The Seattle Times looks at Kevin Cook’s biography of Thompson.
"All the world's a sucker for bold, shoot-the-moon gamblers and con men, and this crackerjack biography makes a convincing case that Alvin 'Titanic' Thompson was one of the boldest."
"Titanic Thompson is as emblematically American as Babe Ruth or Mark Twain; it's just that if you met him he'd steal your wallet and probably make you thank him for his skill in doing it."
Richard Rayner raves about Titanic Thompson in the Los Angeles Times.
Kevin Cook talks about Titanic Thompson, legendary golfer, gambler and hustler.
Despite the glamorous tales, he lived a lonely life, moving from town to town looking for new suckers.
NPR’s All Things Considered looks at Titanic Thompson.
"That things (the FBI, newspaper exposure) would catch up with Thompson was inevitable, yet he hustled till the end."
Adam Duerson writes about Titanic Thompson for Sports Illustrated.
Gamblers and other liars have told stories about Titanic Thompson for decades. As a sportswriter spending some late nights with pro golfers and poker players, I heard them all — how the legendary hustler escaped the sinking Titanic by sneaking onto a lifeboat dressed as a woman. How he threw a peanut over a three-story building, pulled Al Capone’s pants down, conned Houdini, beat Ben Hogan playing golf right-handed and then turned around and beat Byron Nelson left-handed.
I kept waiting for the movie. It seemed there had to be a movie—maybe with Clint Eastwood as the tall, flinty-eyed Titanic, a shadowy figure who crossed paths with some of the most famous men of the 20th century.
By 2008 there was still no movie, and I was between books, so I decided to see if I could separate the legends from the truth. In a year of following his tracks, from his birth in a log cabin in Arkansas in 1892 to his death in Texas 82 years later, I turned up the facts behind the tallest Titanic tales.
—Kevin Cook discusses Titanic Thompson and his new book at the Powell’s Books blog
