[Rarebooks] FS: 1902 Casey at the Bat -1st Printing in Anthology

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

An Early "Casey at the Bat"-

"The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day;
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game...
They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that-
We'd put up even money now with Casey at the bat."

Thayer, Ernest Lawrence.  "Casey at the Bat" (in) "A Treasury of Humorous
Poetry. Being a Compilation of Witty, Facetious, and Satirical Verse
Selected from the Writings of British and American Poets", Frederic
Lawrence Knowles, editor.  Boston; Dana Estes & Company: October, 1902.
First printing, presumed 1st state with binding "A" in white cloth.

The first hardcover popular anthology printing of "Casey at the Bat" by
Ernest Lawrence Thayer. This classic baseball poem had first appeared in
the June 3rd, 1888 issue of the San Francisco Examiner, and was
popularized by actor De Wolfe Hopper who recited it thousands of times on
the stage. It was reprinted as a pamphlet in 1901, and a year later saw it
printed in hardcover in this treasury of humorous poetry where it was
attributed, for an unknown reason, to a "Joseph Quinlan Murphy".

The book presents a fascinating bibliographical tangle, with four
distinctly separate states having been identified, featuring three
different bindings and two states of the text. The presumed first issue
binding features clown faces and a winged horse's head, and is known in
both white (Binding "A") and green ("Binding "B"). The presumed second
issue binding is also in green and features a clown's head on a stick,
framed with a wreath (Binding "C"). There were two separate printing
states- one of which has the poem attributed to Murphy and another where
Murphy's name has been removed completely from the index of authors at the
front, and the poem attributed to Thayer in the Index of Poems at the
rear. The first printing state has been observed with Bindings A, B and C;
the second, corrected printing state has only been seen in Binding C.

Hardcover. 5"x7.5", xxiv + 407 pages, portrait frontispiece and 15 b/w
plates. Covers with some soil and a few light spots; Christmas gift
inscription on the front pastedown dated 1902; ownership inscription on
the endpaper also dated 1902; one plate with a short, closed tear; red
cloth ribbon laid-in at page 40/41, with slight resulting discoloration.
Pages ever so slightly toned. [03315] $1,000.00

we have several other printings-

First printing, presumed 1st state with binding "B" in green cloth. Covers
with some very minor wear, tips ever so slightly abraded, spine corners
abraded, but overall a very crisp, bright cop. Pages ever so slightly
toned. With the period rubber stamp of "Fred. H. Dooley, Denver Wheel
Club, Denver Colo." on the front paste-down, front endpaper, and rear
paste-down. Fred Dooley's large ownership signature on the front endpaper,
along with some notations of dates, running from 12-24-02 to 2-17-03. The
Denver Wheel Club was an early bicycling club, formed in 1881, and adds
another element of sporting interest. [04190] $1,000.00

First printing, 2nd state with binding "C" in green cloth and "Casey"
attributed to Thayer. Hardcover. 5"x7.5", xxiv + 407 pages, portrait
frontispiece and 15 b/w plates. A very nice copy, with only a few touches
of soil, and a small, light slight stain on the rear cover. Really a
superlative copy of the scarcest of the states of this title. [05108]
$1000.00

AND WHAT, you ask, is the story of CASEY AT THE BAT???
(for an illustrated version, go to-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/casey_at_the_bat.htm>


ERNEST LAWRENCE THAYER-

Ernest Lawrence Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 14th,
1863. Thayer, the son of a wealthy mill owner, was expected to go into the
family business, and attended Harvard where he majored in philosophy and
minored in humor.  He wrote one of the annual Hasty Pudding Club plays and
edited the Harvard Lampoon, Harvard's long-running humor magazine. While
he was at Harvard Thayer became interested in baseball, and one of his
best friends was Samuel Winslow, captain of Harvard’s baseball team. He
also became friends with young William Randolph Hearst, who was the
Lampoon’s business manager.

SAN FRANCISCO-

After graduation Hearst's father put him in charge of the San Francisco
Examiner, an ailing West Coast newspaper, and Hearst asked Thayer to write
a humor column for the paper. Presented with the choice of writing humor
columns for his school chum in San Francisco or managing family woolen
mills in Worcester, Massachusetts, Thayer, rather unsurprisingly, packed
his bags and headed for the West Coast. Thayer began writing anonymously
for the Examiner in 1886, and by 1887 he was contributing humorous poetry
to the Sunday edition under the name Phin. In February, 1888 he returned
to the East and the woolen mills, but sent several more pieces to Hearst,
including the poem “Casey at the Bat”, which was published on Sunday, June
3rd, 1888. Like most works of enduring genius, Thayer’s ballad was greeted
with little fanfare, and it might have been quickly forgotten had not a
writer named Archibald Clavering Gunter thought enough of it to clip the
poem out of the paper that day and stick it in his wallet...

FATE-

William De Wolf Hopper was a giant of a man, 6’2” with an athlete’s build
and a deep, booming voice made for Shakespearian tragedy, but he chose to
perform comedy instead, and was working for the McCaull Opera Company on
Broadway in 1888.  Hopper and his friend and fellow thespian Digby Bell
were both confirmed base ball cranks, and persuaded their boss, Colonel
McCaull, that the opera company should take advantage of a game between
the visiting Chicago White Stockings and the New York Giants at the Polo
Grounds for a day out and a bit of fun, and that they should then invite
the ballplayers to their evening show.

Hopper had wanted to include some special material for his guests, but
wasn’t sure what to perform. Archibald Gunter, who was a friend of
Hopper’s, suggested “Casey” and pulled the tattered column from his
wallet. Hopper wasn't sure. His infant son was ill and he felt he could
not concentrate enough to memorize such a long poem. But his son improved
and Hopper, a seasoned professional, soon had the poem memorized.

THE FIRST READING-

On August 14th, 1888, the Opera Company spent a festive day at the Polo
Grounds watching “Cap” Anson’s White Stockings beat their Giants 4-2 (the
same score the home team in "Casey" would lose by), and then everybody,
including both ball teams, went back to the Opera House, where Prince
Methusalem was the featured show. At the end Hopper walked out onto the
stage and gave a stirring performance of “Casey at the Bat ”.

“The audience literally went wild,” reported the New York World the next
day- “Men got up on their seats and cheered
 it was one of the wildest
scenes ever seen in a theatre”. By odd coincidence, August 14th, 1888 also
happened to be Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s 25th birthday.

FAME-

The poem made De Wolf Hopper famous, and Hopper made the poem famous. By
his own estimate he recited it 10,000 times over the next decade; it took
him exactly 5 minutes and forty seconds each time. But almost nobody,
including Hopper, had any idea who had written it. In the early 1890s
Hopper was performing in Worcester, Massachusetts when he received an
invitation to meet the author.  Thayer and his friends entertained Hopper
at a private club, and Thayer was persuaded to get up and give what Hopper
would later recall as one of the worst renditions of 'Casey' he had ever
heard.  Hopper recalled- "In a sweet, dulcet Harvard whisper he implored
Casey to murder the umpire, and gave the cry of mass animal rage all the
emphasis of a caterpillar wearing rubbers crawling on a velvet carpet".

Hopper asked Thayer that evening who the inspiration for Casey was, and
Thayer replied that it was his old Harvard chum, baseball captain Samuel
Winslow. Thayer himself would later declare that there was no “real”
Casey, and that the name and vague image of Casey were drawn from a bully
who once threatened to beat him up in high school. Such mundane answers
have, of course, never satisfied baseball fans, who have come up with any
number of “real” Casey’s Thayer had in mind.

“KELLY AT THE BAT”

Perhaps the most famous “real” Casey was Mike Kelly, baseball’s first real
superstar and one of the finest players ever to grace the diamond. He
wrote the first baseball autobiography, and performed on stage after his
career was over. On July 28th, 1888, not two months after “Casey” had
first appeared in San Francisco, the editor of the New York Sporting News,
who had noted a striking similarity between Casey and Kelly, published an
“East Coast” version of the poem, with the first five stanzas removed and
“Kelly” substituted for “Casey”. Kelly himself had great fun performing
the poem on stage, and this altered version would give rise to later
stories that the Sporting News version was actually the original.

AUTHOR! AUTHOR??

And still, very few people knew who wrote it. Various guesses were made,
and several claimants came forward. One popular theory was that Sioux City
Tribune editor William Valentine had written it, and the first printing of
the poem in an anthology, in 1902, attributed it at first to Joseph
Quinlan Murphy. George Whitefield D’Vys of Somerville, Massachusetts,
proved to be the longest-running, most troublesome imposter author, and a
long and complex investigation played itself out in the journals and
newspapers in 1908, making the poem even more famous. Controversy will do
that. By the end of the decade Thayer’s authorship was fairly well
established, and he offered an edited version to The Bookman for their
January, 1909 issue. This appears to be the version Thayer preferred,
though it is generally conceded that his editing did nothing to improve
the poem, and he substituted the phrase “great Casey ” for “mighty Casey”
in the last line! When all is said and done, the first, 1888 version,
remains the best.

POSTERITY-

"Casey" has spawned dozens of other poems, poems where Casey strikes out
again, hits a home run, makes a comeback, and even takes the mound;
eventually Mrs. Casey, Casey’s sister, and Casey’s daughter also get turns
at the plate. In addition to these poems, the original "Casey" has been
altered, both subtly and otherwise, many times in many printings over the
last 100 years.

"Casey at the Bat" may not be great poetry, but it is a great poem, and
for over a hundred years it has held our imaginations and hearts.  There
have been many explanations given.  Certainly the most important factor is
that Casey is expected to succeed, he has all the tools to succeed, and
instead he fails.  Marvelously, majestically, and with great verve, he
falls flat on his face.  Contrasts like this are the heart of comedy, and
also the heart of baseball.  The best hitters fail seven out of ten times,
and each dramatic confrontation between batter and pitcher contains all
the possibilities of great success or crashing failure.  If baseball is,
as some baseball writers have spent a lot of paper arguing, a metaphor for
American life, then "Casey at the Bat" is a metaphor for all of baseball,
the entire drama and pathos and history of the game neatly wrapped up in
thirteen stanzas.  And, most importantly, it's just plain funny.

For those seeking more information about "Casey at the Bat" and its
author, I can recommend two excellent sources.  "The Annotated Casey at
the Bat" by Martin Gardner (New York: 1967) contains a very good short
history of the poem and its author, as well as an important short
bibliography of its early appearances.  The heart of the book is a
wonderful collection of early "Casey" poems and the poems that "Casey"
spawned, from Grantland Rice's "Casey's Revenge" to " 'Cool' Casey at the
Bat" from MAD magazine.
“Ernest Thayer’s ‘Casey at the Bat’, Background and Characters of
Baseball’s Most Famous Poem” by Jim Moore and Natalie Vermilyea
(Jefferson: 1994) is a thorough, detailed and entertaining account of
Thayer, early baseball, and the poem.  It is the best, most in-depth book
on the subject of which I am aware.

THE POEM,
As it was first printed in 1888 in the San Francisco Examiner-

CASEY AT THE BAT

A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888
The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon of the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair.  The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast.
They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that-
We'd put even money now with Casey at the bat.

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despis-ed, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Johnnie safe at second, and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from 5,000 thoats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.

>From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on the stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted some one on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult, he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike Two."

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "fraud";
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed;
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville -mighty Casey has struck out.



- - - -


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