PETER C. BJARKMAN (born in Hartford, Connecticut on May 19, 1941) is author of 40-plus books on sports history, including academic histories, coffee table pictorials, and biographies for young adult readers. Bjarkman's recent book, A HISTORY OF CUBAN BASEBALL, 1864-2006 was McFarland Publisher's top seller in February-March 2007 and has been labelled by LIBRARY JOURNAL as "the definitive work on Cuban baseball." His earlier pictorial history of Cuban baseball entitled SMOKE: THE ROMANCE AND LORE OF CUBAN BASEBALL (1999, Total Sports, with photographer Mark Rucker) is widely recognized as a landmark achievement in the field. His related volume, DIAMONDS AROUND THE GLOBE: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INTERNATIONAL BASEBALL (2005, Greenwood), was winner of THE SPORTING NEWS-SABR Baseball Research Award and a finalist for SPITBALL magazine's CASEY AWARD as "Baseball Book of the Year." Bjarkman's 1994 study, BASEBALL WITH A LATIN BEAT: A HISTORY OF THE LATIN AMERICAN GAME (McFarland), earned the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award. He is a frequent radio/television guest and invited speaker on international baseball, plus a regular columnist for the Spanish-language monthly periodical BEISBOL MUNDIAL (New York). A native New Englander, Bjarkman earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics (University of Florida) in 1976, M.A. in English (Trinity College, Hartford) in 1972, M.Ed. in Educational Administration (University of Hartford, Summa *** Laude) in 1970, and B.S.Ed. in Education (University of Hartford, Magna *** Laude) in 1963. He has been married since 1985 to Purdue University linguistics professor Ronnie B. Wilbur, a leading researcher and authority on deaf sign languages, and has two adult children. His avocations include model railroading (HO and N scale) and building the most extensive existing collection of Cuban League game-worn baseball uniforms. Bjarkman is a member of The Author's Guild (2006) and the Society for American Baseball Research (since 1987).

Cuban and Latin American baseball history, collecting game-worn Cuban League and Cuban national team uniforms.