Ball Tales: A Study of Baseball, Basketball and Football Fiction of the 1930s through 1960s

Michelle Nolan

McFarland, Nov 26, 2014 - Sports & Recreation - 287 pages

This history of American sports fiction traces depictions of baseball, basketball and football in works for all age levels from early dime novels through the 1960s. Chapters cover dime novel heroes Frank and Dick Merriwell; the explosion of sports novels before World War II and its influence on the authors who later wrote for baby boom readers; how sports novels persisted during the Great Depression; the rise and decline of sports pulps; why sports comics failed; postwar heroes Chip Hilton and Bronc Burnett; the lack of sports fiction for females; Duane Decker's Blue Sox books; and the classic John R. Tunis novels. Appendices list sports pulp titles and comic books featuring sports fiction.

Contents

• Preface: 1
• TwoThe Great Pulp Sports Rally During the Depression: 19
• ThreeWhen College Football Was King on Film: 33
• FiveThe Man Who Beat Merriwell: 62
• SixSports Fiction Strikes Out in the Comic Books: 94
• Chip Hilton and Bronc Burnett: 119
• EightDuane Deckers Unique Blue Sox Series: 145
• NineThe Sports Series AlsoRans: 164
• ElevenThe Prolific Sports Fiction Authors: 192
• The Girls of Central High: 213
• ThirteenSports Short Stories for Young and Old: 243
• Appendix ASports Pulp Magazines: 263

About the author

Michelle Nolan has been a newspaper and magazine feature writer for more than 50 years. She received an Inkpot Award for her work as a comics and pop cultural historian and entrepreneur. She has written more than 12,000 published articles in newspapers and magazines along with contributions to dozens of books. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ball Tales: A Study of Baseball, Basketball and Football Fiction of the 1930s through 1960s
• Author: Michelle Nolan
• Publisher: McFarland, 2014
• ISBN: 0786458305, 9780786458301
• Length: 287 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / General; Sports & Recreation / Baseball / General; Sports & Recreation / Basketball; Sports & Recreation / Football