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''The Cricketers of My Time'' is a memoir of cricket, nominally written by the former Hambledon cricketer John Nyren about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised literary skill, collaborated with the eminent Shakespearean scholar Charles Cowden Clarke to produce his work. It is believed that Cowden Clarke recorded Nyren's verbal reminiscences and so "ghosted" the text. The work became a major source for the history and personalities of Georgian cricket and has also come to be regarded as the first classic in cricket's now rich literary history. Writing in 1957, John Arlott described it as "still the finest study of cricket and cricketers ever written".〔Arlott, p.7.〕 ==Publications== ''The Cricketers of My Time'' was first published in serial form by a weekly London newspaper called ''The Town'' in 1832. The following year, the series with some modifications appeared as the second part of an instructional book entitled ''The Young Cricketer's Tutor'', which was also the title of the book's first part. There was a third part called ''A Few Memoranda Respecting the Progress of Cricket'' and that is generally referred to as the ''Memoranda''.〔Nyren (ed. Mote), p.14.〕 The first edition of the full book was published by Effingham Wilson of the Royal Exchange, London in June 1833, and was reviewed by the Rev. John Mitford for ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' in July 1833.〔Nyren (ed. Mote), p.15.〕〔Nyren (ed. Mote), p.26.〕 John Nyren died in 1837, but there was a second edition of the book in 1840 followed by eleven subsequent editions to 1855. These editions were retitled ''Nyren's Cricketers Guide''.〔Barclay, p.5.〕 A further edition, with introduction, footnotes and appendices by F. S. Ashley-Cooper, was published by Gay & Bird in 1902.〔〔Nyren (ed. Mote), p.27.〕 In 1907, there was another edition produced by E. V. Lucas titled ''The Hambledon Men''.〔 Lucas' edition included Mitford's review and the interview by James Pycroft of Billy Beldham, one of Nyren's particular heroes, as well as pieces by Arthur Haygarth and Mary Russell Mitford, accompanied by Lucas's own commentary on the source material.〔〔John Arlott, ''Arlott on Cricket'', edited by David Rayvern Allen, Fontana/Collins, 1985 edition, ISBN 0-00-637007-1, pp188-9〕 In 1996, during researches for his Hambledon book ''The Glory Days of Cricket'', Ashley Mote discovered a handwritten manuscript of ''The Cricketers of My Time'' which was signed and dated March 1833. A forensic examination was undertaken to determine the age of the manuscript and proved that it was written within a few years at most of that date, which was three months after the serial in ''The Town'' concluded and three months before the first edition of ''The Young Cricketer's Tutor'' was published. In addition, a handwriting analysis verified that neither Nyren nor Cowden Clarke wrote the manuscript, which is believed to have been the work of a professional copyist using a steel-nib pen. There are a number of differences between the serial and the manuscript, but the version in the book's first edition has only minor differences from the manuscript.〔Nyren (ed. Mote), pp.13–50.〕 In 1998, Mote published his findings in a new version of ''The Cricketers of My Time'' which compares the serial with both the manuscript and the first edition.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Cricketers of My Time」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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