Live All You Can: Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Invention of Modern Baseball

Jay Martin

Published by Columbia University Press 2009

Live All You Can

Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Invention of Modern Baseball

Jay Martin

https://doi.org/10.7312/mart14794

Overview
Contents

About this book

Laying waste to the notion that Abner Doubleday established the modern game of baseball, acclaimed biographer Jay Martin makes a bold case for A. J. Cartwright (1820-1892), an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and avid ballplayer whose keen perception and restless spirit codified the rules of the sport and engineered its rapid spread throughout the country.

Consulting Cartwright's personal correspondence and papers, Martin shows how this American archetype synthesized a number of elements from popular ballgames into the program, bylaws, and positions we find on the field today. After formalizing his blueprint, Cartwright worked tirelessly to promote baseball nationwide, appealing to both upper- and lower-class spectators and ballplayers and weaving a trail of influence across nineteenth-century America.

Addressing the controversy that has roiled for years around the claims for Doubleday and Cartwright, Martin revisits the original arguments behind each camp and throws into sharp relief the competing ambitions of these figures during a time of aggressive westward expansion and unparalleled opportunities for individual reinvention. Martin's story of modern baseball not only offers a fascinating window into a thoroughly American phenomenon but also accesses a rare history of American ideals.

Author / Editor information

Jay Martin is the Edward S. Gould Professor of Humanities, professor of government, and founder of the Questions of Civilization Program at Claremont McKenna College. He has written and edited twenty-one books, including biographies of Nathanael West, Henry Miller, John Dewey, and Conrad Aiken, along with a standard history of American literature from 1865 to 1914. His most recent book is the short story collection Baseball Magic.

Reviews

Engagingly written

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
The Birth of the Father Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
The Dream Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Cartwright, Dreaming Again Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Across the Plains Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Visions and Revisions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Paradise Bound Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
Paradise Found Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
The Last Gasp of the Great Sailing Ships Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Missionary Baseball Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Starting All Over Again: It’s Gonna Be Rough— but We’re Gonna Make It Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
The New Fire Chief Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Freemasonry Comes to Hawaii Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
A Gift from the Sea—and a Loss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
Back to Baseball Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
DeWitt and His Brothers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Cartwright & Co., Ltd. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr., American Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
The Social Whirl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Advisor to the Queen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Deaths and New Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
King Sugar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Baseball on the Plantations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
Spalding’s World Tour—First Stop, Hawaii Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
The Final Dissolving Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Cartwright’s Second Life: Myth Into History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Appendix 1: Chronology of the Life of Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Appendix 2: Did Cartwright “Really Invent” Baseball? Or, How Did the Game Evolve Before He Arrived? A Short Survey of Two Vexed Questions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
Notes and References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 168
Illustrations
- Other: 20 illus

eBook

Published: July 9, 2009
ISBN: 9780231519694