Best That I Can Be

For too many athletes, their best is merely physical. For Johnson, it has been much more. In the Rome Olympics of 1960, Johnson won the Gold Medal in the decathlon, and this event informed his life and his own telling of it, as each of the 10 chapter titles here reflects one event (e.g., ""Clearing the Hurdle""). His story is exactly the kind Americans love: born to a hard-working, decent but poor family in a close-knit African American community in Texas, he tried hard and succeeded spectacularly. Rome was followed by a flirtation with the movies (including John Ford's Sergeant Rutledge) and then a job in broadcasting. But most of all, he devoted his life to doing good. His early work for People to People, a worldwide exchange program, led to a meeting with Robert Kennedy, who became a good friend. Through Eunice Kennedy Shriver he founded the California Special Olympics, one of a group of causes that would include the California State Recreation Commission, the Fair Housing Congress, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Campus Crusade, the Peace Corps and HEW's Committee on Mental Retardation. Perhaps it's inevitable that race figures in his memoirs, but his tone is candid, rarely displaying rancor when recalling even recent racism or when discussing the disapproval of his interracial marriage. Over half of the book is devoted to his early life--his schooling at UCLA and his training for Rome--no doubt because it offers good narrative build up. But one senses that Johnson's modesty may have gotten in the way of describing the equally impressive life after. Editor, Eric Major; agent, Lynn Franklin. (Aug.)