Out of Bounds

Chicago: The Reilly & Lee Co.. Near Fine in Very Good dj. (c.1937). First Edition. Hardcover. [minimal shelfwear, slight fading to cloth at spine ends; jacket edgeworn, short ragged closed tear at top of front panel, shorter closed tear at top of rear panel, rubbing/scuffing to rear panel]. Juvenile novel with a college football background. A tough street kid from Little Italy, "where the gang played a lawless game, with no rules, no standards, no loyalties," goes to the University, and "finds on the football field that there is something more than that, something finer and more lasting." (That would be in addition to the traumatic brain injury, I guess.) Oh, it's this: "The team-spirit, the loyalty to one another and to the coach and -- lastly -- to the school, is a revelation to him, a complete re-education." The author was a Chicago sportswriter during the 1920s and 1930s; he had written an earlier football-themed book, "Grid Star," and later turned out an historical novel, "Lee on the Levee." .