Harrie Irving Hancock (1868-1922) was a Massachusetts-born journalist and a prolific author, as well as a chemist. He was a proponent of physical fitness (evidenced here), a critic of smoking at a time when everyone seemed to be lighting up, and an early western expert in Jiu-Jitsu. The book is filled with action photos like the one you see on the cover, intended to demonstrate proper movement. This item joins a growing collection of 19th- and early 20th-century books on fitness in the Watkinson.
We have two of Hancock’s “boy’s adventure” novels, Uncle Sam’s boys in the Philippines; or Following the flag against the Moros (1912) and High school boys’ fishing trip; or Dick & Co. in the wilderness (1913):
http://library.trincoll.edu/voyager/shortcut.cfm?BIBID=530886
http://library.trincoll.edu/voyager/shortcut.cfm?BIBID=530890