Frank Tousey's How to Box

lklawson

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I just started work on Tousey's "How to Box." My original copy was so old and fragile that it was, quite literally, falling apart as I turned the pages. I decided to unbind it by removing the 130 year old staples. This allowed me to scan the pages without damaging them as much as would have happened had I continued to try to scan it while still bound. the pages were simply breaking apart at the fold point where they were being opened.

278213_2135100744275_1448783936_32341256_383361_o.jpg


Interesting notes, Tousey is the Publisher not the author. The title page doesn't list an author but, instead, says, "Arranged by a Professional Boxer."

The images appear to be redrawn from Donnelly's boxing manual. The text in Tousey's manual is more abbreviated than in Donnelly but at first blush, like the images, it appears to be substantially similar to Donnelly's text.

This could be due to one of two reasons. First, Donnelly could have been the anonymous author, possibly preferring to remain anonymous because of contractual obligations. Second, it could be that Tousey engaged in plagiarism: Donnelly's book came out a few years earlier but was published in London while Tousey was publishing in New York. Tousey might have simply (and likely correctly) believed that it was unlikely that a London published book would be seen much in the U.S. Plagiarism was rampant at the time so this would not be surprising.

This looks to be a fun manual.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 
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Jenna

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I would be interested to know what is contained in the book?

I do not recall having heard of a Frank Tousey as a boxer of note?

I wish you well in your restoration endeavour :) Jenna
 
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lklawson

lklawson

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I would be interested to know what is contained in the book?
It appears to be a Cover of Donnelly's boxing manual

I do not recall having heard of a Frank Tousey as a boxer of note?
Not at all. He was a publisher of Dime books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_novel

He didn't write this. The only question is, is this book an authorized reproduction of Ned Donnelly's boxing manual or did Tousey plagiarize it?

I wish you well in your restoration endeavour :) Jenna
thanks. :)

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 
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lklawson

lklawson

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The text in Tousey's manual is more abbreviated than in Donnelly but at first blush, like the images, it appears to be substantially similar to Donnelly's text.
OK, about half way through now and I can say that it only appears abbreviated because of differences in formatting and page size.

No offence to Donnelly, from whom the text appears to be plagiarized, but I think the reformatting Tousey did is superior to the original formatting.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 

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