Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game

--Robert W. Creamer, Author of "Babe: The Legend Comes to Life "and "Stengel: His Life and Times"
"What a garden of delight! John Thorn takes us through the tangled history of the game's origins with great good humor and flair. He accepts nothing on face value, but gives all sides their due. A pleasure for fans, but also for anyone with an interest in history and myth."

--Kevin Baker, Author of "Strivers Row"
"With elegance, wit and precision, John Thorn traces the lineage of baseball, a melting pot of cultures and diversions that became quintessentially American. "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" is a must read for anyone who claims to know the game."

--Jane Leavy, Author of "The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and The End of America's Childhood "and "Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy"
"Baseball's creation myth--Abner Doubleday in a Cooperstown pasture in 1839--has the merit of being enchanting but the defect of being false in every particular. Now comes another of John Thorn's many contributions to our understanding of baseball, proof that the game is even older and more interesting than most fans know."

--George F. Will, Author of "Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball"
"No one, absolutely no one, knows more about the history of our national pastime than John Thorn, and this new book ought to settle once and for all many of the questions fans have about baseball's origins. Superb."

--Ken Burns
"John Thorn's "Baseball in the Garden of Eden" reveals a secret history of the early game that is more fantastical (and funny) than any concocted story."

--Jim Bouton, Author of "Ball Four"
"The One True Game's old creation myths are nowhere near as interesting and as much fun as the truths that Thorn digs up about the conspiracies, vices, and raucous behavior of baseball's earliest innings."

--Robert Lipsyte, author of "An Accidental Sportswriter"
"No sport clings to its myths like baseball, which means it takes a baseball historian of the first rank like John Thorn to turn those myths upside down and inside out. "Baseball in the Garden of Eden "offers enlightenment for every fan. It is also a joy to read."

--Michael Shapiro, Author of "Bottom of the Ninth" and "The Last Good Season"
"If you love history or baseball, you will enjoy Thorn's impeccably researched tome; if you love both, you will be mesmerized."

--Dave Sheinin, "The Washington Post

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"An invaluable, enduring and unique history of the early game and how it swiftly changed, in some ways for the worse, and yet survived and thrived."

--David Nemec, Author of "The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Baseball"