American Sportsman's Library

The American Sportsman's Library is an early and important series of 16 uniformly-bound volumes on sporting subjects, from an American perspective, published by the Macmillan Company (see Macmillan Publishers) in the period 1902-1905. Caspar Whitney, the well-known outdoorsman and sporting journalist, edited the series. Authors, including President Theodore Roosevelt, were noted experts in their fields.

The trade edition of each volume was 7⅞" by 5½" with green cloth covers with gilt titles and decorations. The books cost $2 or $3 each, relatively high prices for the time (about $46 and $69 inflation adjusted to 2008). They included extensive black-and-white illustrations from paintings or photographs. Macmillan also issued a "large paper" edition limited to one hundred numbered copies of each work. These were 9" x 6¼" and bound in three-quarter olive green (typically now faded to brown) leather. A 1924 reprinting of the trade edition introduced dust jackets and a slightly reduced size (7½" x 5"). [M.L. Biscotti, "American Sporting Book Series" (1994), pp. 77-78.]

Macmillan advertised advance notice of, but ultimately did not publish, four additional volumes. These include "Skating, Hockey, and Kite Sailing;" "Baseball and Football;" "The Bear Family;" and "Cougar, Wildcat, Wolf, and Fox". [Publisher's advertisement following index to "Guns, Ammunition, and Tackle".]

A useful series for comparison purposes is the slightly earlier British Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes. The Derrydale Press published a series of high-quality American sporting books in the late 1920s and 1930s that, to some extent, supplanted the American Sportsman's Library.

Volumes of the American Sportsman's Library

♦ Anderson, E.L. and P. Collier, "Riding and Driving" (1905)

♦ Brownell, L.W., "Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist" (1904)

♦ Busby, Hamilton, "The Trotting and Pacing Horse in America" (1904)

♦ Crowther, Samuel and A. Ruhl, "Rowing and Track Athletics" (1904)

♦ Graham, Joseph A., "The Sporting Dog" (1904)

♦ Henshall, James A., Bass, "Pike, Perch and other Game Fishes of America" (1903)

♦ Holder, Charles, "The Big Game Fishes of the United States" (1903)

♦ Money, A.W. "et al", "Guns, Ammunition and Tackle" (1904)

♦ Paret, J.P., "Lawn Tennis, Lacrosse: Its Past, Present and Future" (1904)

♦ Roosevelt, Theodore "et al", "The Deer Family" (1902)

♦ Sage, Dean "et al", "Salmon and Trout" (1902)

♦ Sandys, Edwyn and T.S. Van Dyke, "Upland Game Birds" (1902)

♦ Sanford, L.C. "et al", "The Waterfowl Family" (1903)

♦ Stephens, William P., "American Yachting" (1904)

♦ Trevathan, Charles E., "The American Thoroughbred" (1905)

♦ Whitney, Caspar "et al", "Musk Ox, Bison, Sheep, and Goat" (1904)

References