Participatory Sportswriting

Long before journalist George Plimpton donned shoulder pads for Paper Lion, sportswriters were stepping onto the field, arena, track and ring. This first-of-its-kind anthology of participatory sportswriting collects 48 pieces from the Gilded and Golden Age greats. Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Frances Elizabeth Willard, John Muir, Jack London, Zane Grey, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, Bill Tilden, Bobby Jones, Helen Mills, Paul Gallico, and many more prowled America’s sporting grounds with pen in hand in a time when, as Grantland Rice put it, “a flame…lit up the sporting skies and covered the world.”

Zachary Michael Jack is a professor of English at North Central College, in Naperville, Illinois where he teaches courses in writing for social change, public writing, and leadership, ethics, and values, among others. A member of the board of directors of the Midwestern History Association (MHA), he leads Writing to Change the World workshops nationwide. He is the author of many books on America’s most visionary leaders and change agents.

Edited by Zachary Michael Jack
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 254
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3953-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5507-2
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v
Editor’s Note      vi
Preface: “The Sporting ‘I’ in a New Light”      1
Introduction: “A Frolic of Immersion”—Participatory Sportswriting in the Gilded and Golden Age      3
John Burroughs on Trout Fishing (1870)      17
Mark Twain on Surfing (1871)      21
Edward Whymper on Climbing the Matterhorn (1871)      23
Robert Louis Stevenson on Canoeing Across Europe (1878)      27
Charles Dickens on Climbing Mount Vesuvius (1879)      30
John Lyle King on Trout Fishing (1879)      34
Walt Whitman on “Wrestling” and Sailing (1881)      37
Theodore Roosevelt on Hunting the Antelope (1885)      40
James Naismith on Playing and Coaching Basketball (1941; events from 1891)      46
Winifred Louisa Leale on Target Shooting (1894)      55
Kate Martelli on Hunting the Tiger (1894)      57
Frances Elizabeth Willard on Bicycling (1895)      62
Joshua Slocum on Sailing Alone Around the World (1899)      67
Isabel Savory on Mountaineering in Kashmir (1900)      73
Frederick G. Aflalo on Hunting the Alligator (1907)      76
Jack London on Surfing (1908)      80
John Muir on Glaciering (1909)      88
John Neihardt on Paddling the Missouri River (1910)      102
Edward Lydell Fox on Ice-boating (1912)      107
Walter Camp on Coaching Football (1912)      110
Joseph Knowles on Trapping a Bear (1913)      112
Gertrude Buffington Phillips on Salmon Fishing      121
Wilma Anderson-Gilman on Pistol Shooting (1914)      125
Lewis R. Freeman on Swimming, Sprints, Canoe Races, Shotput, Cricket, Long- and High-Jumping, and Marathoning Versus the Fijians (1914)      127
Kathrene Gedney Pinkerton on Women’s Canoeing (1914)      131
Hiram Connibear on Coaching College Crew (1914)      134
Horace Kephart on Spelunking (1914)      136
Malcolm Ross on Alpining (1914)      143
William Hanford Edwards on Officiating Football (1916)      149
Bernard Darwin on Golf (1919)      151
May H. Hosfield on Deep-sea Fishing for Barracuda (1919)      154
Zane Grey on Fishing for Bonefish (1919)      162
Ernest Hemingway on Rainbow Trout Fishing (1920)      167
Bill Tilden on the Psychology of Tennis (1921)      169
Lawrence S. Clark on “Autobumming” (1922)      173
Henry Ford on Auto Racing (1922)      178
Lewis R. Freeman on Playing Semipro Baseball in Montana (1922)      181
Fred H. Harris on Ski Jumping (1922)      183
Ernest Hemingway on Lugeing (1922)      188
Ring Lardner on Sport and Play (1922)      190
Albert Soiland on Transpacific Yacht Racing (1924)      194
Gertrude Ederle on Swimming the English Channel (1926)      200
Bobby Jones on Golfing the Majors (1927)      202
Amelia Earhart on Flying the Atlantic (1928)      205
Helen Wills on Wimbledon Tennis (1928)      211
Eddie Eagan on Boxing Against Jack Dempsey (1932)      219
Arnold Eric Sevareid on Canoeing from Minnesota to the Hudson Bay (1935)      223
Paul Gallico on Golfing with Bobby Jones, Catching Herb Pennock’s Curveball, Auto Racing with Cliff Bergere at Indy and More (1937)      229
Bibliography      239
Index      243