Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage: Vol. 24 (1854-55): with early coverage of Baseball and Football

PORTER, William T., Editor

Published by The Spirit of the Times, New York, 1854

About this Item

Folio (12 ½" x 18"). 622, [2]pp., with an index at the back. Contains a continuous run of 52 weekly issues (12 pages each): Vol. 24 (Feb. 18, 1854 February 10, 1855). Bound in modern brown cloth over boards, leather spine labels lettered in gold, wove endpapers, with an 1894 "Jockey Club" bookplate on each front pastedown. Intermittent modest toning, one small, light dampstain on the bottom back corner, very good. A scarce, handsomely bound volume of this important sports newspaper containing accounts of horse races, cricket matches, hunting and fishing, yachting, boxing, and baseball: it was the first periodical to include occasional coverage of America s nascent baseball and football clubs. This volume contains five issues featuring coverage of baseball (including three headlined columns), and two issues with reportage on the "St. George s Foot Ball Club," and "the annual football game at Brown University". The articles on baseball are among the first to report on the Knickerbocker, Gotham, and Eagle Base Ball Clubs of New York, with accounts of their games, including printed box scores. For example, the Nov. 25, 1854 issue reports on "a Home-and-Home Match of Base Ball, played recently between the second nine of the Knickerbocker and the first nine of the Eagle Club, on their ground at Hoboken. The Eagle, although comparatively a new club, did itself, as you will perceive [in the printed box scores], great credit, having come off victorious in both games …" The volume also contains much entertaining and informative accounts of American racing and all manner of equestrian sports (including "Female Equestrianism"); shooting, hunting, and fishing; farming and breeding, etc. A well-preserved, complete volume, providing a contemporary glimpse into the American sporting scene, and the earliest days of America s national pastime. A detailed list of the issues featuring articles on baseball and football is available.

Seller Inventory # 557403

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage: Vol. 24 (1854-55): with early coverage of Baseball and Football
• Publisher: The Spirit of the Times, New York
• Publication Date: 1854
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Baseball
  • Football