New York: Scribner & Welford, 1890.
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Hardcover. Second American edition (originally published in the US in 1889). Front hinge amateurishly restored, although not particularly offensively, corner bumped and rubbed, near very good. Front fly, and rear pastedown stamped: "Personal. Morris (Moe) Berg." Signature of "E. Berg," almost certainly that of his sister Ethel Berg, with whom he spent a substantial part of his life, and who later wrote a very scarce and desirable biography, *My Brother Morris Berg. The Real Moe.* The first half of the book is extensively underlined by Berg in pencil, with occasional notes in his hand. Berg is a remarkable figure, a lower middle class Jewish boy born in New York who was a Princeton and Columbia Law School graduate and professional baseball player who spoke seven languages (and who inspired the remark, "and he can't hit in any of them"). He appeared on the quiz show *Information, Please!* and put on a dazzling performance, belying the image of the knuckle-headed ballplayer. He used his time on a barnstorming tour of Japan to film Tokyo Harbor, the footage of which proved important to the eventual American war effort, and later was a spy for the US both during and after WWII. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he refused (but which Ethel accepted on his behalf after his death). His baseball card is reportedly on display at CIA headquarters. His life inspired several books, among them Nicholas Dawidoff's 1995 biography *The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg*.
Item #85783
