishers Weekly\u2019s BookLife\u00a0praises Gibbons for bringing “spirited, novelistic life to an intensely personal and highly entertaining family story that captures the epic sweep of immigration and the Golden Age of Boxing in early twentieth-century America.\u201d The review describes the writing as “dramatic, fluid, exciting,\u201d with “a distinctly cinematic feel.\u201dKirkus Reviews\u00a0calls the book “a truly engaging family history and celebration of boxing in the early 20th century,\u201d praising it as “a stirring story of siblings against the world\u2026 with expert pacing and character development.\u201d The review further notes that “Gibbons writes evocatively about boxing – the text abounds with wonderfully vivid descriptions of the sport – but he also tackles Irish Catholic identity, class divisions, vaudeville, the media, racial issues, war, the changing culture of the 20th century, and much more.\u201dSelf-Publishing Review\u00a0awards the book four-and-a-half stars and calls it “an epic\u00a0American odyssey, archetypal, empathetic, exhilarating, and undeniably romantic,\u201d\u00a0crediting Gibbons with “a masterful way with words.\u201dForeword Reviews\u00a0describes the work as “a cinematic, kaleidoscopic portrayal of an era\u00a0in transition, rich with expansive breadth and intimacy.\u201dBlueInk Review\u00a0calls it “moving and engaging, written with zeal and exuberance.\u201d The book has also drawn enthusiastic praise from the boxing world, where authority is especially\u00a0hard-earned and where Mike and Tommy Gibbons have long been revered as two of the greatest\u00a0defensive fighters and ring tacticians in history: Clay Moyle, author, historian, and longtime member of the International Boxing\u00a0Research Organization, heralds the work as “a masterclass in sports biography!\u201d The book follows\u00a0Mike and Tommy Gibbons, two brothers born to Irish immigrants in St. Paul who climbed from the city\u2019s poorest district to the top of American boxing during the first decades of the twentieth century. The brothers\u2019 quest to become champions catapults them into the raw, restless soul of a nation roaring into modernity through “race riots, presidential assassinations, suffragette marches, a global pandemic, and a world war.\u201d Along the way, Mike and Tommy brush shoulders with a rogue\u2019s gallery of fistic legends, Plains Indians, the Golden Pens of sportswriting, jazz legends, movie stars, gangsters, and historical icons like Jack Johnson, Harry Houdini, Nellie Bly, Theodore Roosevelt, and Damon Runyon.<\/p>\n At its heart, however, the book is an intimate story about family, loyalty, sacrifice, reinvention, and the cost of greatness, designed to appeal not only to boxing fans, but also to readers of literary nonfiction, American history, biography, immigration stories, and epic family sagas. The book sets its terms in its opening pages: “A century ago, everyone had a dream, so everyone had a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n The Summer 2026\u00a0publication date carries the book into the heart of America 250, the federal commemoration of the nation\u2019s Semiquincentennial, where the Gibbons brothers\u2019 story sits naturally among the year\u2019s American sagas. The campaign and early-access list are at the author\u2019s site,\u00a0Fight for Glory\u00a0(www.FightForGloryStory.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n About the Author and the Book<\/p>\n Dr. Gerard Gibbons came to this work through his own family. (Mike Gibbons was his great-\u00a0uncle, while Tommy Gibbons was his grandfather). His earlier book,\u00a0Shelby 1923: The\u00a0Dempsey-Gibbons Fight for Glory and a Little Montana Town\u2019s Impossible Dream<\/a>,\u00a0recounted\u00a0the Tommy Gibbons-Jack Dempsey title fight on the Montana plains in July of that year, the\u00a0bout the brothers are remembered for outside boxing\u2019s specialty circles.\u00a0THE ST. PAUL\u00a0PHANTOM\u00a0is the opening book of a\u00a0Fight for Glory\u00a0trilogy that will run from 1884 to 1983, tracing one Irish-American family across a full American century.<\/p>\n Readers, reviewers, booksellers, librarians, media producers, and event organizers can learn more, pre-order the book, join the early-access campaign, or request interviews, review copies, excerpts, images, and speaking\/event information at\u00a0www.FightForGloryStory.com<\/a>.\u00a0THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM\u00a0is available for pre-order now at all major retailers:\u00a0https:\/\/books2read.com\/TheStPaulPhantom<\/a><\/p>\n CONTACT: Angela Robinson<\/p>\n
\n Bob Mutter, former boxing writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, writes that this “amazing\u00a0story could only be told by a descendant with a treasure trove of family archives and an\u00a0exceptional talent as a master storyteller.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Aaron Flint of Montana PBS\u00a0calls it “a timeless, \u2018true-good\u2019 story urgently needed\u00a0today.\u201dWhat Is\u00a0The St. Paul Phantom\u00a0About?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Fight-For-Glory.png\"\/)
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