[dbussell12]

Jim --

Your book is an indispensable historical and media resource to anyone even remotely interested in this era of baseball history. It is the first book I recommend without hesitation to anyone who expresses interest in trying to understand more about the early modern period of the sport and the media objects and techniques that define it, as well as the artists who helped express the underpinnings of its myth and emergence. The amount of care, detail, research, and passion that went into the creation of this book is evident; the contributions from people like Dennis and your cohort of essayists make it into a truly communal effort of comprehension and love for the emergence of the modern game and the figures that helped define it. It illuminates a dark corner that otherwise would be increasingly lost to time. This work of preservation is essential. Baseball emerged from the mines, logging camps, factories, farms, and the mud of uncertainty as to the direction of becoming that the sport would take, if it took it at all. And these photos capture not only their industrial era, but baseball actually finding figure and form in real time.

I sincerely thank you for your contribution not only to the hobby but to baseball and media history. I am enjoying the ever deeper contemporary understanding that seems to be emerging about just how important baseball images (including cards) contribute and have contributed to the collective mythos, story, and legend that is baseball.


My best regards; great to connect with you earlier this year --
David