Life Magazine — Baseball Number — July 10, 1913 — Richard Outcault Cover

New York: Life Publishing Company, July 10, 1913. Vol. 62, No. 1602. Large quarto pictorial magazine.

A visually spectacular pre-World War I American magazine devoted to baseball culture, sporting satire, commercial illustration, and early advertising art — highlighted by a dramatic baseball crowd cover illustration signed Richard Outcault & Co.

The identification of Outcault is especially significant. Richard Felton Outcault, creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, was one of the foundational figures of American newspaper cartooning and comic art. His emotionally charged grandstand cover gives this issue importance well beyond ordinary sports magazines.

Issued as Life’s special “Baseball Number,” the magazine captures baseball not merely as sport but as a national social phenomenon. The issue is filled with baseball cartoons, crowd scenes, fan satire, humorous illustrations, and commentary reflecting the explosive popularity of the game in prewar America.

The advertising content is equally exceptional. Particularly notable are the full-page Coca-Cola back cover advertisement, the striking Pabst Blue Ribbon advertisement, the Schlitz Beer advertisement discussing brown bottles, and multiple early automotive advertisements including Locomobile, Kelly-Springfield Tires, and Exide electric vehicle batteries.

Additional highlights include:

• “Any Vacant Lot, Anywhere in the United States” baseball illustration
• “Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy” baseball satire
• “The Apotheosis of Athletics by Proxy” illustration
• “Ball Terms” humor illustration
• “The Champeens” baseball illustration
• “Seventh Inning — Everybody Up” double-page illustration
• White Sulphur Springs resort advertisement
• Men’s fashion, cigar, motoring, and sporting advertisements throughout

The issue has unusually broad crossover appeal across multiple collecting categories:

• Baseball memorabilia
• Coca-Cola advertising
• Beer advertising
• Comic and cartoon art
• Americana
• Early automobile advertising
• Sporting illustration
• Commercial graphic design
• Prewar magazines

Condition: Complete example. General edge wear, creasing, age toning, handling wear, and spine wear consistent with a large-format 1913 magazine. Back cover wear and scattered short edge tears present. Internally attractive with excellent display value and strong surviving color to the covers. Please review all photographs carefully.

An outstanding and visually rich issue of Life magazine combining baseball Americana, Outcault comic-art history, early advertising graphics, and prewar commercial illustration in one highly displayable 1913 publication.

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