Women Writing Baseball
8/5/10
Charis Books and More, 7:30pm
This special event features four very important baseball scholars: Dorothy Seymour Mills, Christina Kahrl, Judith Testa, and Cecilia Tan. This is a chance to talk baseball with four of the sport’s greatest scholars and writers, all of whom just happen to be women.
Dorothy Seymour Mills is the co-author of the first scholarly books of baseball history, published over the years 1960-1990 under the name of her husband and colleague, Harold Seymour. Her autobiography, "A Woman's Work: Writing Baseball History with Harold Seymour," was published in 2004. Her latest book, "Chasing Baseball: Our Obsession with Its History, Numbers, People and Places" is already in its second printing. Mills, an independent scholar, has published a total of 25 books on various subjects.
Christina Karl is one of the co-founders of Baseball Prospectus, and is currently the executive director of the think tank's website, BaseballProspectus.com. Her regular column covers major league transactions, and has been an online staple for 15 years.
Judith Testa grew up as a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and swore off baseball when the Dodgers moved to LA. After retiring from a career as an art history professor, she returned to her childhood interest in baseball, and remembering Maglie, as a fascinating baseball character from childhood, decided to write a biography of him, "Sal Maglie: Baseball's Demon Barber."
Cecilia Tan's first love was the New York Yankees. She also played baseball for several years in the women's hardball leagues of New England. She is the author of many books for fiction and nonfiction including "The 50 Greatest Yankee Games," "50 Greatest Red Sox Games," "White Flames," and "The Hot Streak."
David Herlihy: The Lost Cyclist, The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance
8/9/10
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, 7pm.
In the recently released book, The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and His Mysterious Disappearance, the well-known cycling historian David Herlihy (author of 2004's Bicycle: The History) backtracks to uncover what became of cyclist Frank Lenz.
In the late 19th century a biking craze swept the world as newer models became safer, less expensive, and easier to ride. One of the celebrities of the largely forgotten “golden age of cycling” was Frank Lenz, a bookkeeper from Pittsburgh who had a made a name for himself racing bikes. Seizing on the "safety bicycle" craze, Lenz set out to become the first to circumnavigate the globe solo by bike, and he was commissioned to document his journey for New York's Outing magazine before setting off in 1892.
It took Lenz about five months to travel from New York to California, where he hopped a steamer to Japan to continue pedaling. Just 25 years old at the time, he eventually made his way to China, down through India and into Persia. With Europe in his sights, Lenz hoped to safely roll through Turkey, which was in the midst of a bloody Turkish and Kurdish campaign against Armenians, but in the eastern part of the country he disappeared, meeting a mysterious demise that made headlines back in America.
Afterward, Outing dispatched another well-known cyclist, William Sachtleben, to find what had become of Lenz. He never did, but when Sachtleben made his way to Turkey with a traveling companion to search for Lenz’s grave, he witnessed first-hand events that would eventually lead to the Armenian genocide, returning to America forever altered by what he witnessed.
Herlihy's The Lost Cyclist is a literary crossbreed – a biography of an obsessed adventurer mixed with a vivid account of a dark and sometimes overlooked moment in history. The book – and the upcoming reading – are sure to capture the imaginations of bike lovers and history buffs alike.
