Who was the first American sports superstar? It seems a bit like splitting hairs, but the author makes a pretty good case for Christy Mathewson. He compares Matty to fellow Hall of Fame inductees, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Babe Ruth.

The book is divided into two parts. The first gives us a quick history into the newspaper business and its rise to prominence in New York and beyond. It tells of the emergence of the sports beat writer, evolving from sports reporters to the front page news. However, the second half of the book is the real gem. It's billed as "the lost life story of Christy Mathewson". Written as an obituary after Christy's death, it ran as a series in the newspapers as a final accurate salute to the man. The story is part autobiographical, written by Mathewson himself with content from his wife Jane with additional material from writer Bozeman Bulger, a personal friend of the Mathewsons.

As a reader of many of Mathewson's biographies, I find this new-old material very exciting. Bits and pieces of this article have come out over the years but when printed in its entirety, it paints a true picture of who the man was. For example, many authors may lead you to believe that Christy was aloof or uppity, but after reading this it clearly shows that he was a shy, private person who did not seek the spotlight, even though the limelight stalked him.

I highly recommend this book for baseball fans and non-baseball fans alike for a glimpse of the real person Mathewson was.

First, thank you to Alan Gaff and the University of Nebraska Press for allowing me an advanced copy of his new book Baseball's First Superstar: The Lost Life Story of Christy Mathewson.

Before you read this book, you do need to understand that is more a relic and an academic work than a modern biography. Gaff does include a few chapters breaking down parts of baseball in Christy Mathewson's time, as well as introducing the reporter (Bozeman Bulger) whose writing makes up the majority of this book. Most of this book is a compilation of writings from Bulger, Mathewson's wife Jane, and a few chapters from Mathewson himself. As a modern biography, or even semi-autobiography, in a post-Ball Four/Bronx Zoo era, there's not a lot of actual substance to the book. Bulger (and Jane, obviously) basically writes a hagiography to his Mathewson, his friend and former roommate. That's understandable. In Mathewson's day, he was projected as a clean, all-American hero. The ideal that all boys should strive to be. Bulger's writing definitely tries to continue that vein of "Mathewson never took a wrong step," stretching to a hilarious degree when claiming that the harm of smoking is arguable at best (Bulger died in 1932, so please forgive him for not quite being up on the science).

The chapters Mathewson writes are definitely more detailed and entertaining because he prefers talking more about baseball and less about making himself into a hero. But there's not a ton of substance to it.

But again, this isn't really a fair assessment of the book. It's an academic work, a recovery of a primary voice from the 1920s. It reads as if it's written in the 1920s.

Gaff's work of compiling these writings into a coherent contemporary narrative is fascinating. A lot of baseball literature from this time reads almost exactly like Bulger's account. Players who can do no wrong. Little suspense because they are never in trouble. That's not on Gaff to go back 96 years and be like, hey, it's a little much.

So, as a fun read, probably not going to be your cup of tea unless you've literally never read a book about baseball before. But as an archival piece of evidence of writing from Mathewson's contemporaries, it's interesting.

Is it the best baseball book I've ever read? No. But again, I don't think it's completely meant to be more than a primary source from Mathewson's time.

Enjoyed immensely. Well written and researched- I’d read a lot about Christy but not this stuff. If you love stuff about early baseball, you will love this stuff.

I am a CristyMathewson fan. I will read anything about the man. This is a wonderful tribute to an outstanding man and baseball hero, things we have painfully few of today.