Dick Perez Book ‘The Immortals’ Available in E-Book Editions

The Immortals – An Art Collection of Baseball’s Best is now available to fans as a seven-part electronic series through Amazon.com, for iPad, iPhone and iTouch systems.

Artist Dick Perez, long celebrated as artist in residence at the Hall of Fame and for his Hall of Fame postcard art series (Perez Steele cards), brought this book to market last year and it was at once hailed by the New York Daily News as the Best Sports Gift of the year, as well as being a finalist for Baseball Book of the Year in the annual Casey Award competition and winner of the Silver Medal IPPY Award (Independent Book Publishers) for best art coffee table book of 2010.

Now, the book’s 560 full-color pages, which tracks the history of the game through the lives of the 295 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is broken down into seven electronic versions at just $11.99 each, or $83.93 for the full set. This contrasts to the $199 list price for the original leather-bound edition, which remains available with an optional slip case personalized with the buyer’s favorite Hall of Fame player. (The hardcover is also available at Amazon.com as well as at BN.com, Buy.com and Books-A-Million.com).

The book includes historic text from Williams Kashatus, and a foreword by Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. There are a total of more than 1,400 paintings – 402 of them previously unpublished, and 338 never before seen. Perez works in oil, watercolor, acrylics, charcoal and pen/ink, with all variations presented within the contents of the book.

“We have been delighted with the sales, and we’re happy to have worked with Apple to make this available as a digital version to be enjoyed on various hand held devises,” said Perez, who supervised all phases of the books development, production and distribution. “It’s been wonderful how well baseball fans have reacted to this, as they did to the postcard set years ago.” (The set was published until 2001).

The electronic books seven titles include Origins, Deadball, Golden Age, Depression, War and Postwar, Expansion and Modern. See http://itunes.apple.com/book/id446248085 for more information. There is also a free book available, a short illustrated history of baseball which includes excerpts from the seven volumes.

The leather-bound, hardcover book sells for $199, plus shipping/handling, and a 6 percent sales tax for Pennsylvania residents. It can be purchased online with a credit card or Paypal account, or by mail with a check or money order to Dick Perez, P.O. Box 503, Wayne PA 19087. The website contains a sampling of the lavishly produced books, which measures 12”x12” closed and is printed on 100-pound coated paper and handsomely bound in soft bonded leather with gold stamping. The book weighs 10 pounds.