Casey at the Bat - Softcover

Ernest Lawrence Thayer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131204025 ISBN 13: 9780131204027

Publisher: Prentice Hall Direct, 1974

Synopsis

The popular narrative poem focuses upon the day in which excessive pride and confidence causes Mudville's star baseball player to disappoint the spectators

About this title

About the Author:

Ernest L. Thayer was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1863. He grew up in nearby Worcester, attended Harvard College, and afterward, worked at the San Francisco Daily Examiner. While there, he wrote news stories, editorials, and ballads as well as a humorous column that he signed with the nickname "Phin."

Thayer returned to the East Coast in 1888. Shortly after his return he wrote Casey at the Bat and sent it to the Examiner where on June 3, 1888, it was printed on the editorial page and signed "Phin." After years of being performed on stage and radio, the ballad became immortalized, and is now known and loved by generations of baseball fans around the world.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3 Up Since the birth of the original ballad 100 years ago, the mock despair generated by Thayer's versification has provided minor Aristotelean catharsis for millions of Americans. If ever there were a hero brought to a tragic end by a character flaw, it's Mighty Casey. This is the stuff of myth. But by making her Casey a little leaguer, Polacco has emasculated the power of the legend. Adding on a prologue with a bratty kid sister and an epilogue with a wimpy moral (``counting my hits before they were pitched'') only dilutes the majesty of the poem's final line. Her genuine drawing talent; her inventiveness in creating and arranging groups of caricatures; her ability to depict scenes that are provocatively animated, that utilize a range of viewpoints to produce compelling melodramathese attributes are misplaced here. A cocky adolescent sure isn't one to stimulate the passion of these verses. And part of the fun is the perception of grown-ups taking a game of balls and bats seriously, in the first place. This irony is totally lost too. Polacco, like Casey, has struck out. Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State Univ . , Columbus
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall Direct
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0131204025
• ISBN 13: 9780131204027
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 30