Sheridan, Sam 1975-

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Sheridan, Sam 1975-

PERSONAL:

Born 1975; son of teachers; partner of Patty Jenkins (a filmmaker). Education: Graduated from Harvard University, 1998.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA.

CAREER:

Writer. Has crewed private yachts in the Bahamas and Australia, worked construction in Antarctica, ranched in MT, and fought fires in NM. Military service: Served in U.S. Merchant Marines.

WRITINGS:

A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey through the World of Fighting, Atlantic Monthly Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Men's Journal and Newsweek.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sam Sheridan is the author of A Fighter's Heart: One Man's Journey through the World of Fighting, "by turns a self-discovery journal, blood-stained travelogue and series of thoughtful if at times disjointed essays on age-old themes: violence, combat, pain, masculinity," observed Sports Illustrated contributor L. Jon Wertheim. A former Merchant Marine with a taste for adventure, Sheridan began traveling the world in 1998, crewing private yachts in the Bahamas, fighting fires in New Mexico, and constructing a South Pole station in Antarctica. Sheridan, a boxing enthusiast, eventually landed in Bangkok, Thailand, where he trained as a Muay Thai fighter at the celebrated Fairtex gym. Sheridan also logged time with Ultimate Fighter Championship competitors in Iowa, jiu-jitsu champions in Rio de Janeiro, and Olympic medalist boxer Andre Ward in California. "The account of his travels gradually reveals itself as a kind of spiritual quest," noted Boston Globe critic James Sullivan, "albeit one that came at the expense of a rearranged nose and a chronic rib cage injury." In A Fighter's Heart, Sheridan "provides some interesting insights into the various fighting disciplines, introducing a score of colorful fighters, trainers and hangers-on," wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. According to Wertheim, the author "is brutally self-effacing without sounding falsely modest. He romanticizes fighting without turning a blind eye to the troubling moral underpinnings of inflicting harm on someone else."

Asked to describe the knowledge he gained from his experiences, Sheridan told an interviewer in Memoirville, "I guess I know a lot more about myself, and about the nature of striving, pain, aggression, dominance and endurance. I understand those things much more completely. I might have learned them in some other way, or just with age—but fighting in particular teaches you a lot about yourself. It changes you, for the better."