19th-Century Baseball Fiction: <i>A Survey</i>

Abstract

A Baseball Novel Wanted:It's a wonder to me, says a publisher, nobody has yet written a novel. I should think such a venture would meet with a large and ready sale, if it did not become a craze with horde of admirers of game in this century. It might be written around some romantic incident and worked up with a clever plot.Hawley Smart, English novelist, you will remember, drew on racecourse for material he used in his famous romance, From Post to Finish. I have heard people who did not care a snap of a finger about horses say they had read it with utmost pleasure. I am convinced that a well-constructed novel would catch many of same class of readers, for there is an excitement about popular sports of any description which is not without its effect even upon uninitiated.-New York Tribune, July 20, 1890While it would be another five years until a novel rated a review in The New York Times, kind of novel anonymous publisher desired had been published already, in 1877, as The Great Match and Other Matches. It was, perhaps, not up to publisher's standards, or those of prolific, popular, and now largely forgotten Hawley Smart; but it was first recognizable example of a genre that would encompass dozens of annually by 21st century.The American publishing industry, like business of professional baseball, was not mature in 1877, nor was it in 1890. It published fewer than 1,000 books a year, many of them almanacs and religious works. In a poorly educated, rural country, there was simply not much of a market. The industry's mainstay, in fact, was taking advantage of America's lack of a copyright treaty with Great Britain, which permitted its members to publish successful British authors without paying royalties. These works-many of them fiction-catered to better educated, eastern, urban market.Before Civil War, fiction that was published tended to be highly didactic- especially in books written for children, those most likely to have as part of story. In its first appearances, it is a couple of pages describing a game, scenes which feel like frosting to lure young reader to liver and lima beans underneath. By century's end, however, is driving plot element of entire novels. And, even in dead-ball era, authors had a notable tendency to have Our Heroes hit home runs.There were 22 baseball novels written in 19th century, using a flexible definition of genre. In general, especially in early years, we are dealing with works in which is not a central element, or key metaphor, as it is in Bernard Malamud's The Natural or Mark Harris's The Southpaw. Instead, it is a page or two, then a chapter, then, finally, a key element in plot.For this article, earliest mentions are examined in some detail, even when those mentions are brief. There is also a brief list of other of time frame, deliberately excluding extensive Frank and Dick Merriwell and Rover Boys series, which began in mid-1890s but reached their fullest popularity in 20th century. Last, three key which illustrate some themes about how game was perceived and how it intertwined with other issues of national concern-the search for a national identity and meaning of race-are discussed.The Bobbin Boy, or, How Nat Got His Learning, an Example for Youth, by William M. Thayer. Boston: J.E. Tilton and Co., 1860.This is first notable mention of game in fiction, and it covers parts of three pages. The Bobbin Boy purports to tell life of Nat, now governor of the best State in Union. It's what we would come to call a Horatio Alger tale. Nat starts his career as a bobbin boy in a knitting mill and works his way up.The game scene is from Nat's youth and, if we are to take book's internal chronology seriously, it would have taken place in 1830s. …