Haunts of the Black Masseur:
The Swimmer as Hero
by Charles Sprawson
Published by Vintage
ISBN 9780099577249
$26.99
A classic cultural history of swimming, first published in 1992, its enigmatic title references a short story by Tennessee Williams, a true swimming obsessive. Charles Sprawson matches him, self-describing as someone who has ‘spent much of [their] life in pursuit of interesting pools’. Water to Sprawson is both ‘masseur’–supportive, remedial, sensual; and ‘black’ – unknowable, changeable and threatening. His discourse of swimming feats and failures draws heavily upon Romantic-era notions of nature’s duality as both beautiful and sublime. The grace and lightness
