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ABSTRACT
Under the pen-name of A.S. Hardy, Arthur Joseph Steffens was one of the leading writers of boys’ football stories in the first decades of the twentieth century. Building upon the work of John Springhall, Kelly Boyd, Ernest Turner, Dave Russell and Ali Melling, this article seeks to broaden our knowledge of how football fiction first developed. It does this by exploring the life and stories of A.S. Hardy, as well as some of his contemporaries at the Amalgamated Press. The principal sources are original boys’ papers held at the British Library and census records. The article explores three key areas. Firstly, an overview is provided of Hardy’s life and career, placing his work within the wider growth of boys’ story papers and the success of the Amalgamated Press in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Secondly, it explores how Hardy successfully pioneered the writing of stories placed within the contemporary world of professional football. Finally, it addresses how established conventions of masculine and heroic behaviour were adapted and explored within football stories. It will be argued that Hardy played an important part in developing and popularising the fictional football story in its modern format.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See for example, Kasia Boddy, Boxing: A Cultural History (London: Reaktion Books, 2008), Michael Oriard, King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age of Radio and Newsreels, Movies and Magazines, the Weekly and the Daily Press (London: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), Sport and Literature: A Special Issue of Sport in History 29, no. 2 (2009). Jeffrey Hill, Sport and the Literary Imagination: Essays in History, Literature and Sport (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006).
2 Tony Collins, A Social History of English Rugby Union (London: Routledge, 2009), 1–21.
3 John Springhall, Youth, Empire and Society: British Youth Movements 1883–1940 (London,1997), (coordinating editor) Sure and Steadfast: A History of the Boys’ Brigade, 1883–1983 (London, 1983) and ‘Building Character in the British Boy: The Attempt to Extend Christian Manliness to Working-Class Adolescents, 1880–1914’ in Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and America, 1800–1940, ed. James Walvin and John Mangan (Manchester, 1997). Kelly Boyd, Manliness and the Boys’ Story Paper in Britain: A Cultural History 1855–1940 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
4 Simon Machin, ‘Ripping Yarns: The Breaking of Masculine Codes in Boy’s Own Adventure Stories, 1855–1940’ (unpublished PhD, University of Roehampton, 2016). Elizabeth Penner, ‘Masculinity, Morality and National Identity in the Boy’s Own Paper, 1879–1913’ (unpublished PhD, De Montfort University, 2016). Dave Day, ‘Gendering Sport and Health in Victorian Periodicals for Boys and Girls’ (Sport and Literature Association Annual Conference, June 19, 2019), http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/623224/ (accessed February 23, 2020).
5 John Springhall, ‘Healthy Papers for manly boys: Imperialism and Race in the Harmsworths’ halfpenny boys’ papers of the 1890s and 1900s’, in Imperialism and Juvenile Literature, ed. Jeffrey Richards (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017). John. M. McKenzie, Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion, 1880–1960 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017). For earlier works on Empire see Jeffrey Richards, ed., Imperialism and Juvenile Literature (Manchester, 1989), Joseph Bristow, Empire Boys: Adventures in a Man’s World (London, 1991), Mike Paris, Warrior Nation: Images of War in British Popular Culture 1850–2000 (London, 2000).
6 See chapter 16, ‘Vive Le Sport!’ in E.S. Turner, Boys Will be Boys: The story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton, et al. (London, 1948).
7 Ibid., 247
8 Adam Riches, with Tim Parker and Robert Frankland, Football’s Comic Book Heroes (London: Mainstream Publishing, 2009).
9 Alethe Melling, ‘“Ray of the Rovers”: The Working-Class Heroine in Popular Football Fiction, 1915–1925’, International Journal of the History of Sport 15, no. 1 (April 1998).
10 Dave Russell, Football and the English (Preston: Carnegie Press, 1997), 108–13.
11 Quoted in Russell, Football and the English, 110.
12 Alexander Jackson, ‘Footballs Consumer Culture and Juvenile Fan Culture, c1880–1960’ (unpublished PhD, Leeds Metropolitan University, 2011). Alexander Jackson, ‘A.S. Hardy: The Father of Football Fiction’, Soccer History, no. 27 (2010).
13 Springhall, See also Katie Jackson, George Newnes and the New Journalism in Britain, 1880–1890: Culture and Profit (London: Routledge, 2001), 237–61.
14 Boyd, Manliness and the Boys’ Story Paper in Britain, 26–7.
15 David Reed, The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States, 1860–1960 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 86.
16 The Boys’ Realm, September 8, 1906.
17 Statistics taken from a listing of these titles at http://www.friardale.co.uk/index.htm (accessed April 22, 2008).
18 The Boys’ Realm, November 4 and December 9, 1905 for letters from girl readers.
19 The Boys’ Realm, December 24, 1910.
20 Ibid., February 10, 1908.
21 Ibid., July 10, 1909.
22 Boyd, Manliness and the Boys’ Story Paper in Britain, 77–99.
23 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, September 13, 1913.
24 Further information about Hardy’s acting career is hard to come by. The Stage has several references to an Arthur Hardy as actor and director. However, there was Arthur Frederick Hardy who was an actor and director in this period, The Stage, May 20, 1915.
25 Michael Baker, The Rise of the Victorian Actor, (London: Croom Helm, 1978), 83–8, Michael Booth, Theatre in the Victorian Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 100.
26 Mark Hampton, Visions of the Press in Britain, 1850–1950 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2004), 36–9.
27 The Boys’ Realm, October 17, 1925.
28 Ibid., April 22, 1905.
29 Ibid., August 26, 1905.
30 Ibid., September 7, 1905.
31 Riches, Football’s Comic Book Heroes, 21.
32 The Boys’ Realm, March 10, 1906.
33 Ibid., August 28, 1909.
34 Statistics taken from a listing of these titles at http://www.friardale.co.uk/index.htm (accessed April 2, 2008).
35 Jeffrey Richards, ‘“Passing the Love of a Woman”: Manly Love in Victorian society’ in Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and America, 1800–1940, ed. James Walvin and John Mangan (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991).
36 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, September 13, 1913.
37 The Story Paper Collector, No.77. No.4. (January 1962). http://www.friardale.co.uk/index.htm (accessed September 15, 2010).
38 The Boys’ Realm, September 19, 1925.
39 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, September 13, 1913.
40 The Boys’ Realm, September 19, 1925.
41 Ibid.
42 C. Edwardes, ‘The New Football Mania’, The Nineteenth Century 32 (1892).
43 For an overview of the development of New Journalism see Katie Jackson, George Newnes and the New Journalism in Britain, 42–51.
44 The Boys’ Realm, December 24, 1910, The Boys’ Realm Football Library, September 13, 1913.
45 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, September 13, 1911.
46 The Boys’ Realm, December 24, 1910.
47 Steve Tait, personal correspondence with the author, July 2018. The Boys’ Realm, September 12 and 26, 1914, June 5, 1915, September 18, 1915, January 29, 1916 for examples under his own name.
48 Details of Hardy’s writing can be found at http://www.philsp.com/homeville/bjsp/0start.htm#TOC (accessed May 10, 2009).
49 See The Era, September 15, 1906. The Stage, August 20, 1903.
50 Entry at Footlight Notes, https://footlightnotes.wordpress.com/ and https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp139725/dido-drake (accessed February 23, 2020).
51 The lodgers included a lady of independent means and the editor of a trade journal, indicating a certain level of middle-class respectability amongst the clientele.
52 1911 Census.
53 Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837–1915, 1909, Jul–Sep, Brentford, Middlesex, Vol. 3a. p. 192.
54 Based on consulting the The Boys’ Realm between 1914 and 1916.
55 Football and Sports Favourite, September 4, 1920.
56 Russell, Football and the English, 108–13.
57 Reed, The Popular Magazine in Britain and the United States, 171.
58 The Dad’s Own Annual (London, 1993), 60–1.
59 John Arlott, ‘Reading’, in The Footballer’s Companion, ed. Brian Glanville (London, 1964), 414.
60 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, February 22, 1913.
61 The Boys’ Realm, January 15, 1910.
62 See The Boys’ Realm, September 15, 1906 and October 17, 1908, and The Boys’ Realm Sports Library, September 23, 1911 and February 15, 1913.
63 First published in The Boys’ Realm, spring 1908, and then republished in The Boys’ Friend 3d Library as Fighting for the Cup (March 1920).
64 A study of fictional cup-ties and finals would allow for further exploration of the narratives and discourse surrounding the FA Cup as Jeffrey Hill has explored in his article on narratives in the local press. See ‘Rite of Spring: Cup Finals and Community in the North of England’ in Sport and Identity in the North of England, ed. Jeffrey Hill and Jack Williams (Keele, 1996).
65 The Boys’ Realm, April 22, 1910.
66 The Boys’ Realm Sports Library, April 25, 1914.
67 Wexstall Rovers’ summer tour appears in The Boys’ Realm in 1906. See The Boys’ Realm Football Library in 1910 for the Blue Crusaders’ tour and 9 May 1914, for Redcastle FC’s tour of Germany.
68 For Wexstall Rovers matches in Hungary in The Boys’ Realm, summer 1906. The Hungarian team reacts badly to the vigorous shoulder charging of the British players.
69 The Boys’ Realm, November 13, 1909.
70 Graham Pythian, Colossus: The True Story of William Foulke (London, 2005).
71 The Boys’ Realm Sports Library, October 14, 1913 and The Book of Football (1905).
72 This is best seen in the complete story ‘Fog Bound’ where Harborough, impatient to catch a train to an amateur international, becomes involved in a heated exchange with a station porter who does not recognise him, much to the former’s peevish annoyance. The Boys’ Realm, February 1, 1908.
73 Norman Jacobs, Vivian Woodward: Football’s Gentleman (Cheltenham: Tempus, 2005).
74 The Boys’ Realm, February 10, 1906.
75 See also the writing of James Catton in Athletic News and the Sporting Chronicle which frequently presented club histories in similar terms during FA Cup previews and reviews. For a good example see his FA Cup final preview in the Sporting Chronicle, April 23, 1910.
76 A.S. Hardy, The Spy of the Team, The Boys’ Friend 3d Library.
77 Boyd, Manliness and the Boys’ Story Paper in Britain, 71.
78 Dilwyn Porter, ‘Revenge of the Crouch End Vampires: The AFA, the FA and English Football’s “Great Split”, 1907–1914’, Sport in History 26, no. 3 (2006).
79 Joyce Woolridge, ‘“From Local Hero to National Star”: The Changing Cultural Representation of the Professional Footballer in England, 1945–1985’ (PhD diss., University of Central Lancashire, 2007), 189–213.
80 The Boys’ Realm, January 30, 1909.
81 The Boy’s Own Paper, 1933/4, p. 333.
82 Russell, Football and the English,112.
83 Lawrence James, The Middle Class: A History (London: Abacus, 2006), 449.
84 Football and Sports Favourite, September 29, 1923.
85 The Boys’ Realm, September 11, 1908.
86 John Harding, Living to Play: From Soccer Slaves to Socceratti - A Social History of the Professionals (London: Robson Books Ltd, 2003), 7.
87 Dilwyn Porter, ‘Advice to “Footballers-in-the-Making”: Lessons in Sport and Life from K.R.G. Hunt, Muscular Christian, International Footballer, Schoolmaster, Author And coach’, Sport in Society 23, no. 8 (2020), 1388–404.
88 The Boys’ Realm, January 29 and October 1, 1910.
89 A. S. Hardy, Fighting for the Cup, The Boys’ Friend 3d Library (March 1920), 1.
90 The Boy’s Own Paper, 1904.
91 The Boys’ Realm, July 31, 1909.
92 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, May 9, 1913.
93 A.S. Hardy, The Trials of Manager Wilson: A Splendid Story of League Football, The Boys’ Friend 3d Library, No.643. p. 16.
94 A.S. Hardy, For League and Cup: A Fine Football Yarm, The Boys’ Friend 3d Library, No.241.p. 6
95 The Boys’ Realm, February 20, 1909.
96 The Boys’, Realm, August 20, 1910. For other typical examples in editorials or instructional advice: The Boys’ Realm, October 29, 1910, The Boys’ Realm Football Library March 1 and 22, 1913, May 9, 1914.
97 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, March 22, 1913.
98 https://www.efl.com/news/2016/november/efl-remembers-royal-british-legion---the-story-of-major-frank-buckley/ (accessed February 8, 2020).
99 Simon Inglis Soccer in the Dock: A History of British Football Scandals, 1900–1965 (London: Collins, 1985), 1–55.
100 The Boys’ Realm, January 1, 1910, October 21, December 2 and 23, 1911.
101 Inglis, Soccer in the Dock, 6–7.
102 Football Guide (London, 1907), 54.
103 The Boys’ Realm Football Library, December 9, 1911.
104 A.S. Hardy, The Spy of the Team, The Boys’ Friend 3d Library, p. 37.
105 Alexander Walker, The Celluloid Sacrifice: Aspects of Sex in the Movies (London: Hawthorn Books, 1966), 17–30.
106 Joyce Woolridge, ‘These Sporting Lives: Football Autobiographies’, Sport in History 28, no. 4 (2008).
107 See for example, Luke Harris, ‘Sport and the Boys’ Story: ‘Tales of the Stadium’ (1908), https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/general/sport-and-the-boys-story-tales-of-the-stadium-1908/
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alexander Jackson
Alexander Jackson has been a curator at the National Football Museum since 2011.