Timony (Patrick, pseud.)

The American Fistiana: Containing a History of Prize Fighting in the United States, with All the Principal Battles of the Last Forty Years, and a Full and Precise Account of the Great $10,000 Match between Sullivan and Hyer,

[Hartley 1843], title page and 30pp., some creasing, original printed wrappers, rear panel chipped, lacking spine, H. Johnson, New York, 1849.

***”American prizefighting came of age in a sequence of major fights in the decade before the Civil War. The first of these, on 7 February 1849, matched the two most prominent fighters in America for a purse of $10,000. Yankee Sullivan and Tom Hyer were both affiliated with the New York demimonde of street gangs and political factions; Sullivan was Irish-American, Hyer native born. The hoopla surrounding the fight, won by Hyer, had much to do with the anti-immigrant nativist sentiment that pervaded American society in the antebellum years. The volume shown here, published prior to the fight as a publicity vehicle, derived its name from the British annual Fistiana (1841-1868). It is of most interest, perhaps, for its "Chronological List of the Principal Prize Fights in the United States" (pp. 17-18). The list includes one fight held in the 1810s, five in the 1820s, and some 15 in the 1830s.” - George Rugg (Curator, Americana), Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame.