A Little Pretty Pocket-Book

A woodcut from A Pretty Little Pocketbook (1744), England, showing the first reference to baseball.

A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery.[1]

History

It is generally considered the first children's book, and consists of simple rhymes for each of the letters of the alphabet. To market the book to the children of the day, the book came with either a ball for a boy, or a pincushion for a girl. The book was very popular in England, and earned Newbery much fame; eventually the Newbery Medal was named after him. The book was re-published in Colonial America in 1762.[2] Dr A S W Rosenbach called this book, "One of the most influential and important books in the history of juvenile literature."[3]

Description

The book includes a woodcut of stool-ball among other period games, and includes a rhyme entitled "Base-Ball." This is the first known reference to "base-ball" or "baseball" in print,[2] though it actually meant the game rounders, an ancestor of modern baseball. Of baseball's English origin: "The game of Rounders has been played in England since Tudor Times, with the earliest reference being in 1744 in 'A Little Pretty Pocketbook' where it is called baseball."[4][5] "It is a striking and fielding team game, which involves hitting a small hard leather cased ball with a round wooden or metal bat and then running around 4 bases in order to score."[6] John Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball, has suggested that the game depicted may not have involved the use of a bat, and thus is a predecessor of sorts to punchball.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Welsh, C. (1885). A Bookseller of the Last Century: Being Some Account of the Life of John Newbery, and of the Books He Published, with a Notice of the Later Newberys. Opie collection of children's literature ; 041:070. Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, successors to Newbery & Harris. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  2. ^ a b Lloyd, John; Mitchinson, John (2006). The Book of General Ignorance. Faber & Faber.
  3. ^ Wolf, E.; Academy, R.I. (2009). Todd Lecture Series (in French). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-151-45471-3. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Coaches Want to See You Play Against Better Competition". College Athletic Scholarships. College Sports Recruiting. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  5. ^ Mike. "Rounders". West Midlands Sports Development. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
  6. ^ A Little pretty pocket-book. : a facsimile with an introductory essay and bibliography. 8 December 2016. OCLC 296996.
  7. ^ Thorn, John (2012-03-20). Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9404-1.
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