Nathaniel Stanley "Nat" Fleischer was born in New York City in 1887, one of nine surviving children of Haskell and Anna Fleischer. He never knew his exact birth date; when he was about twenty-one he selected 3 November so as to be able to vote in an upcoming election. He grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an area that was a proving ground for fledgling prizefighters. He was introduced to boxing at age eight when his father gave him pictures of fighters that were included in Sweet Caporal and Murad cigarette packs. When he was twelve he saw "Terrible" Terry McGovern fight Thomas "Pedlar" Palmer and was, according to his obituary in The New York Times (26 June 1972), "bitten by the bug and never recovered." Two weeks after watching the McGovern-Palmer bout he took up boxing; eventually he became captain of the boxing team, as well as president...