Joy in Mudville: A First Edition of Casey at the Bat Joins the Rare Book Division Collections

It's mid-July, time for that annual American tradition, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, being held this year on July 17 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. In honor of this year’s edition of the "Midsummer Classic," the NYPL Rare Book Division would like to highlight a recent addition to its collections: a first edition printing of Casey at the Bat.

One of the most beloved popular poems in American literature, Casey at the Bat was first published 130 years ago in The San Francisco Examiner on June 3, 1888. The piece, written by poet Ernest Thayer, chronicles a baseball team from the fictitious town of Mudville and its star player, Casey.
Down by several runs in the final inning of the game, the Mudville Nine and all its fans pin their hopes on Casey’s batting prowess. The would-be hero's ultimate strikeout, however, sets up the poem’s famous last line, "There is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out."    

After its initial newspaper publication, Casey at the Bat was issued separately as a pamphlet in 1901 as well as collected subsequently in an anthology. The present edition—the first separate appearance of the poem in a bound volume—was published in 1912. 
It is notable for being the first edition to be fully illustrated, featuring the playful drawings of Dan Sayre Groesbeck, an illustrator who later enjoyed a successful career as a Hollywood concept artist.

Although Casey at the Bat was widely printed during the early years of the twentieth century, the poem owed much of its initial popularity to public readings, especially those given by vaudevillian DeWolf Hopper, who performed the piece before an audience on more than 10,000 occasions. Interestingly, Hopper's dramatic recitation was captured on film in 1922 using the innovative DeForest Phonofilm process, an early example of a sound movie or "talkie," to use the parlance of the silent film era.

Today, Casey at the Bat continues to delight fans of America’s Pastime, referenced continually in, or adapted for, movies, music, comics, and theatrical productions. Of course, it continues to be reprinted in book form, as well. 

Mudville may forever a be joyless place, but there is happiness in knowing the present copy of Casey—a pristine example in an original green pictorial binding—now joins The New York Public Library’s baseball-related holdings, which stand overall as some of the richest to be found in any institution, documenting the sport's development, lore, culture, and play.   

Enjoy the All-Star Game!