Exceptional autograph manuscript in pencil titled at the top, “Ken Ward, the Young Pitcher,” unsigned, 40 pages, 8 x 12.5, no date but circa 1911. Grey’s handwritten and corrected draft manuscript for his novel The Young Pitcher, the first of his Ken Ward books. In part: “Ken Ward had not been at the big university many days before he realized the miserable lot of a freshman. At first he was sorely puzzled. College was so different from what he had expected. At the high school of his home town, which, being the capital of the state, was no village, he had been somebody. Then his summer in Arizona, with its wild adventures, had given him a self-appreciation which made his present situation humiliating…Ken's spirit, low as it was, sank still lower. What miserable luck he had! His one great ambition, next to getting his diploma, had been to make the varsity baseball team.” The manuscript ultimately encompasses the first four chapters of the book, with the last couple pages of chapter four absent. In fine condition, with expected general wear. Grey had been an excellent baseball player as a young man and based the Ken Ward character on himself. He attended the University of Pennsylvania with professional aspirations, and was especially well known as a pitcher with a devastating curveball; but when the pitcher’s mound was moved back in 1894, Grey was never able to adjust to the new difference. A fascinating and important early manuscript with wonderful personal associations. RR Auction COA.
