New Edition of Oxford’s “Baseball” Series Lists Dorothy Mills as Co-Author
From a press release by Oxford University Press on May 25, 2011:
[SABR member] Dorothy Jane Mills, whose baseball work is published under the name Dorothy Seymour Mills, is after 50 years finally listed as co-author of the books she wrote with the late Harold Seymour.
The three volumes, originally published under the name Harold Seymour, are considered the classic histories in the field. They are Baseball: The Early Years (1960); Baseball: The Golden Age (1971); and Baseball: The People’s Game (1990).
Oxford University Press, publisher of the series, now features on its website the new edition bearing Mills’ name as well as her late husband’s. The redesigned covers and title pages show Dorothy Seymour Mills as co-author, and for the third volume her name precedes that of Harold Seymour. The new edition also includes a note written by Mills explaining the reason for the change.
Timothy Bent, Executive Editor of OUP USA, announced in August 2010 the company’s decision to give formal credit to Mills’s co-authorship of these books despite her late husband’s neglect to do so. The books have just become available in their new edition.
Dorothy Mills, now married to Roy Mills, a retired officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force and a retired champion curler, states that she increasingly took over the work of preparing these books and that by the time she and Seymour reached the third volume, she was doing more of the work than he was.
Mills welcomes the change in the publishing record for these books.
“I’m very much gratified,” she stated, “that my name is finally listed as co-author of these books, where it has belonged since 1960, when the first book in the series was published. I appreciate Oxford’s willingness to correct the record.”
Oxford’s current leadership became aware of Mills’ situation in March of 2010 when The New York Times published an article about her by writer Alan Schwarz. In February of this year, CNN.com featured her story on its website in a piece by Ann O’Neill.
Mills, a native Clevelander and now a resident of Naples, Florida, has published 22 books besides those she wrote with Harold Seymour. In 2004 McFarland and Company published her autobiography, A Woman’s Work: Writing Baseball History with Harold Seymour.
Her latest book is Chasing Baseball: Our Obsession with Its History, Numbers, People and Places, published by McFarland in 2010. The same publisher will bring out her next book, Drawing Card, in 2012. A historical novel, it tells a story, based on baseball history, about a woman ballplayer of the 1920s.
Update (10/26/11): Dorothy has announced that autographed copies of the new editions in the Baseball trilogy are available for purchase on her website, dorothyjanemills.com. Click here to order them through PayPal.
Originally published: May 27, 2011. Last Updated: May 27, 2011.