Catching Up with Clay Moyle Who Talks About His Massive Collection of Boxing Books

Clay Moyle, a longtime resident of the Seattle area, once thought it would be cool to own a biography of every heavyweight champion of the Queensberry (gloved) area. In due course, he was roused to acquire every boxing book written in the English language, a longing that, in his own words, became a fire that raged out of control. His personal collection would grow to more than 4500 titles excluding duplicates.

TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang caught up with Clay Moyle last week. Here he talks about the hobby/obsession that has consumed so much of his spare time for the better part of the last 40 years.

TSS — How did the internet change the landscape for collectors?

Moyle — When the internet came along, it made it much easier for folks like me to find desired books. Prior to that, one had to search in old bookstores, or call or write to them. Then the internet came along and soon booksellers all over the world were listing their inventory on-line and boxing memorabilia dealers created their own websites on which to list their inventories on-line.

TSS — Now that the internet has made it easier to find books that are long-out-of-print, has that eroded prices for sellers?

Moyle — In some cases, it’s fair to say that it has eroded prices for sellers, but the scarcer/rare titles generally hold their values and I believe it’s really just caused lesser valued titles to get priced at the levels they really should be.

TSS — If all of your books were put up for auction, which do you think would command the highest price?

Moyle — Likely some of the oldest titles such as “A Few Words in Defence of the Ring” by R.J. Graham (1843), “Key to Newbold’s Representation of the Contest Between Heenan and Sayers” (1850) or “Life and Battles of Yankee Sullivan” by A. Winch (1854).

As to the books that I personally value the most and would be very hesitant to sell without bringing substantial returns: “My Life and Battles” an oversize 1910 softcover by James J. Jeffries which is inscribed by him to the famous sportswriter/cartoonist Bob Edgren and dated July 4, 1910 (the date of Jeffries fight against Jack Johnson), Battling Nelson’s 1909 autobiography inscribed by him to James J. Jeffries, “The Roosevelt That I Know” by Mike Donovan, a 1909 hardcover with a very rare dust jacket, inscribed by him to William Pinkerton, Henry Armstrong’s 1956 autobiography “Gloves, Glory, and God” with a long inscription from him to Sugar Ray Robinson, “Relief to Royalty,”1936 by Lud (the pen name of sportswriter/cartoonist Ludwig Shabazian) with a forward by Damon Runyon, inscribed by Jimmy Braddock to the promoter Mike Jacobs, and “The Golden People” by Paul Gallico, a newer book (1965) but with Bing Crosby’s bookplate and signed by Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. Those are the type of books that I treasure most. 

TSS — As a collector of vinyl records in my youth, I came to learn that the difference in value between a first pressing and a reissue or bootleg can be enormous. I’m assuming that’s also true of books.

Moyle — Yes. And that’s one reason I acquired so many duplicates. While obsessively looking for new books to add to my collection, I often came across titles that I already had but didn’t already have a dust jacket, weren’t first editions, weren’t signed or inscribed, weren’t in as good as shape, etc., so I routinely purchased those upgrades and added the lessor valued duplicates to my website to sell. I was always on the lookout for opportunities to upgrade my existing collection while in search for titles I didn’t yet own. Selling duplicates was a way to fund building my own collection.

TSS — What books don’t you own?

Moyle — There are way too many to name. Some boxing books go back to the 1700s. A sample of books that I’ve never come across, to name just a few, include “Our Jim – The World Champion’ (about James Corbett) by A. Leigh Irvine Hadley (1892), George Dixon’s “A Lesson in Boxing” (1893), “The Jeffries-Johnson Fight” by Rex Beach (1910), “Boxing in Nine Lessons” by Battling Levinsky (1918),“Gentleman Jim” by Arthur Hardy (1923), “Theodore ‘Tiger’ Flowers’ by Henry Grady Edey (1928), and “The Ring,” a 1928 novel by Trevor Wignall.

TSS — Tell us how you came to acquire a wealth of material that was in Nat Fleischer’s safe.

Moyle — Fleischer co-founded The Ring magazine in 1922 and served as the publication’s editor for the next 50 years, earning the sobriquet “Mr. Boxing.” In addition to his work with the monthly magazine, the “Bible of Boxing,” he published more than 50 books on boxing and wrestling.

It began when I purchased one of his little books from a used bookstore in New York. I let the seller know that I would be interested in buying anything else that he had along that line. To make a long story short, I would eventually acquire from him a great treasure trove – books, manuscripts, personal correspondence, photo albums — that had been kept in storage by Fleischer’s heirs for decades. It took me weeks to inventory everything. There were a large number of unpublished manuscripts including a huge four-volume work titled “The History of Prizefighting in Literature.” Nat was an amazingly prolific writer. I eventually sold the great bulk of this trove to the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame which has a vast collection of boxing materials in their sports research archives. I knew Notre Dame would take good care of it.

TSS — Have you thought about what will become of your collection after you pass away?

Moyle — I’ve provided my family with a spreadsheet listing the books from my collection and the estimated values. But in addition to the duplicates on my website (www.prizefightingbooks.com) that are presently available for 40% off listed prices, I have an Excel spreadsheet listing over 4,000 books from my personal collection that I want to sell, and I’m happy to forward that to anyone who emails me at cmoyle@aol.com. There will likely come a time in the next 10-15 years that I will make a greater effort to sell off a number of the books that I currently can’t bear to part with. We moved 2 1/2 years ago to a bigger house, but without the floor to ceiling bookcases I had in my former home. So, I’m currently considering the possibility of slowly consigning over 6,000 books to Amazon to store and fulfill orders. That would enable me to remove hundreds of boxes from my home and enjoy an incredible mancave that I’ve been working on. 

TSS – In hindsight, would you do it all over again?

Moyle — I just have way too many books. Far too many. If I were to do it over again, I’d reign myself in. I’d select a specific period of time to focus on, while continuing to allow myself to purchase other specific titles that piqued my interest for one reason or another.

TSS — If you were a member of the Old Timers Committee of the Boxing Hall of Fame, who would you be beating the drums for?

Moyle — I actually am one of the parties that gets to vote on old time boxers for the Hall of Fame. Among the old-timers, the person I’d most like to see added to the Hall is the longtime boxing manager and promoter Jack Hurley who passed away in 1972. John Ochs wrote a wonderful three-volume set concerning the life of Jack Hurley and the history of boxing during his lifetime, which I highly recommend. It’s available on sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

TSS — You are an author yourself, having written biographies of Sam Langford and Billy Miske and having co-authored a biography of Tony Zale with Tony’s nephew Ted. Do you have another book in you?

Moyle — Yes. I plan to retire soon and really want to get back to writing. I retired once before after four decades in the freight transportation industry but for various reasons such as moving into the bigger house while our former home took forever to sell, I went back to work. I’m currently with COMC.com, an on-line marketplace for buyers and sellers of sports cards. COMC stands for Check Out My Collectibles.

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