Pinochle strategies1/10/2024 Alexander determined that a college-educated man, with an interest in word play, a background 3īart Whaley, with Martin Gardner and Jeff Busby, The Man Who Was Erdnase, (1991). Alexander, applying the skills he learned as a private detective, first developed a profile of Erdnase based on the style of writing exhibited in the book, and from the language and layout of the title page. Another candidate emerged in 2000 when David Alexander introduced Wilbur Edgerton Sanders to the magic community. Vernon stuck to his guns on Erdnase’s identity, and I believe history will show his prescience. ![]() Each “artifice, ruse or subterfuge” consisted of tiny brushstrokes and, like an expert called upon to distinguish fact from forgery in the realm of high art, Vernon had an eye, an intuitive understanding if you will, for what constituted the hand of the author. Vernon may not have gone to the investigative lengths to find the author as did his friends, but he had a deep insight into the mind and techniques of Erdnase. Many chided Vernon, and indicated that the “old man” just couldn’t come to terms with the fact that the book he had studied for over eighty years was written by such a reprehensible character. MAGICOL Įmagical maven Martin Gardner.3 His friend Vernon, the greatest sleight-of-hand magician of the twentieth century, and the man largely responsible for influencing multiple generations of card conjurors to study the book, refused to accept his friend’s hypothesis. ![]() See Hurt McDermott’s article in this issue of Magicol for a compelling one. There are many theories on why the author used a pseudonym. John Sprong, a sleight-of-hand devotee and gambling aficionado based in Chicago, apparently made this same discovery in the 1920s from inquiries he made. See “Books of Yesterday”, The Sphinx, November 1928. 2 Leo Rullmann was the first to mention in print that the real name of the author was “E. This Andrews was uncovered by a slew of sleuths, the leader of the charge being writer and math-ġ Prior works of influence were Robert-Houdin’s Les Secrets de la Prestidigitation et de la Magie (1868), Hoffmann’s Modern Magic (1876) and Sach’s Sleight-of-Hand (1877). For many years, the leading candidate was Milton Franklin Andrews, a murderous cardsharp. 2Over the decades, many well-known personalities in the magic community-John Sprong, Leo Rullman, Martin Gardner, Bill Woodfield, Jay Marshall, John Booth, Bart Whaley, Jeff Busby, Thomas Sawyer, Richard Hatch, David Alexander, and Todd Karr among them-have tried to unravel the author’s secret identity. Erdnase,” the stated author, was a pseudonym. The subject was the identity of the author of Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, also known as The Expert at the Card Table, the most influential text on sleight-of-hand of the twentieth century.1 Published in Chicago in 1902 “by the author,” it is generally accepted that “S. ![]() Excerpt of letter from Dai Vernon to Sid Lorriane, David Ben CollectionĬan’t tell you who he is, but I can tell you who he isn’t,” Dai Vernon reasoned.
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