My votes are Wrestle to Win by Spyros Vorres (1930) and Wrestling by Henry Stone (1939). Other opinions?
I am particularly impressed with the Ed Lewis books.
For technical books, I'd have to agree with Jake. The three Sandow-Lewis volumes, and the Lewis Up To Date Wrestling are the best. I also have an old Australian wrestling manual that ranks right up there with the best old-time wrestling books. I also like the fitness books in the Sandow-Lewis series as well, although some of the resistance exercises may be a bit tame for a good athlete.
In terms of history books, the best general texts are Mark Hewitt's Catch Wrestling, Fleischer's From Milo to Londos, Meyers's Wrestling From Antiquity to Date and Kent's Pictorial History of Wrestling, probably in that order.
The best wrestling autobio is still, in my view, Hooker by Thesz and Bauman. Wyoming's Wrestling Rancher by Hazel Odegard is also quite good if you focus just on the wrestling-related elements of the book. It could probably be better termed an anthology piece as opposed to a strict bio. Recently, I have enjoyed Gene LeBell's Godfather of Grappling, particularly the first half of the book.
Nathan
I have to agree with anodize on the Henry Stone book. It is packed with great wrestling information.
Which book is the most complete in terms of techniques?
I would like to see evidence that the Spyros book exists outside of the copy in the Library of Congress.
There's a copy of the Spyros book at the University of California Berkeley's library. I photocopied most of it and had it hard-bound. Don't know if that was legal, though. But copyright laws run out after several decades, right?
anyway you could scan it to the computer? I've seen some of it, but id like to see it in entirety
I don't have a scanner. But one way you can access the book is through your local library's interlibrary loan service. Most libraries should have this service. Basically, you can borrow a book that is not available at your local library using this service. They'll find the book for you and then you can check it out for free! (Or for a very small charge)
I really like Nathan's list. Although I still don't have the Hewitt book.
I'd like to add "Fall Guys" and "Modern Wrestling" as two of my favorites. I also liked Mike Chapman's first Gotch booK. "Frank Gotch; World's Greatest Wrestler".
Frederick Toombs "How To Wrestle" is a neat little booklet too.
I really liked the "Wrestle to Win" by Spyros Vorres book, I read portions of the book in Jake's AESW Volume I and would love to read the rest.