I first heard the name Henry Chadwick from a friend when I was eighteen years old and began to develop a keen interest in his role in shaping baseball in its early years. The idea for a full biography on Chadwick had its roots when I was a undergraduate at Brooklyn College. As a student of History Professor Edwin Burrows, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gotham, I was encouraged to write a mini biography on Chadwick related to my interest in New York/Brooklyn history and nineteenth-century baseball.

As a graduate student in history at the State University of Albany, from 1993-1995, I was compelled to write a Master's Thesis. I tossed around several ideas and realized that my best solution would be to expand on my early work on Chadwick and write a more in-depth bio on the man known as "The Father of Baseball." Several professors were exicited by the idea, but one in particular, Ivan Steen, showed incredible enthusiasm. I wrote an 85-page biography and graduated with a Master's in History. The work entitled, "The Father of Baseball: Henry Chadwick, the Man and his Times" was not only a biography on Chadwick, it was an examination of his life as it reflected the era in which he wrote.

In 2000, I was working as an adjunct professor at a local college, a colleague Joe Dorinson, a man who had written numerous books on baseball, suggested that I write a full biography on Chadwick. Several months later I contacted McFarland Press and we agreed to work together. After several years, the book is finally complete and will be coming out in the Fall of 2007.

Andrew Schiff

also see Andrew's blog on baseball http://andrewschiffnymets.mlblogs.com