The publication history of Ranjitsinhji’s The jubilee book of cricket

Abstract

In 1897, the Edinburgh based publishers William Blackwood & Sons published the best known cricket book of the early twentieth century, Prince Ranjitsinhji’s The Jubilee Book of Cricket. In this work, Ranjitsinhji, one of the most famous and eccentric of late Victorian cricketers, known for his unorthodox batting stance and propensity for breaking batting records, compiled a personal account of cricketing insight that became a bestseller. Despite it being an iconic work of its time, little has been written about Ranjitsinhji’s text and the process by which a cricketing legend was translated into a bestselling author.