Bibliography Guide No. 5: Author Index to “Guide to Baseball Literature” (1975)

SABR Bibliography Committee
Research Guide No. 5: Author Index to Guide to Baseball Literature (1975)

Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1987. To download the original in PDF form, click here.

By Frank Phelps
March 1987

Guide to Baseball Literature, Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1975, xv + 363 p., by Anton Grobani, the first full-scale baseball bibliography, listed more than 3,000 books, etc. and coded and arranged them by subjects in thirty-three chapters. It included one index only, however: an alphabetical naming of the titles. To remedy the omission of an author index, this amateur researcher has compiled one by utilizing the careful coding of entries employed by Dr. Grobani. The compiler would appreciate being notified of any errors or omissions discovered.

The index is alphabetical by surnames of authors and editors followed by given names or initials and Dr. Grobani’s code numbers for the appropriate citations. For citations which lack mention or authors or editors, publishers’ names are shown, or in their absence, printers’ names. No attempt is made herein to correct or clarify the book’s entries. For example, Tommy Henrich’s name again appears in this index as “Heinrich”. In a few instances authors are listed separately for each variation of their names, per Grobani; and authors and editors bearing the same names are grouped together. Authors identified by pseudonyms and real names are indexed under both.

This index is useful only in conjunction with the book at hand. As example of how it works, note the entry “Hoffman, John C. 8-188J ,Q”. Turn to Chapter 8. Biographies and follow the progression of numbers to the right of the hyphen from 1 to 188. No. 188 is A.S. Barnes Biographical Series. under which 188J is Andy Pafko by Hoffman, 1951, and 188Q is Hank Bauer by Hoffman, 1953. Slash marks (/) in some of my entries denote “inclusive”. For example, 12-71/W means 12-71 through 12-71W inclusive. A short study of his system should enable readers to understand how Grobani used combinations of numbers and letters in his code.

For convenience, the thirty-three chapter headings of the books are repeated below: 

1. Early Club Constitutions

2. General Works

3. Guides

4. Record Books

5. Annuals

6. General Histories

7. Team Histories

8. Biographies

9. Instructionals

10. Anthologies

11. Periodicals

12. Fiction

13. Humor

14. Drama, Verse, Ballads

15. Pictorials

16. Schedule & Record Books

17. Calculators

18. Economic Matters

19. Yearbooks

20. Minor League

21. Amateur & semi-pro

22. Rule Books

23. Umpiring

24. World Series & All-Star Games

25. Tours

26. Dictionaries & Spectators’ Guides

27. Anecdotes & Recollections

28. Conditioning

29. Quizzes

30. Administrative Works

31. Hall of Fame

32. Scoring

33. Miscellaneous

 

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