Language English Pages 352 OCLC 55518495 Page count 352 Country United States of America | Publication date July 6, 2004 ISBN 0-7434-5691-2 Originally published 6 July 2004 Genre Autobiography | |
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Media type Hardcover and paperback Similar Works by Keith Elliot Greenberg, Autobiographies | ||
To Be the Man is an autobiographical book written by professional wrestler Ric Flair and Keith Elliot Greenberg, and edited by Mark Madden. It was published by WWE Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster in July 2004. The book's title was taken from Flair's famous catchphrase: "To be the man, you gotta beat the man!"
To Be the Man reached No. 5 on the hardback, nonfiction New York Times Best Seller list. It reached No. 10 for nonfiction best-sellers in Publishers Weekly. Upon its release, Flair held a successful book signing at a Borders bookstore in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Nearly 13,000 copies sold between July 4 and July 11, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Content
The book discusses Flair's birth and adoption through the Tennessee Children's Home Society (whose adoption practices would later be discovered to involve child selling; the opening chapter is titled "Black Market Baby") and beginnings that lead him to stardom in promotions such as American Wrestling Association, National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment.