ERDNASE

Discuss general aspects of Genii.
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Richard Evans
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Evans » November 4th, 2022, 2:54 pm

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.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » November 5th, 2022, 5:32 am

Hi All,

I was able to quickly (well, reasonably quickly) find (on the Hathi Trust Digital Library website) digitized versions of a dozen titles published by Jamieson-Higgins Co.

None of them had a title page with the obvious inverted-pyramid of The Expert at the Card Table.

Here is a relevant link. This was a "Catalog" search, and not a "Full-text" search:

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/H ... setft=true

—Tom Sawyer

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Richard Evans
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Evans » November 5th, 2022, 10:42 am

Thanks Tom!

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Maigret » November 17th, 2022, 4:03 pm

The first edition of The Expert is for sale.
Estimated price is between 7000 and 10000 dollars.
(without auction costs :-) )

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » November 17th, 2022, 4:22 pm

Maigret wrote:The first edition of The Expert is for sale.
Estimated price is between 7000 and 10000 dollars.
(without auction costs :-) )


Are you talking about the copy in the current Potter & Potter auction?

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Maigret » November 17th, 2022, 4:58 pm

Bill Mullins wrote:Are you talking about the copy in the current Potter & Potter auction?


Indeed.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » November 18th, 2022, 12:24 pm

I just noted that this thread now consists of 200 pages. That particular number may be an artefact of the browser I use, how it loads onto my machine, and my settings, but it may be universal to all readers. Regardless, it amazes me that after 20 years people still have something interesting (occasionally) to say about the book.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » November 18th, 2022, 1:10 pm

A reader has always had the option of taking Chris Wasshuber's ebook and sending it to a print shop for a bound copy. Recently Chris himself has made available a HB version from his store, making it an "official" printed version -- something of interest to book collectors with an specialty in Erdnase. You can buy the PDF + HB for one price, or just the PDF for a lesser price. An announcement email said that if you had already purchased the PDF, you can get a discount on the HB version.

This revives an issue that was brought up years ago -- if you buy the HB, what edition do you have? For the ebook version, he does not specifically note changes in updated versions. You have to do a page by page comparison, or investigate the "created on" date of the PDF file. Will updates occur in the printed version as he discovers new material about Gallaway? Will new versions of the printed version be specifically marked as such (2nd edition, 3rd edition, etc., or "text as of 11/18/2022", or something else?) His announcement email implied that the PDF will continue to be updated, but did not specifically address whether the HB version will be (but since they are POD, why wouldn't it?)

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Kaufman » November 18th, 2022, 2:08 pm

Exactly 200 pages this thread is. Viewed on Firefox.
Subscribe today to Genii Magazine

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » November 19th, 2022, 12:26 am

Hi All,

First, the "200 pages" thing is quite cool.

Next, concerning Chris Wasshuber's printed version of his Erdnase book (as mentioned by Bill Mullins), I haven't thought it through in any depth. However, it's my understanding that so far there has been no charge for an updated version of the ebook for those who have already purchased the ebook.

I can't see that happening with a printed version.

Secondly, if there were frequent updates to the printed version (let's say more frequent than once every five or ten years), citing page numbers might be a little confusing. I suppose that updates could be added at the end, which might mitigate that problem.

Thirdly, book collectors who want a copy of the printed version might find it difficult and expensive to obtain each version (if that is one of their goals). This overlaps somewhat with my first point above.

I have the ebook of Chris's Erdnase book, and I think that's going to be satisfactory for me. Regardless of what anybody thinks about Gallaway as a candidate, there is a lot of valuable information and discussion in the book.

—Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » November 19th, 2022, 1:56 am

Hi All,

Oh, and speaking of the length of this thread . . .

About two months or so ago, I had a little conversation with my daughter regarding this thread. It went something like the following (all of this is just a rough approximation).

I said that the thread was really long, and I mentioned to her that a long time ago, one of the posters said that “we’re starting to repeat ourselves,” or words to that effect. I said that if that poster were alive today, he’d see how amusing it was to have said that, in view of the frequent repetition since then.

So my daughter searched around, but she couldn’t find the post, even with the information that David Alexander was the poster. She tried various search terms.

Later, I, too, searched for it, with no luck.

Very recently, I ran across the post, kind of by accident. Turns out it was from January 27, 2009.

And I just noticed now that David said, “We're beginning to repeate outselves.” With those two misspellings, I’m not shocked that neither my daughter nor I could find the post!

Here’s another thing I think was funny. My daughter said, “How many posts do you think you have on the Genii forum?” And I said, “I don’t know, maybe about eighty.” Later I checked, and it must have been somewhere around 330 at that time, since now it’s at 336.

—Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 5th, 2022, 6:57 pm

Hi All,

As “everybody” knows, there is a reference to “Hoyle” in Erdnase. It has always been a mysterious reference, because no one (as far as I know) has discovered just what version of Hoyle Erdnase was referring to.

I am certain that what I am about to say will NOT answer that question. But hey, it might be of some indirect impact.

Anyway, my friend David Levy will be delivering a talk titled “A Century and a Quarter of Hoyle” to the Bibliographical Society in London. You should be able to see it on Zoom.

Here are some details:

DATE: December 6, 2022 (THAT IS VERY SOON!)
TIME: 5:30 p.m. (LONDON TIME)

I am also stating the date and time as shown in the link below:

6 December 2022, 5:30PM - 6:30PM

To register, go here: https://ies.sas.ac.uk/events/bibliograp ... rter-hoyle

(FYI, I believe that 5:30 p.m. London time is 9:30 a.m. California time.)

I have mentioned David Levy before on this Erdnase thread. I doubt that anyone else even comes close to him in his knowledge of Edmond Hoyle. He has a blog called “Edmond Hoyle, Gent.” Here is a link:

http://edmondhoyle.blogspot.com

—Tom Sawyer

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Richard Evans
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Evans » December 10th, 2022, 7:27 pm

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 Robert Erdnase' might have been an inadvertent slip

He's an interesting character, described by his family as a 'dilettante' who was his father's favourite (the cause of friction with his siblings). He was a conscientious objector in the first world war, who volunteered to drive ambulances for the Red Cross in France.
Beyond those details, that give some insight into the personalities behind the names we discuss here, there is nothing else in his history that would suggest he could be Erdnase.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Evans » December 10th, 2022, 7:38 pm

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 be much more interesting than would first appear and I believe there is sufficient evidence to make him a serious person of interest.

My candidate is Emory Cobb Andrews

I'm considering how best to share the large amount of information I've gathered to support this.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Roger M. » December 11th, 2022, 9:57 am

Richard Evans wrote:My candidate is Emory Cobb Andrews

Zenner and a few other contributors to this thread mentioned E.C. Andrews about 7 years ago.
I believe Zenner thought that E.C. Andrews himself wasn't Erdnase, but that Harry S. Thompson (Zenners candidate) usurped his name in order to conceal his own identity?
He had a lot of information on E.C. Andrews (Zenner hasn't posted here since Jan of 2020, hopefully he's still here?).

E.C. Andrews is a very interesting candidate, and one that, when he signed his name, the "C" looked (to most who commented) like a perfect "S" (as Bob Coyne pointed out all those years ago).
If you read his signature without knowing his name in advance, you would most definitely read "E.S. Andrews"

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » December 13th, 2022, 9:58 pm

Hi All,

Richard Evans: You said—

I'm considering how best to share the large amount of information I've gathered to support this.

It's not clear to me whether you are asking for suggestions, or whether you are just contemplating that on your own. I'm not sure I myself would make any recommendations, but maybe others have some thoughts to share on that, if that's what you are seeking.

I think I can say this much: Basically everyone interested in this thread would like to hear your case for Emory Cobb Andrews. I can definitely say that he had dropped off my radar, though I see that I mentioned him in a post, way back during the era Roger referred to.

—Tom

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Dustin Stinett » December 14th, 2022, 9:08 am

Richard Evans wrote:I'm considering how best to share the large amount of information I've gathered to support this.

Unless you are thinking of trying to monetize your work (which, of course, would be fine, and you would not be alone), this is as good a place as any to share since it certainly has the right audience.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 14th, 2022, 8:39 pm

Dustin Stinett wrote:Unless you are thinking of trying to monetize your work


I've been Erdnasing for decades now. Not rich yet, but soon . . . .

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby katterfelt0 » December 15th, 2022, 10:21 am

Bill Mullins wrote:I've been Erdnasing for decades now. Not rich yet, but soon . . . .

Bill, so you're saying "...but whatever the result may be, if it sells it will accomplish the primary motive of the author, as he needs the money." ;)
Effect and method are inextricably linked.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 15th, 2022, 11:20 am

Sort of. But mainly, I just wanted to say "Erdnasing".

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Richard Evans » December 15th, 2022, 5:48 pm

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 sharing and I'm just looking at those options now.

Dustin - I'm definitely not trying to monetise - too many people have learned that the hard way when it comes to publishing (Erdnase probably did too)!

Andrews is interesting, such as his signature as Roger has pointed out. He's different in several ways to other candidates and that is going to take some explaining and I want to set it out right. Whatever way I share it, I'll look forward to the discussion here.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » December 16th, 2022, 12:33 pm

Name reversals: actor Robert Trebor.

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Marty Jacobs
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » January 1st, 2023, 2:02 pm

My Exploring Erdnase Book Club has started today! This week, we're reading the famous Preface, Introduction and the theory sections on card table artifice. If you'd like to read along with me, you can join a Google Classroom that I've set up to support the club. If you'd rather not do this, you can read the "Exploring Erdnase" posts on my blog.

Read Exploring Erdnase: The Bible of Card Magic

In my first post, I discuss the cover of the first edition, the title page and the curious triple copyright notice. I appreciate that this information is nothing new to most people reading this thread. However, these blog posts will serve as a good introduction to Erdnase for the uninitiated! ;)

Happy New Year!

Marty

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » January 15th, 2023, 11:32 am

A quick update about the Exploring Erdnase Book Club. I've decided to merge the posts on Substack with the Exploring Erdnase posts on my blog. I've updated all of the articles on Substack to reflect this change:

Welcome to the Exploring Erdnase Book Club
Exploring Erdnase Book Club: Show Me the Money!
Exploring Erdnase Book Club: The Mindset of the Professional Gambler

This means that subscribers on Substack can read all content related to the book club in their email inbox (or via the Substack app). I'll continue to post updates to my blog until the end of the month, at which point I'll publish them only on Substack.

All posts are available on exploringerdnase.substack.com, whether you decide to subscribe or not (I would encourage you to subscribe to receive the weekly updates, however). Next month, we'll move on to the instructional content on Erdnase's system of blind shuffles and cuts.

Marty

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bill Mullins » January 15th, 2023, 8:10 pm

Query to the Openai Chatbot:
Who was Erdnase?
Answer:
Erdnase is a pseudonym used by the author of the book "Expert at the Card Table," which was first published in 1902. The true identity of the author is still unknown and the subject of much speculation. The book is widely considered to be one of the most important texts on card technique and deception in the history of magic and card cheating.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Bob Coyne » January 15th, 2023, 9:02 pm

It had to be asked... :-)

Did Gallaway write Erdnase?

chat.openai: It is believed that the person who wrote "The Expert at the Card Table," also known as "Erdnase," under the pseudonym S.W. Erdnase was a man named Wilbur Edgerton Sanders. This theory is based on a combination of handwriting analysis, research into the author's background and knowledge of card techniques, and the discovery of an advertisement for a book by Sanders with a similar title. However, it's worth noting that the true identity of the author is not confirmed and other theories exist as well, such as M.D. Smith or even a group of people behind the pseudonym.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » January 16th, 2023, 4:52 am

Bob Coyne wrote:It had to be asked... :-)

Did Gallaway write Erdnase?

chat.openai: It is believed that the person who wrote "The Expert at the Card Table," also known as "Erdnase," under the pseudonym S.W. Erdnase was a man named Wilbur Edgerton Sanders. This theory is based on a combination of handwriting analysis, research into the author's background and knowledge of card techniques, and the discovery of an advertisement for a book by Sanders with a similar title. However, it's worth noting that the true identity of the author is not confirmed and other theories exist as well, such as M.D. Smith or even a group of people behind the pseudonym.


Wow, well, that's it settled! Wilbur Edgerton Sanders and M.D. Smith wrote the book. Unless that's just what the robots want us to think! Maybe one of these AI chatbots travelled back in time and ghostwrote The Expert at the Card Table in the late nineteen hundreds? I've heard that robots enjoy time travel. Seems like a more plausible argument than Gallaway being the author! ;)

Marty

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Leo Garet » January 16th, 2023, 11:03 am

Following years of toil, trouble and study, I've come to the conclusion that there's only one time traveller in the Erdnase publication era. And that's George Herbert.

I'll be publishing my research to celebrate the book's birthday in a pamphlet titled "The Time Traveller's Strife".

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » January 22nd, 2023, 12:44 pm

I've just posted the latest update to the Exploring Erdnase Book Club:

Secrets of the Professional Card Cheat

In it, I take a look at the first few pages of the "Card Table Artifice" section of the book. I've also tried to include some historical context to make the text easier to understand, along with some fascinating photos of holdouts from the turn of the nineteenth century.

Marty

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby wkalush » February 1st, 2023, 11:12 am

I think that this clears things up:

BK: do you know who erdnase is

ChatGPT (Jan 9 version): Ernest Gaston Safford, also known as Erdnase, is the pseudonym used by the author of the book "Expert at the Card Table," first published in 1902. The book is considered a classic in the field of card magic and is widely read by magicians and other enthusiasts of card manipulation. The identity of Erdnase was a mystery for many years, but has since been uncovered to be Safford.


And based on the number of hits on google for a search of "Ernest Gaston Safford", delving further might be a challenge.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » February 1st, 2023, 4:33 pm

Bill, honestly, that's a big relief. Some will be disappointed that the search has come to an end, but not me.

Finally, this thread can be locked, and we can all turn our attention to other matters.

—Tom S.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Gamolo » February 2nd, 2023, 1:25 am

George Santos was Erdnase.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » February 13th, 2023, 4:44 pm

I just published another update to the Exploring Erdnase Book Club. In this post, I discuss the position for the shuffle and the three basic jog shuffles in the Card Table Artifice section of the book:

Erdnase System of Blind Shuffles

Marty

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Marty Jacobs » February 14th, 2023, 9:01 am

ChatGPT seems to be getting better at answering questions about The Expert at the Card Table:

MJ: But who was S.W. Erdnase? What is the author's real identity?

ChatGPT: The true identity of the author S.W. Erdnase remains unknown. The author wrote the book "The Expert at the Card Table" using a pseudonym and kept their real identity a secret. Over the years, many people have tried to uncover the true identity of S.W. Erdnase, but no concrete evidence has been found to identify the author. Despite the mystery surrounding the author's identity, the book has become a classic in the world of magic and card tricks and is still widely read and studied today.

MJ: Do you think that the book was written by more than one author?

ChatGPT: The question of whether "The Expert at the Card Table" was written by one or multiple authors is a matter of speculation, as the true identity of the author(s) behind the pseudonym S.W. Erdnase remains unknown. Some people have suggested that the book may have been written by a team of individuals, based on the extensive knowledge of card tricks and techniques displayed in the text. Others believe that the book was written by a single individual who was knowledgeable about card playing and magic.

Ultimately, without concrete evidence to support either theory, it is difficult to say for certain whether the book was written by one or multiple authors. Nevertheless, the book remains an influential and widely-regarded work in the world of magic and card tricks.

MJ: But who is the most credible candidate?

ChatGPT: The most credible candidate for the real identity of S.W. Erdnase, the author of "The Expert at the Card Table," has not been definitively established. Over the years, several individuals have been put forward as possibilities, but there is no consensus or definitive evidence to support any one theory. Some of the most commonly cited candidates include a man named Martin A. Nash and a man named Wilbur Edgerton. However, there is limited evidence to support either of these claims, and the true identity of S.W. Erdnase remains a mystery.

It's worth noting that the mystery surrounding the real identity of S.W. Erdnase adds to the allure and intrigue surrounding the book and its author, and many people find this aspect of the book's history to be part of its charm and appeal.

Well, it isn't perfect unless Martin Nash was, in fact, S.W. Erdnase; he certainly was a charming cheat!

I'm mighty impressed with how well this chatbot writes, though. We've been testing it with university exam papers, and it passes, more often than not, with very plausible answers! Needless to say, this technology is getting a lot of attention from academia at the moment. I think this is a very useful technology for magicians who need a little help with their writing. Maybe we could have a regular ChatGPT column in Genii in the future!

Marty

P.S. I've finished tidying up my web-based version of The Expert at the Card Table. Because this has been built with Google Sites, it has a very good built-in search, which should be helpful to Erdnase enthusiasts, historians and researchers.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » April 7th, 2023, 7:56 am

Hi All,

I was looking at some older posts recently. It’s interesting that some aspects of the Erdnase discussion are talked about in detail, and then are dropped, but the dropping isn’t necessarily an indication that the topic has been exhausted. That’s my impression, anyway.

The file folder that Jay Marshall made notes upon was discussed a fair amount, but after July 30, 2015—nothing! (I think.)

One might think that there would have been more discussion of the question of why Jay thought (at some time) that Gallaway was the book’s binder—a question which I cannot recall ever having seen answered.

Another example: Quite a bit of information regarding various Jamieson family-members has been set forth by "mam," and to some degree others. But S.W. Jamieson appears to have ceased being a hot topic, even though he filled out the copyright application and has S.W. as his first two initials.

—Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Roger M. » April 8th, 2023, 12:34 am

I've come to believe that the path to a confirmation of the identity of Erdnase very likely lies somewhere within the contents of this very thread.
It's not obvious, but I believe it's somewhere within.

Going back through old posts, and re-reading some of the longer linear conversations relating to a single candidate or a compound series of confirmed observations potentially gets us onto that path.

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » April 19th, 2023, 5:28 am

Hi All,

I tend to agree with what Roger says in the post immediately above.

But considering the realities of life, I believe it is unlikely that Erdnase’s identity will be uncovered during, say, the next decade. I can’t recall with exactness, but after the various bankruptcy papers appeared (for which Chris Wasshuber deserves applause, regardless of whether or not one likes Gallaway as a candidate), I probably figured that we were entering a new era of Erdnase research.

I was more optimistic in 2015 than I am now regarding the discovery of Erdnase's identity. In my Rethinking S.W. Erdnase, published that year, I said, "Today it appears that the magic world may be closer to a solution to the basic S.W. Erdnase authorship problem than I previously thought we would be." It makes me laugh to think about it, but we may be as far from the solution now as we ever have been.

After all, there were highly interesting references to books and people found in the bankruptcy papers, and Dick Hatch’s conclusion that S.W. Jamieson was the guy who filled out the principal copyright form was both interesting and tantalizing, as were quite a few other facts and factoids derivable from the papers.

But while those papers definitely provide a better-rounded view of Jamieson-Higgins and McKinney, I don’t think they have provided any real breakthroughs in proving that any particular person is Erdnase. I believe that the following idea, or something along these lines, has been floated on this thread: Maybe someone should go to the Library of Congress with a list of books printed by McKinney and those published by Jamieson-Higgins, to examine copyright paperwork in an effort to determine what, if any, other copyright forms (for other books) were completed by the Jamieson chap. But I have never heard of anyone undertaking that task.

There are probably many areas that have more or less been considered dead-ends, which still might prove fruitful if pursued.

That’s it for this post—no, wait! Am I going to leave you without stating a single “new fact”? No way!

If this is not new, at least I have no recollection of seeing it anywhere other than in the source stated.

N.W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual, Philadelphia, N.W. Ayer & Son, 1903, page 147 (via Google Books, from the University of Wisconsin—Madison, digitized by Google) has a listing basically as follows:

Four o’Clock . . . . Monthly . . . . Literary . . . . 1897 [Estab.] 48 [Pages] 7 x 11 [Size] 1.00 [Sub.]
S.W. Jamieson, Editor; Four o’Clock Publishing Company, 324 Dearborn St.

Information in brackets is from column headings. The 1902 volume (also on Google Books) shows a different editor and other differences.

—Tom Sawyer

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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Tom Sawyer » April 25th, 2023, 5:12 pm

Hi All,

This post has to do with William J. Hilliar and (mainly) Drake. There was some question eons ago about Hilliar’s role in Drake’s version of Robert-Houdin's Card-Sharpers: Their Tricks Exposed, or the Art of Always Winning.

I haven’t seen a Drake version, but the Hathi Trust Digital Library has a Powner (Chicago) version showing Hilliar as having translated it. That same source has a London version published by Spencer Blackett (with 1891 on the title page), showing Joseph Forster as having translated it.

I tend to assume that the Powner version just mentioned is basically a reprint of a Drake version. If not, well, this post refers to the Power item mentioned above.

As I understand the facts as set forth by Richard Hatch (in a post on this thread and I believe in a post on a different thread), Hilliar said that he didn’t translate it (a fact that Houdini had pointed out), but that he had edited it.

I believe that someone, somewhere, raised the following issue (though probably not in these words): “How could Hilliar have edited it, since it is a word-for-word reprint of the Forster version?” (I say “since,” and not “if,” because I believe there wasn’t any issue raised at the time as to whether or not it was word-for-word.)

HOWEVER . . .

Although it appears (on a superficial examination) that the two books are almost word-for-word, they are not fully so. There are a fair number of words that were changed from British spellings to American spellings, or so it appears. I didn’t go back and forth between the two books, but using the “search in this text,” the following was true:

London version:
favour 8 instances
colour 6 instances
defence 4 instances

Chicago version:
favor 7 instances
color 6 instances
defense 4 instances

Those are among the main examples I found. There are others as well, and in fact I found a total of about a dozen other examples involving “conversions” of a half-dozen different words. There may well be additional examples that I did not test for. And by the way, I was not hyper-meticulous in this investigation, but the foregoing should be reasonably accurate. There is at least one other noticeable difference between the two books that I might get into in the future, but for now I have already wasted, uh, I mean invested, enough time on this discussion.

Notice that the Chicago version has one less of “favor” than one might expect. That is probably because a noticeable amount of text at the end has been dropped from the Chicago version (maybe sort of "shades of Erdnase," where different page-counts exist).

—Tom Sawyer

Jack Shalom
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Jack Shalom » April 25th, 2023, 7:17 pm

Did Miracle Factory ever actually come out with their Erdnase book?

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: ERDNASE

Postby Jonathan Townsend » April 25th, 2023, 9:30 pm

The preface to the Robert-Houdin book has some similarities to the introduction of Artifice...
https://archive.org/details/cu319240264 ... 9/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu319240264 ... 1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu319240264 ... 1/mode/2up ( <-- from the end of the book)

a decade(?), a channel, and an ocean - but it's not so far away from Sharpes and Flats either.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time


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