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About the Author: by John Allen Lang
John Austin Lang was born in Texas in 1937 and raised in southern Arizona. He joined the Merchant Marines in Corpus Christi, Texas, when he was 18 and traveled all over the world as an Able Seaman. During this time he started learning to box with his cousin Roy Harris ( who fought Floyd Patterson for the world championship in 1958.) John had 21 fights with a record of 17-4 with 14 knockouts. After several years working on tug boats, he moved back to Arizona and started working for Phillips Dodge Mining Company at the copper mine in Ajo. There he married and had two sons. He moved to northern Idaho after his second son was born in 1966 to work at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg. There his daughter was born and he raised his kids and worked as an underground gyppo miner.
On May 2,1972 there was an underground fire at the Sunshine mine that killed 91 men. John had been scheduled to work day shift that day when the fire broke out, but he changed shifts with the night shift crew. The night shift crew needed the evening off on the following day and had asked John and his partner to trade with them. Both members of the opposite crew perished in that fire.
John was on the team that helped fight the fire and is responsible for saving the lives of his team during that time. He became the captain of the mine rescue team and continued to work at the mine after the fire.
In 1977 John helped start a boxing club in Kellogg, Idaho where he coached for ten years. In 1984 his oldest son Roy won the Rocky Mountain Golden Gloves State Championship in the 178 pound weight class. Roy advanced to regionals and beat Keith Medina (who was ranked 9th in the nation) and then advanced to National Golden Gloves in St. Louis Missouri. At the Nationals Roy lost to Evander Holyfield (who is now the current Heavy Weight Champion.)
John still resides in Kellogg but has quit mining and focused his attention to telling his stories on tapes.
John Austin Lang Many people that have listened to his stories agree that he is one of the best story tellers alive today.
Growing up in a remote area of northern Idaho, without much to entertain ourselves , we had the unique opportunity to be entertained by someone who we now know has a great talent for telling very interesting stories.
When we would go somewhere in the car, he would begin telling a story and make it up as the trip progressed. With the kids hanging over the back of the front seat, my father would keep everyone completely captivated as we drove along the road. As he spoke, the pictures would form in our minds and we could clearly envision everything that he was describing. Upon reaching our destination, he would stop the story, leaving all of us anxious to hear the rest of the tale. Finally, on the return trip, he would pick up where he had left off and continue making up the story. The time would fly by. His imagination and ability to tell stories is incredible. We always thought that everyone could tell stories the way that he did. It wasn't until we were grown, that we realized that he had a talent that is matched by very few people.
Some of his stories actually went on for years and never have ended. To this day his stories still stick in our minds with the clarity of yesterday. We have always wanted him to publish his stories and now the time has come for him and he has publisahed his first book.
John has sent his first book into be published. You can go to http://www.1stbooks.com and search for his name or you can try and click on this link to take you to the site to find his book.
They tell us that it should be avilable around the 10th -15th of March 2001
It will be avaliable in Paper back or in Electronic form. If John sells his books I am going to push him to make the stories on tapes. Up to this point he has not really pursued them because he has been trying to get them published into books. The time is here and his first book is being published. Please go check it out and buy one. If you want it signed, he will be more then happy to sign one if you send it to him.
You can E-mail him for his address by clicking here
If you like it please refer it to all your friends. If he sells enough he will publish the other four or five books that he has written.You can check here for all the titles that will be coming up. Lets get him excited and make this the big KO that he has been looking for.
Thank you for your support.
Visitors:01/02/98:
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