[Rarebooks] FS: The first official baseball rule book: Henry Chadwick, 1867

[Charles Agvent]

CHADWICK, Henry. HANEY'S BASE BALL PLAYER'S BOOK OF REFERENCE. [The 
first official baseball rule book]. New York: Haney & Co., 1867. First 
Edition. ...CONTAINING THE REVISED RULES OF THE GAME FOR 1867, WITH AN 
EXPLANATORY APPENDIX TO EACH RULE, TOGETHER WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS FOR 
UMPIRES AND SCORERS, AND ALSO FOR PITCHING, BATTING AND FIELDING. THE 
WHOLE FORMING A STANDARD AUTHORITY ON ALL POINTS OF THE NATIONAL GAME. 
Small octavo (3-3/4" x 5-7/8") in original green wraps depicting three 
ballplayers on the front holding a bat and examining the rule book; 
[ii], 139, [iii] pages, plus covers. The issue published just nine years 
earlier in 1858 was the FIRST OFFICIAL BASEBALL RULE BOOK. Its author, 
Henry Chadwick, was the sport's first great journalist and a leading 
figure in the development of the game. Illustrated with about a dozen 
engravings in the text including full-page depictions of a regulation 
baseball field and a baseball pitcher. Includes not just rules but much 
advice on how to form and manage a club as well as specific hints on how 
to field, pitch, and bat. With several pages on how to play baseball on 
the ice! Owner name of E. S. Hughes of South Trenton, New York in light 
pencil on the top of the front cover and title page. Light foxing to 
some pages, heaviest on the bulked fore-edge of the text. The front 
cover has an inch-long vertical closed tear along the spine edge and a 
small triangular piece torn off the fore-edge and still present, laid in 
loosely, with no loss in either case. A Very Good copy of a scarce and 
important baseball book. $6,000.00	

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