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Brian HodesSABR has two books that profile 19th Century stars (mostly non-HOFers) both are quite interesting.
Also there is a book by Faber that applies statistics to rate the players of the 19th Century and arrives at the conclusion that Bid BcPhee (who was not yet a HOFer when the book came out) was the greatest 19th Century player.
While I certainly didn't agree with this conclusion it was both interesting and edifying to see how Faber got there.
There are also good fairly recent Bios of: John M Ward (2 of them), King Kelly and AG Spaulding..
Nemec, who you mentioned has 2 very good books: his encyclopedia of 19th Century Baseball and a very good book on the old American Association called, I think, "The Beer and Whiskey League."