Copy of James Ryan's diary

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Posted By: David G

In the book Spaldings World Tour, Ryan's diary is quoted quite often. Anyone know how to get a copy of the diary? Seems like it would be quite interesting.

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

Hi. This is probably not the answer you were expecting, but I can at least dissuade you from thinking that Ryan's diary is truly interesting. In summing it up in a 15-page biography of Ryan in my 2006 book Cap Anson 4: Bigger Than Babe Ruth: Captain Anson of Chicago (and the diary was almost totally useless for my main purpose, which was focusing on the personalities of Anson and his main teammates, such as Ryan), I write:

"About his biggest trip, the world tour, Ryan apparently kept a diary that has been neatly preserved or recopied on 92 pages of standard-size paper. However, it has virtually no color about the other players, so it is of little interest here. On January 22, 1889, he did use a slur. In the Indian Ocean, 'Spoke to the sailing ship, Sam Skolfield [Schofield] of Brunswick, Maine and gave them three cheers; to which they responded with a will they were laying to, in a dead calm, of having moved a mile in four days. Crew all ******s.' [looks like a Network54 function kicked in that bleats the derogatory term for blacks that starts with the word N] Three months later, on April 20, he would write about today completing 'the circumference of the globe, for six months ago today we bid good bye [sic] to Chicago and entered upon our tour Around the World.'"