MUDVILLE-what a sad state it was in. Casey, the town's great baseball hero, had swung beautifully and mightily at the final pitch, only to have the ball disappear into the soft folds of the waiting catcher's mitt. Game over! The agony of defeat cuts so deep.
In his immortal poem, "Casey at the Bat," Ernest Thayer pulled the proverbial rug out from beneath our feet. Just when it seemed certain Casey would win it all, all is lost. But Thayer once said, "hope springs eternal within the human breast." Perhaps there can be another day, perhaps there can be another game, and perhaps there may be another chance for Casey.
In 1906 Grantland Rice penned a sequel to "Casey at the Bat" entitled "Casey's Revenge." Rice was a famous sportswriter in the first half of the 20th century and a great fan of baseball. In this edition of "Casey's Revenge," Jim Hull once again entertains us with the same stunning detail and wild perspective baseball fans across the nation enjoyed as they looked through his drawings for Dover Publication's illustrated book, Casey at the Bat. As Casey digs in at the plate, you'll see a curve ball that really curves, what a pitcher looks like from behind Casey's front teeth, and a glimpse of the stands filled with ten thousand fans! Hang onto your hat-it's quite an adventure!
About the Author: In 1972 I had finished school and was starting out on my career as an artist, working part-time on a trash-collecting crew in Bloomington, Indiana. One day we had taken the garbage truck to pick up a load of old white scrap paper from a printing company. Just as I was about to heave it into the truck's hopper, I thought to myself that maybe I could keep some of it for drawing. The paper measured 23˝ x 11.5˝ and had a nice plate surface to it. My supervisor said, "Fine, just fold it up and toss it in the back of the cab," which I did, and when it landed it looked just like a book! That night I suddenly sat up in bed and knew what I was going to do with my immediate future. In appreciation to baseball, I would illustrate "Casey at the Bat," and I would illustrate it on the paper I had rescued earlier that day from the jaws of the garbage truck.
A few days later as I was looking through some books of poetry for the "Casey" text, I came across a poem called "Casey's Revenge" by a James Wilson. I'd not seen it before, but after one reading, it moved next on my list of things to illustrate.
In 1976 Dover published Casey at the Bat, with my 56 drawings (one for each line of the poem) and an introduction by Martin Gardner. Then, in 2012 Dover reissued Casey in a new format, with a new cover. That nudged me to dig out my old drawings for "Casey's Revenge" and look into getting them published as well, and that is what you see here.
