The Game of Sphairistike or Lawn Tennis: A Facsimile of the Original (1874) Rules of Tennis »

Players and fans of tennis will find this facsimile of the game’s original rules a fascinating historical document. Until the 1870s, tennis was an indoor sport reserved for the rich. That changed in 1873, when Walter Wingfield published for the first time the rules of Sphairistike, the Greek name he used for lawn tennis. Republished from one of the only surviving copies of the second edition, released the following year, Wingfield’s rules make for an engrossing artifact of tennis’s beginning as a truly popular sport. The book includes press accounts from the period describing and commenting upon the pastime, a price list for equipment, and a list of prominent Victorians who were giving the new sport a try.