Official Rules of Card Games, The

Cincinnati: The United States Playing Card Company Repaired; Laminate Moderately Peeling; Light Creasing on Front, Rear Covers, Spine; Front, Rear Covers, Spine Lightly Chipped; Spine Slightly Cocked; Edges Lightly Soiled; Heavy Yellowing Due to Age. SUB-TITLE: Hoyle Up-to-Date. Endorsed by Association of American Playing Card Manufacturers. SYNOPSIS: According to Hoyle . . . Some four decades before the American Revolution, there existed in London a number of coffee houses in which the gentry and merchant classes gathered to sip chocolate and coffee, to talk, and to play Whist, the increasingly popular card game destined to be the forerunner of Auction and Contract Bridge. One of the habitués of the Crown Coffee House on Bedford Row was Edmond Hoyle, a middle-aged lawyer. Hoyle became so proficient at Whist that he decided to teach it and forego the practice of law. History repeated itself two hundred years later when Charles Goren turned from law to become America's great Bridge player and author. Hoyle demonstrated the fine points of the game to the lords and ladies of the time for "very stiff prices." In 1742, he published his first book with the imposing title A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, Containing the Laws of the Game, and also Some Rules Whereby a Beginner May, with Due Attention to Them, Attain to the Paying It Well. From 1748 on, Hoyle's books included not only Whist but several other games - eventually, six of them: Whist, Chess, Backgammon, Piquet, Quadrille (a form of Ombre), and Brag (an early game similar to Poker). Thus he pioneered in the authorship of a clear and scientific presentation of the rules, ethics, and strategy of games as we understand them today. His technique was amazingly modern, since he based it on the Laws of Probability, and his principles still are as sound as ever. In fact, his Code of Ethics and Fair Play from the Teatise on Whist is substantially unchanged, although considerably augmented, in the Laws of Auction and Contract Bridge. Hoyle's books were best-sellers in the eighteenth century and his fame was recorded by noted contemporary authors and artists. He was lampooned in a play called The Humours of Whist, As Acted Every Day at White's and Other Coffee Houses and Assemblies. His teachings were mentioned in The Rambler, The Gentleman's Magazine, and The Connoisseur, and in Henry Fielding's novel Tom Jones. Hogarth, the famous British painter, pictured Hoyle on Whist in one of his canvases, and the illustrious poet, Lord Byron, paid him perhaps the greatest tribute of all when he wrote in Don Juan that "Troy owes to Homer what Whist owes to Hoyle." Largely as a result of Hoyle's efforts, Whist thrived not only in the fashionable salons and clubs of London but in the little villages and towns scattered throughout the English countryside. Whist societies sprang up everywhere to band together devotees of the game, and a "rubber of Whist" soon became popular form of home entertainment. His association with card-game rules created such a reputation for Edmond Hoyle that he is now quoted as an authority on Poker, Pinochle, Rummy and Canasta - all unknown in his day. Each new book of rules published on card and board games is invariably called a "Hoyle." The United States Playing Card Company, for example, at intervals over the sixty-four years of its corporate existence, has published fifty-two editions expanding and modernizing the original Hoyle's Games. The last forty-two of these have included Hoyle's name in the title. Because of the large number of copies distributed annually by the Company, this series of publications, now termed The Official Rules of Card Games - Hoyle Up To Date, still ranks as high in the list of best-sellers as did the original many years ago. Little wonder then that when Edmond Hoyle died in 1769 "full of years and honours," his accomplishments had made his name a household word. To this day it is synonymous with correct procedure in anything whatsoever.. Publisher's 52nd Edition. Trade Paperback. Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.