GHS member and book seller extraordinaire Peter Yagi spoke with George Henninger about his journey to publish More Than Golf: Stories of how the original 1897 Huntingdon Valley Country Club membership shaped Philadelphia and the Nation (Self-Published, 2023 — Paperback, 435 pages, $50).
Q. What got you going on writing all this?
The Philadelphia golf club I belong to was started in 1897. It has a great golfing history — Crump of Pine Valley fame was there, George Thomas Jr. (Bel Air, Riviera etc. course architect), great amateurs (Bill Hyndman, Gordon Brewer, Mrs. Caleb F. Fox, Mildred Caverly), great amateur tournaments such as Lynnewood Hall, which was the longest running male amateur event in the U.S. after the USGA Amateur; and the Berthellyn Cup, a prestigious women’s amateur event that ran from 1911 to 1941. All that said, the club never published a club history. About six years ago I thought I would do that but saw an original 1897/1903 membership list, googled some of the names and said I am going to write about the members not the club!
Q. How long did it take to write?
I tell people five years but it took longer as I put it away a lot, brought it out, put it away…
Q. How would you describe the book?
As the title suggests, More than Golf… although all the members profiled in the book belonged to a golf-centric country club, many were not golfers (the sport was very young in 1897) but all were successful and clever industrialists/entrepreneurs who enjoyed the idea of a club in the country in addition to their many social/business clubs in the city. I have described the book as a history book: some history of golf, some history of a country club (Huntingdon Valley) and history of successful men and women who belonged to that club during the Gilded Age and contributed to the success of a growing nation and the city of Philadelphia.
Q. What is your background?
My background is in finance, primarily in the pharmaceutical industry. I spent most of my career with Pfizer in New York City, London and Brussels. I retired in 2011 when I was 58. The last position I had was CFO of the Pfizer Pharmaceutical business based in Manhattan.
Q. What are your favorite stories in the book?
There are a number of rags to riches stories that I found interesting: Edward Stotesbury (page 129) starting as an office boy ($17 a month) and then becoming one of the founding partners of J.P. Morgan; Cyrus Curtis (page 139) who as a kid started publishing a newsletter and eventually founded Curtis Publishing in Philadelphia (Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post); John Stetson (page 119), sickly as a child, he goes to the wild West and decides the world needs a better hat and creates The Stetson.
Golfers like the story of George Crump and Pine Valley (page 67) where the initial solicitation for members indicated that if you donated $1,000, you could design a hole on the golf course (page 358). Then there is the story of Huntingdon Valley members who gifted the terms “birdie” and “eagle” (page 78) to the golfing lexicon. Another is the story of original member Rodman Wanamaker who was instrumental in the creation of the PGA and the PGA Championship, where the Wanamaker Cup is still given (page 103).
People seem to enjoy the fact that the name of Ian Fleming’s famous spy, James Bond, was inspired by a book he saw whose author, James Bond, was affiliated with Huntingdon Valley (page 166). The Huntingdon Valley connection with the sinking of the Titanic and the creation of the Widener Library at Harvard is one that people talk about as well (page 349). It is amusing to learn that the creation of the “Bloody Mary” is linked to the original Huntingdon Valley membership (page 108).
Q. What is the most historically significant story? You said it shaped Philly and the Nation.
Hard to isolate one story as frankly many, many members contributed to the growth of the US at that time (pages 9 to 11 may be interesting). These members changed retailing, built the ships, manufactured the steel, manufactured the clothing, “invented gasoline,” started the brokerage firms of the country, changed urban transportation systems, were publishing giants, created world class golf courses, designed magnificent buildings, created and shaped “new towns” such as Palm Beach, did the same with Universities (University of Pennsylvania, Widener University, Drexel University) and were involved in some crazy escapades and scandals (see page 148).
Q. How many copies did you print?
My initial order was 100 copies but have now sold slightly over 200. People have been intrigued by the history of the people, their accomplishments across many fields and the fact that they were all at one club in Philadelphia at one time. GHS members, however, may be more intrigued by the many golf-related anecdotes and stories in the book.
