Review: Major Taylor by Charles R Smith Jr, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Title: Major Taylor – World Cycling Champion
Author: Charles R Smith Jr
Illustrator: Leo Espinosa
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Year: 2023
Pages: 48
Order: Candlewick Press
What it is: Major Taylor’s one and only entry in a Six Day race, in 1896, becomes a framing device in this kids’ picture book (7-10 years) telling the story of the teenage years of one of cycling’s first superstars, a man who swept all before him in America, Europe and Australia
Strengths: This is a lively story, told in vivid images and free verse that puts a focus on the two key strands of Taylor’s story, cycling excellence and racism
Weaknesses: Can I really complain that Teddy Hale, the Irishman who wasn’t, doesn’t feature, even though he won the 1896 Garden Six?

On a Saturday evening in December, 1896, 18-year-old Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor made his professional debut in a half-mile race in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Years later, he told the story of that race in his autobiography, The Fastest Bicycle rider in the World:

I started from the 35-yard mark with such stars as Eddie (Cannon) Bald, Tom Cooper, Earl Kiser, and Arthur Gardiner, as scratch men. At the crack of the pistol I shot out for the lead and gained the front position in the first three laps. Not satisfied with this I continued my wild sprint, and almost lapped the field when I won the event, and the $200 that was hung up for first prize. The Garden which was taxed to capacity on that Saturday night went wild when they noticed that I had failed to hear the bell for the last lap, and continued tearing off lap after lap until I had ridden three laps more than the required distance. I immediately wired the $200 to my mother. This was my first money prize.

It was his first money prize, but not his first prize: Taylor rode his first bike race when he was just 13, shortly after his time as paid-for playmate of the Southard family’s son had come to an end. He had recently taken up employment in the Hay & Willits bicycle store and it was this store that organised the event, a 10-mile handicapped road race with a gold medal for the winner.

My entry into this event was an accident pure and simple. I had gone out to witness the event, which attracted the cream of the amateur riders of Indiana, and had taken a vantage point near the start when Mr. Hay spotted me. Thinking to inject a laugh into the race for the benefit of the thousands that lined the course, Mr. Hay insisted that I take my place on the…