“DOWN CAME BERT’S ARM AND IT WAS ALL OVER”: CHRISTY MATHEWSON’S PITCHER POLLOCK

MATHEWSON, Christy. Pitcher Pollock. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, (1914). Octavo, original olive patterned cloth. $120.

Early edition of this “Alger-esque boy-makes-good” baseball story, with four illustrations by Charles Relyea.

Christy “Big Six” Mathewson was both a role model to children and a fierce competitor on the field. “In addition to physical ability, Mathewson had the perfect temperament for a great ball player. He had everything— strength, intelligence, courage and willingness” (DAB). “Besides being a national hero, Matty was one of the closest students of baseball that ever came into the Big League” (John Wheeler). First published earlier in 1914 by Dodd, Mead as part of a six-book series known as “The Matty Books,” this is an “Alger-esque boy-makes-good story… a pattern repeated throughout the series” (McCue). Mathewson and Frank Chance were the first players ever to be attributed as authors of fiction. See Grobani 12-23B; McCue, 68. Not in Smith.

Text near-fine, inner hinges reinforced, spine of original cloth darkened, rubbing to extremities. A very good copy.