The Genii Forum

Richard Evans

An interesting item just sold on eBay. Erdnase clearly 'borrowed' from other authors. One of the most intriguing possible sources is a rare booklet 'The 52 Wonders' by C.H. Wilson, published in San Francisco in 1877. I believe only 2 copies are known to exist, one of which was discovered by Tyler Wi...

Richard Evans

I just noticed there's a new edition of TEATCT published by Hey Presto Publishing. It's a paperback edition with a very nice cover featuring the early Drake design of the silhouetted hands and cards. In another throwback to the Drake editions, the back of the book has adverts for other Hey Presto pu...

Richard Evans

So, a few notes. The date of the portrait opposite the banquet photo is a typo: it's supposed to be 1925, and it's from an alumni yearbook and thus could have been taken much earlier. To be dead certain that Andrews is the guy sitting next to Tarbell at the Banquet, we would need a photo of Andrews...

Richard Evans

Hi Bill. Not at all - I absolutely welcome your comments - all of which are well-made. Andrews is different to other candidates in several ways, age included. I very much hope the article stimulates a discussion and is thought-provoking. Your input is much appreciated!

Richard Evans

Thanks Bill for getting the ball rolling! It's obviously difficult to know how many times Erdnase read, re-read and amended his manuscript as we only have the final version to go by. Andrews' age certainly sets him apart from other candidates, but there are plenty of examples in magic literature of ...

Richard Evans

I enjoyed Mike Perovich’s video and understand the stance he takes, even though I don’t agree with his somewhat nihilistic view of the value of searching for Erdnase. There are two certainties. Firstly, it’s self-evident that someone wrote the book and whoever that was, they have a backstory. Second...

Richard Evans

Richard Hatch wrote:Here's a better link to purchase this (only 9 copies of the hard copy version left!):
https://yeoldemagicmag.com/

Thanks for posting the link Richard. I hope the article will be of particular interest to the enthusiasts here.
BW
Richard

Richard Evans

However, I do have a new candidate to put forward. His name has been mentioned here before - back in 2015 when the McKinney bankruptcy files were found. At the time, he was considered unlikely to be the author of TEATCT. After digging deep into his background over the last 3 years, he has proven to...

Richard Evans

Roger - yes, that's Andrews. mentioned back in 2015 when the McKinney Bankruptcy files came out. He's more interesting than he appears superficially from his career. Tom - At the minute I've got some more work to complete, and that will take a few weeks. There are a few different ways to consider sh...

Richard Evans

However, I do have a new candidate to put forward. His name has been mentioned here before - back in 2015 when the McKinney bankruptcy files were found. At the time, he was considered unlikely to be the author of TEATCT. After digging deep into his background over the last 3 years, he has proven to ...

Richard Evans

I spent some time researching Samuel White Jamieson as I thought he might be an interesting candidate for being Erdnase. There are some good reasons to consider him: - He has the same initials - He filled in the copyright application - The erroneous cataloguing of the author's name being 'Samuel Rob...

Richard Evans

Thanks Tom!

Richard Evans

I don't know of any other titles from Jamieson-Higgins with the taper/'inverted triangle' of text, but I'm sure others will know for sure. They weren't in business for long, so their catalogue is limited.

Richard Evans

My guess is that a major detail that has you saying the title page is strikingly similar to Erdnase, is the funneling style of the text. Forte I believe made the same observation when pointing out the couple of moves that Erdnase apparently stole from the early Wilson text (discovered by Tyler Wils...

Richard Evans

Secondly, several of the titles first printed by Alexander Belford & Co. were transferred & republished by Jamieson-Higgins Co. Among these was a book entitled The Amazons of South America: Thrilling Adventures of Reckless Buccaneers and Daring Freebooters , by C. Montgomery Stevens (1899)....

Richard Evans

Since I’ve mentioned Jamieson-Higgins Co., here’s some new information about the company and its Treasurer, Samuel White Jamieson. Jamieson-Higgins Co. was not Samuel White Jamieson’s first experience of working in the publishing industry. He had previously been involved with another publishing comp...

Richard Evans

And of particular interest in relation to the publication and illustration of TEATCT: The Chicago Business Directory of 1901 shows that both the Jamieson-Higgins Co. and Marshall D. Smith both had offices in the Monon Building. The business addresses of each are given as: M.D. Smith (Artist) 1310, 3...

Richard Evans

Some new information about Marshall D. Smith: Marshall Denison Smith married Alice Stager in Chicago in 1898. The 1900 Census shows Marshall and Alice living together at 5512-5525 Monroe Avenue. In the Census of 1910, Marshall D. Smith was staying with Alice’s brothers at their home on Indiana Avenu...

Richard Evans

Over the years there have been several discussions here about the location of James McKinney’s print shop on Plymouth Place and previous research has been done by others including Bill Mullins, Tom Sawyer and Magnus. This adds some info to what is already known. James McKinney & Co occupied a bu...

Richard Evans

What I find odd is that, in general, the book is very carefully written. I would expect a writer who took this much care to be very particular, especially when selecting technical terms to use. Marty Yes, I agree Marty. There are several ways of interpreting & my personal opinion is that this i...

Richard Evans

I guess these inconsistencies might be insignificant. But it is strange that he didn't stick to his own preferred terminology. Marty Perhaps it suggests he's picking up the terminology from books rather than from talking to people & therefore uncertain what the preferred term is among other mag...

Richard Evans

It certainly does appear to be a simple typo, since the author has the correct spelling in the second instance. But it seems curious that he renames it the "Charlier Shift" rather than using his name for it, "Single Handed Shift" or the conjurers' name for it "Charlier Pass...

Richard Evans

Next, a few comments about the Charlier pass! More specifically, some of you are probably interested in semi-precise publication dates for a few possible works that Erdnase might have consulted in connection with his description of that sleight. In this post, my main goal is to set forth a few date...

Richard Evans

The Erdnase movie is available for streaming now. There's much to enjoy in the movie and I thought that having the same actor playing each version of Erdnase was a nice idea. My only quibble was that there was too much time spent on the Mid West con man Charles Andrews and no time at all given to W...

Richard Evans

That’s a nice find Tom - the Kernan ads definitely haven’t been mentioned previously.

Richard Evans

Thanks Bill - that’d be great

Richard Evans

I should add that the above analysis is not based on a copy of the original image, but a screen grab. There is the potential for distortion/artefact as a result -but if anyone has a copy from US Copyright Office I can re-run it. The R & T in 'ARTIFICE' is definitely different and isn't affected ...

Richard Evans

Here's a second bit of new information: Back in 2015 it was noted that there appareared to be a discrepancy between the title page submitted with the copyright application and the title page of the published first edition . The letters ‘R’ and ‘T’ in the word ‘ARTIFICE’ are spaced further apart in t...

Richard Evans

Good to see you back here Tom - I've enjoyed re-reading your works on Erdnase during the lockdowns.

Richard Evans

I wonder if there are other copyright requests made by the publisher on behalf of their authors. Are they all in the same writing? Or did the authors fill out the forms themselves? Likely an office worker filled it out. But if not, this could be erdnase’s handwriting. Let the graphology analysis be...

Richard Evans

It’s not often that there’s new information on TEATCT or the author, so I hope that this will stimulate interest and discussion. I suggest right-clicking on the links embedded below to open images in a new window. When Samuel White Jamieson from Jamieson-Higgins Co. submitted the copyright applicati...

Richard Evans

Thanks Richard - interesting!

Richard Evans

I can't recall if this observation has been mentioned previously: MD Smith told Gardner that he recognised the lettering on the illustrations as his own handwriting but did not recognise the illustrations themselves. It seems unusual that the illustrations are numbered consecutively in his hand. Wou...

Richard Evans

Thanks Fair about the time it took to track down Smith despite the interest in Erdnase. I've always been uneasy about Smith's poor recollection of illustrating EATCT - despite the years that had passed when Gardner finally located him. Regardless whether or not his first commission, you would have t...

Richard Evans

Yes Bill, For starters, being in the business and affiliations Cobb was in, any of the Andrews in the gambling era at the time...Cobb would have known, or knew about. And in keeping the Ruse, and knowledge of the use of pseudonyms at the time, Cobb would have used a name to throw any pursuers of th...

Richard Evans

What do you think of the following? "As some have conjectured, there was more than one author to Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table. The secret to understanding this is to first reverse the letters in the name of the alleged author, S. W. Erdnase. This gives us ESANDREWS. It is th...

Richard Evans

Thanks Richard and Bill for posting full copyright application.

The typesetting on the sample front page is slightly different to the printed first edition isn't it? There appears to be a much larger space between the R and the T in 'ARTIFICE'.

Richard Evans

The copyright application for TEATCT is hand-written. I'm not sure whether it's been established if this was completed by the author or the publisher (has anyone ever checked against any other book published by McKinney?). However, if Wilbur Sanders' handwriting and that of the copyright applicatio...

Richard Evans

Greetings from a newbie- Wilbur's estate, willed to my grandmother, was very modest, and the documentation I have copies of makes no mention of papers. However, I do have a certified copy of Wilbur's holographic will dated Feb. 18, 1924. If there exists any hand-writing that can be directly connect...

Richard Evans

Thanks for sharing, Andrew. Nice article!

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