Mike king kelly autobiography examples
Kelly's autobiography Play Ball: Stories of the Ball Field was published while he was with the Beaneaters in , the first autobiography by a baseball player.
Mike “King” Kelly was professional baseball's first matinee idol: the first ballplayer to “author” an autobiography, the first to have a hit song written about..
http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/king-kelly-baseballs-first-celebrity
by Marty Appel
PART 1
This Walter Chickering cabinet photograph shows Mike “King” Kelly in all his splendor.
Writer Mary Appel writes of Kelly’s celebrity status as 19th century baseball’s most famous long ball hitter.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the first baseball biography (or in this case, autobiography).
It was in 1888, at the peak of his fame, that Mike “King” Kelly’s “Play Ball: Stories of the Ball Field” was published.
It must be emphasized how difficult it was to achieve “fame” at that time, let alone be worthy of a book.
Before radio became a force in American culture in the 1920s, and before national magazines like Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post made their marks at the turn of the century, the idea of being a national celebrity really didn’t exist.
Yes, people knew the U.S. presidents and the names of Civil War generals, outlaw cowboys and an inventor or two