Billie Jean King combined a championship tennis career with organizing and campaigning for equal opportunities in sport. Her influence extends from major tournament victories to the development of women’s professional tennis.
Her autobiography sits alongside two histories of women’s sport and the Battle of the Sexes. The children’s selections introduce both her athletic achievements and her work for equality.
| Book | Year | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Tennis to Win | 1970 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Billie Jean King's Secrets of Winning Tennis | 1974 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Tennis Love | 1978 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Mixed Doubles | 1980 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Play Better Tennis | 1981 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Billie Jean | 1982 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| We Have Come a Long Way | 1988 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Pressure Is a Privilege | 2008 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Dollar Rebellion | 2020 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| All In | 2021 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| A Kids Book About Equality | 2022 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Trailblazers | 2023 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Who Is Billie Jean King? | 2024 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| See It To Be It | 2026 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
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Who is Billie Jean King?
Billie Jean King was born Billie Jean Moffitt in Long Beach, California, in 1943. She developed into a leading international tennis player and won thirty-nine major titles across singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Her twelve major singles championships included six at Wimbledon.
King was one of the Original Nine players who helped establish a separate women’s professional circuit in 1970. She became the founding president of the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973. That year, she defeated Bobby Riggs in the widely watched Battle of the Sexes and helped secure equal prize money at the U.S. Open.
Her advocacy also addressed wider questions of equality and LGBTQ+ rights. The Women’s Sports Foundation, established in 1974, became another part of that work. Her career connects individual sporting accomplishment with efforts to change the institutions and expectations surrounding female athletes.
Does Billie Jean King have an autobiography?
Yes. All In, written with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers, is King’s autobiography. It brings her tennis career together with activism, personal relationships, sexuality, and the difficulties of living publicly.
All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers
Billie Jean King recounts her tennis career alongside the personal struggles and public campaigns that shaped her life. Her championships and victory over Bobby Riggs sit within a larger narrative about gender equality, civil rights, sexuality, and the opportunities available to women in sport. King also addresses financial pressures, relationships, and the difficulty of living openly. Written with Johnette Howard and Maryanne Vollers, the autobiography connects the athlete’s achievements with her continuing activism, presenting professional success and personal self-understanding as intertwined parts of the same life.
Best Billie Jean King Books
Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women’s Sports by Susan Ware
Susan Ware places Billie Jean King within the changes that transformed women’s sport during the 1970s. Combining biography with social history, she connects King’s challenge to sexism with the women’s movement and the influence of Title IX. The 1973 match against Bobby Riggs becomes one important event in a broader argument about opportunity and public expectations. Ware examines how an athlete could become a symbol of change while remaining part of a movement involving legislation, institutions, and many other participants rather than one individual alone.
Selena Roberts reconstructs the circumstances surrounding Billie Jean King’s 1973 match against Bobby Riggs. The account follows the pressure that brought King into the contest, the personalities of both players, and the attention directed toward their meeting in the Houston Astrodome. Interviews with King and people close to Riggs place the spectacle within debates over women’s opportunities and public respect. Roberts treats the match as both a sporting event and a cultural performance, examining the mixture of ambition, showmanship, prejudice, and change surrounding it.
Best Billie Jean King Biography for Kids
I Am Billie Jean King by Brad Meltzer; illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos
Brad Meltzer introduces Billie Jean King through a picture-book account of her childhood, tennis achievements, and work for women’s rights. Part of the Ordinary People Change the World series, the biography emphasizes personal qualities that young readers can recognize and develop themselves. The narrative connects early influences with later choices, presenting King’s sporting success alongside her willingness to challenge unequal treatment. Christopher Eliopoulos’s illustrations accompany the conversational text, while a timeline and photographs provide additional context about the person behind the illustrated story.
Who Is Billie Jean King? by Sarah Fabiny; illustrated by Dede Putra
Sarah Fabiny follows Billie Jean King from an athletic childhood to international tennis success and a prominent role in the campaign for gender equality. The biography introduces her major victories and explains why unequal pay and limited opportunities became central concerns. Her match against Bobby Riggs and work establishing the Women’s Tennis Association connect the sporting narrative with the organization of women’s professional tennis. Written for the Who HQ series, the book presents King as an athlete and public advocate whose influence extended beyond her results on court.