Gjennom Ringen
Gjennom Ringen (In the Ring) is the title of an autobiography Norwegian boxer, and former World Bantamweight Champion, Pete Sanstol completed shortly after he had returned to live in Norway in 1957 with his new bride, Bessie. He had begun writing his autobiography many years earlier, but never got around to completing it until Bessie convinced him to do so while they were living in Norway (1957-60).
In fact, Sanstol had written two versions of his memoirs: a short version and a long version, both entirely in Norwegian. But neither version was ever published, although edited excerpts were published in Vi Menn, a Norwegian magazine, in 1958.
These manuscripts were bequeathed to his eldest grandson upon Sanstol's death in 1982. In 2005, the grandson donated copies of these manuscripts to Lund Historie- og Ættesogelag--the Historical Society of Sanstol's birthplace. With much work, primarily by Society member Torbjørn Kjørmo, who contributed a "Forward," the Society published the long version of Sanstol's memoirs in June 2006. The Society appended a new chapter, at the very end of this book, called SANSTØL MOT BROWN I OSLO, which had been written years earlier by Sanstol's former sparring partner, John W. Wiksen, about their training together during the 1930s--particularly in preparation for Sanstol's second bout with Panama Al Brown.
The book is 152 pages hard-bound, and once was available from the Lund Historical Society for about US $32.00, or N.Kr 200. It currently may be out-of-print. [1]
On March 20, 2023, the original manuscript was donated by Sanstol's family to the National Nordic Museum (Seattle, WA, USA)
- PDF version, in Norwegian: File:Gjennom Ringen.pdf
- Rudimentary Norwegian-to-English version (2023): File:Gjennom Ringen.2023 Google Translation.pdf
- "Sanstol vs. Brown in Olso: Behind the Scenes" by John W. Wiksen: File:Sanstol vs Brown.Wiksen.2023ENG.pdf