"SOMEWHERE IN THIS FAVOURED LAND THE SUN IS SHINING BRIGHT…": FIRST HARDBOUND EDITION OF THIS LEGENDARY BASEBALL POEM AND THE FIRST TO BE ILLUSTRATED

THAYER, Ernest. Casey at the Bat. Illustrations by Dan Sayre Groesbeck. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1912. Small octavo, original pictorial green paper boards expertly respined. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $2500.

First separate edition in boards, and the first edition to be illustrated, of this classic of American popular poetry, with 13 full-page line-cuts.

This classic American poem first appeared in an 1888 issue of the San Francisco Examiner, and was popularized by the stage performances of actor DeWolfe Hopper. In 1901 it was published separately in pamphlet form, and a year later in the anthology A Treasury of Humorous Poetry. This present edition is the first separate hardbound edition and the first to be fully illustrated. It contains 13 full-page line cuts, printed in orange and black, one opposite each stanza, with an additional illustration in the corner of each page of text. Illustrator Groesbeck gained fame later as a story-board sketch artist for Cecil B. DeMille. Grobani 14-3D.

Front inner paper hinge barely starting, a few spots of finger-smudging to interior, boards quite handsome. Near-fine condition.