ERDNASE

[lybrary]

If you do read German I highly recommend you read the Wikipedia article on Spitznamen (nicknames in German) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitzname

Among other things it says: "Grundsätzlich beeindrucken Spitznamen umso mehr, wenn sie nicht nur treffend, sondern auch ausgefallen sind." It states that nicknames are more appropriate if not only fitting but also rare and unusual. It continues: "Es sei dagegen „sicherlich die eleganteste Lösung“, einen Spitznamen „maßschneidernd neu zu erfinden". Which means it is the most elegant solution to invent a new nickname that perfectly fits the person.

This echoes what I wrote earlier. Don't expect to find nicknames used in books. Most nicknames are unique to the person who receives it. Often combinations and creations which may not necessarily be in use somewhere else. With the nickname Erdnase we are in luck, because we have evidence that it is being used as nickname today. I keep repeating myself, but it is important to understand that Erdnase makes for a completely plausible German nickname. We therefore have to accept it as one very good explanation for the author name. A nickname is after all a NAME.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Are there other German nicknames used as author names in books published in the US in that time range?

[Bill Mullins]

Tom, do you think it would be possible for me to look at that Sanborn map?

PM me your email address and I will send it to you.

[Bill Mullins]

So if you find one that does (especially when it's so contrived and strange sounding like SW Erdnase), then all signs point to there being a reason (not a coincidence).

Bob, you can repeat this a thousand times, but the nickname Erdnase does not sound strange to somebody who speaks German.

It does sound strange to a native English speaker (as Gallaway was, and as his readership would be). And I attempted to say earlier that I think you overestimate the amount he was embedded in German culture. We know that he took (at least) a junior high level class in German, and had neighbors who were born in Germany. You've pointed out that he went to St Johns, a parish established by Germans. But the pastor when he was born and was growing up was Aloysius Hoeffel, who was French by birth.

Yes, Delphos had a large German immigrant population, but the typical European 19th century immigrant worked very hard to become American (as opposed to the stereotypes of some current immigrant groups). From a 1906 history of the town: "To the liberal views held by Father Bredeick [founder of St. Johns Parish in Delphos] can also be ascribed much of the success of Delphos. Instead of holding the views that we would expect of one direct from the old country, he adopted the broadest and most liberal American views. He encouraged those of other nationalities to settle and intermingle with his people ... He wanted all classes and creeds to commingle." Doesn't sound like a town trying to embed a German culture to me.

My reviews of the Delphos papers of the time when Edward was growing up makes it appear much like any other small American town of the era -- the only major German influence I see is a number of German surnames. No indications that the community held onto their German heritage the way that Acadians/Cajuns in Maine/Louisiana held onto their French heritage, or the way Texas Germans held onto their heritage.

You have said, upthread that elements of the case you are making for Gallaway are "plausible". I don't deny that. It is possible that Gallaway thought so much of Germans that he picked a German word to use as a pseudonym. But you aren't offering Gallaway as a possible candidate, you are saying "this is the guy". And for that, the elements shouldn't be just plausible, they have to be probable. And I don't see the elements of the case you are making for Gallaway as being probable.

[lybrary]

Bill, my reference to culture was mainly with respect to language. Father Bredeick the founder and main land owner you mentioned was German. St. John's taught German to their pupils. Many people there were first generation immigrants from Germany or children of those immigrants. That means many people there spoke German. You would probably hear it spoken on the street, just as I hear Russian, Turkish and various forms of Slavic languages when I walk through Vienna (actually you barely hear a typical Viennese slang anymore). If they held on to their German culture in general and ate lots of Sauerkraut and danced in their Lederhosen is not important. But they definitely spoke a lot of German. Kids learned it, thus a German nickname is neither strange nor contrived. I can literally hear somebody shout: "Du kleine Erdnase, was grabst du da schon wieder aus?"

I personally think the German nickname theory is not only probably but very likely, but I will not force my conviction on to you. If it is plausible for you I am already very happy

[Tom Sawyer]

Hi mam,

First, congratulations on locating that University of Illinois at Chicago image. Based on the information in your post, and on what I know about the 73-75 Plymouth Place building (McKinney's location), that image pretty much has to portray the building (though obviously the photograph was taken many years later). An 1899 article in The Inland Printer said that the structure’s dimensions were 50 by 80, and that it was a six-story building. This is the first image I have seen of that building.

Bill Mullins has replied to the first part of your email. It was Bill who confirmed and refined the location of McKinney’s about four years ago, especially with regard to the streets as they existed in the early 1900s.

Concerning the present day, I think you are saying that some part of the building was between the parking lot and the parkway (since there does not appear to be much room between them). I agree with that. Without using calipers, I tend to think that the building overlapped the parking lot completely (or nearly so), and that it protruded a little into what is now the street, maybe covering the area that has the right-turn arrow.

Once again, nice going regarding locating the photograph.

--Tom Sawyer

[mam]

Thanks for the link to this wonderful book on Chicago. I think a lot of card play and gambling took place in Clubs. There is an entire section describing clubs in this book and it mentions "card-rooms". For one club it says: "This is strictly a family club, and its regulations in regard to gambling and drinking are unusually stringent." Which means that gambling was the norm for other clubs.

Here's another similar book, that also has a club section, mostly overlapping with the McNally list:

https://archive.org/details/artisticguidetoc00chiciala

[mam]

Hi mam,

First, congratulations on locating that University of Illinois at Chicago image. Based on the information in your post, and on what I know about the 73-75 Plymouth Place building (McKinney's location), that image pretty much has to portray the building (though obviously the photograph was taken many years later). An 1899 article in The Inland Printer said that the structure’s dimensions were 50 by 80, and that it was a six-story building. This is the first image I have seen of that building.

Bill Mullins has replied to the first part of your email. It was Bill who confirmed and refined the location of McKinney’s about four years ago, especially with regard to the streets as they existed in the early 1900s.

Concerning the present day, I think you are saying that some part of the building was between the parking lot and the parkway (since there does not appear to be much room between them). I agree with that. Without using calipers, I tend to think that the building overlapped the parking lot completely (or nearly so), and that it protruded a little into what is now the street, maybe covering the area that has the right-turn arrow.

Once again, nice going regarding locating the photograph.

--Tom Sawyer

Thanks for the additional info, I've plotted out a 50 by 80 feet building on this map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... sp=sharing

After all, it seems like the building covered the current parking lot exactly.

(Click "Satellite" in the lower left to see the actual parking lot.)

[Tom Sawyer]

An Illinois report on taxation (from the mid-1890s) says 50 by 100 for the address, and I think that is probably correct for 1902.

[Zig Zagger]

Bill, my reference to culture was mainly with respect to language. Father Bredeick the founder and main land owner you mentioned was German. St. John's taught German to their pupils. Many people there were first generation immigrants from Germany or children of those immigrants. That means many people there spoke German. You would probably hear it spoken on the street, just as I hear Russian, Turkish and various forms of Slavic languages when I walk through Vienna (actually you barely hear a typical Viennese slang anymore). If they held on to their German culture in general and ate lots of Sauerkraut and danced in their Lederhosen is not important. But they definitely spoke a lot of German. Kids learned it, thus a German nickname is neither strange nor contrived. I can literally hear somebody shout: "Du kleine Erdnase, was grabst du da schon wieder aus?"

I personally think the German nickname theory is not only probably but very likely, but I will not force my conviction on to you. If it is plausible for you I am already very happy

Being German, having studied it and seeing the debate turn toward German bits (again), I jump at my first chance in years to contribute something useful (hopefully) or at least to unload some of my thoughts, musings and convictions into this most interesting thread.

I applaud Chris Wasshuber for his efforts in exploring new directions by conducting primary research and by applying fresh and rigorous thinking. From what I have read so far I feel his candidate Gallaway ranks well among the other top two or three today, neither way above nor way below them.

Yet I disagree with Chris and others on the assessment of how convincing or even self-evident hidden meanings in anagrams or text passages actually are. To me, they are factoids, in the sense that they do not really help us identify Erdnase now. They cannot stand their own ground because they only "work" in a given, predetermined context. Only in retrospect, once we have found him for certain, we will thus be able to see to what degree these possible hints were actually deliberately chosen by the author, I'm afraid. Some examples and observations will follow.

1. On a general note, language is incredibly versatile - and so is any small group of letters. Thus, a lot of "meaning" can be generated from almost any decent word or name by shifting some letters around, adding or dropping others, etc. In general, this proves nothing but the versatility of words and the alphabet. To illustrate, here are some anagrams I have played with some time ago which you may find amusing (and which hopefully do not offend anybody):

Criss Angel = Caring Less
David Copperfield = Prop Fiddle Advice
Phil Goldstein = Shielding Plot
Pit Hartling = A Light Print
Richard Kaufman = Human Card Fakir
Derek Lever = Revered Elk
Harry Lorayne = Harry-Only Era
David Regal = A Drag Devil
Siegfried & Roy = Fireside Orgy
Jon Racherbaumer = Am Rehab Conjurer / Macabre Hen Juror
S.W. Erdnase = A Nerd Sews / News Reads / Wands Seer / Sends Ware / Draw Sense

Some are fun, some may "draw sense" or even have a ring of truth in them in relation to the real person behind the name; yet I am sure that all of them are purely accidental.

2. As for the word ERDNASE, its six different letters unfortunately rank among the ten most used ones in the English language (ETAOINSHRD) and even among the top eight in German (ENISRATD), allowing for many variations and speculations. Only the "W" is much less common and may thus be a more relevant clue IF there is a connection between the pseudonym and the man behind it.

3. As an aside: Among the possible German variations of ERDNASE I find ANDERS oder ANDERES interesting, as these mean "something / someone other or different". (But, in line with the above, I am not implying any intended meaning here.)

4. The same degree of randomness applies if you are looking for even smaller snippets here and there:
"OddFellows" would end with WS.
"Edward" begins and ends with ERD.
"Alexander" carries at least ERDNAXE within himself.
"New Era Card Tricks" contains TRACK ERDNASE.
etc.

5. Turning toward the famous "Embracing the whole calendar…" triangular section of the title page, any "proof" of authorship taken out of that context becomes even more shaky in my view. The reason: Those nine lines with 41 words and 211 letters include every letter of the alphabet at least once, except for "q" and "z" (so we can at least rule out finding Hofzinser or Tamariz there). Considering this, it is not the least surprising to identify traces of any candidate that you want to find there. Proof: I checked ten random names for fun and found them all, including Harry Houdini, Harry Lorayne, Karl Fulves and Jon Racherbaumer. Both Ed Marlo and Charlier were actually hiding in line one. But my favorite so far: Just look at DETAIL in line three and EVERY KNOWN in line four - and you will clearly see DAI VERNON staring back at you! (He may have cheated about his true age.) In addition, you can get at least DAI VERNOM (and a bunch of others I'm sure) vertically if you proceed like Carlo Morpurgo did some forty pages ago upthread. Seek, and ye shall find…

6. Back to Erdnase and its German meanings.
Yes, I can attest that Erdnase is a German word and I am sure every German would read or identify it as such.
But I would also guess that >90% would neither have heard the word before nor have a clear idea about its meaning. Why? Because it is a widely unfamiliar and obnoxious word.
a) I consider myself well-read, but in decades of reading thousands of books and magazines I had never ever encountered the word before discovering our S. W. Erdnase (yup, that's only n=1).
b) From the many German compound words beginning with Erd- (like Erdäpfel, Erdatmosphäre, Erdgas, Erdnuss, Erdreich, Erdrutsch, Erdumlaufbahn etc.), Erdnase seems to be among the rarest ones (together with its topographical opposite, Erdfall). The word is actually so rare it is not even listed in current editions of the German language bible, "Der Duden," and also not in the "Knaur".
c) Having run some search queries myself I think Erdnase is probably the noun or name with the fewest hits I have ever gotten in any online search.
Yes, there are a few, but even among those I have found some that refer to the topographical "earth nose," (see below) and some to a cute nickname for dogs and others for kids sticking their noses into the soil and getting dirty in their faces.
d) Much better known German synonyms for a dirt-digging rascal or "mudlark" would be Schmutzfink or Dreckspatz, for example (in literal translation: mud sparrows or dirt finches). They may have been around for hundreds of years; I certainly would have bought these terms as "common", but not Erdnase.
e) In my view, none of these words would actually qualify as nicknames in the sense of labels permanently applied to a person (like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - don't ask me why he just crossed my mind) and used to identify him or her precisely; their use is clearly context-based, not universal. I could probably imagine a mother calling out "Get out of the mud and come into the house now, you little dirty Erdnase!", but not "Erdnase, come down for dinner, please!" Thus, it also seems rather unlikely to me that someone would remember a descriptive, contextual and non-personal label like Erdnase or Mudlark as their "personal childhood nickname" and put it to good use for hiding their identity.

7. If you think the above is a stronger point for the topographical "earth noses" miners may be dealing with, behold. Again, there are very few hits in an online search. I have also checked with several mining dictionaries online (not from 1900 or older though), and none of them carried this word nor any other special word with Erd-. And even though the word Nase (nose) has several meanings in other contexts, the "Duden" lexicon does not offer one referring to hills or piles of earth. Besides, wouldn't miners be more concerned with digging holes (Erdfall) than with piling up the soil?

8. I realise this does not help at all in making one or the other candidate more likely to be Erdnase; but speaking of probability, I feel both claims of the German Erdnase meaning are legitimate - they are real words and have apparently been used in that specific context sometime somewhere - but also highly improbable to be of significance due to their rareness (at least from today's perspective) and context-based, impersonal meaning. (Happy to discuss this further in German with you, Chris!)

9. As for the dispute about probabilistic approaches, I think it would simply be great to get Persi Diaconis involved at this point. I am sure he could come up with a both flawless and elegant method for determining the current chance of each candidate being the real Erdnase within less than seven riffle shuffles!

10. Overall, I feel the gaps between knowing MUTUS DEDIT and being Erdnase or between owning a copy and having written the book are still huge (much wider than my crappy pinkie break).

Enough for now - this took me about a day. Back to my backseat, lurking on, anticipating more discoveries!

Jan Isenbart

[Bob Coyne]

So if you find one that does (especially when it's so contrived and strange sounding like SW Erdnase), then all signs point to there being a reason (not a coincidence).

Bob, you can repeat this a thousand times, but the nickname Erdnase does not sound strange to somebody who speaks German. It is not any stranger than Mooshaende or other nicknames like Weltverdruss. You gotta get over this.

As Bill Mullins points out, the name sounds strange to English speakers. And the author surely knew that. That's all that matters. He wasn't publishing the book in Germany.

Also, you haven't answered the key point -- that it's exceedingly rare for a word of that length to spell out a common name backwards (even if you relax the constraint by allowing prepended parental initials). This reduces the likelihood of that happening by chance. It would be different if there was evidence that his nickname was actually Erdnase (or something close to it), but all you've established is that it's possible he had that nickname due to his German heritage etc. Something being possible doesn't make it likely. So, in the absence of such evidence, it seems much more likely that SW Erdnase is a result of intentionally spelling ES Andrews backwards. Hence the attractiveness of candidates with that name or a connection to that name.

[Bill Marquardt]

The author, whoever he was, did need money, because his wife wanted

A NEW DRESS

[lybrary]

As Bill Mullins points out, the name sounds strange to English speakers. And the author surely knew that. That's all that matters. He wasn't publishing the book in Germany.

And what prevents the author from choosing a pseudonym that sounds ok in German and strange in English? Is there some kind of rule that you are not allowed to write a book in English with a German sounding name? Roterberg is just as German sounding as Erdnase. We know Erdnase read Roterberg's New Era Card Tricks. Perhaps he tried to emulate it not just in terms of what he wrote on the title page, which is in several ways similar to New Era Card Tricks, but also in the name he chose. Maybe he thought the book will sell better with a German sounding author name, you know, more authoritative, more knowledgeable.

[Bob Coyne]

As Bill Mullins points out, the name sounds strange to English speakers. And the author surely knew that. That's all that matters. He wasn't publishing the book in Germany.

And what prevents the author from choosing a pseudonym that sounds ok in German and strange in English? Is there some kind of rule that you are not allowed to write a book in English with a German sounding name? Roterberg is just as German sounding as Erdnase. We know Erdnase read Roterberg's New Era Card Tricks. Perhaps he tried to emulate it not just in terms of what he wrote on the title page, which is in several ways similar to New Era Card Tricks, but also in the name he chose. Maybe he thought the book will sell better with a German sounding author name, you know, more authoritative, more knowledgeable.

Nothing prevents it. But it's the overall likelihood that matters, and the chance of this name being chosen is one factor in that. Aside from the possible nickname itself (and the prepended SW part with it's own likelihood), there's then the long odds that the whole thing coincidentally happens to spell out ES Andrews. That's a lot to buy into. Unless there is evidence to the contrary, it's so much more likely that SW Erdnase was derived from ES Andrews. Many names (especially if you allow initials) can spell out something that's pronounceable backwards, along with examples of authors doing exactly that: martin garder => redrag nitram, tibbles => selbit, etc. So this takes no great leap of faith or invocation of longshot coincidences.

[lybrary]

A. Roterberg -> G.R.E. Bretora (Yes a surname that exists. You may google it and find Nakh Bretora.)

Ro. Giobbi -> I.B. Boigor (Another surname that exists. Google to find Benjamin Boigor.)
E. Giobbi -> I.B. Boige (as in Ann Boige)

Astor -> Rotsa (yes, again a surname as in Ani Rotsa. Google is your friend.)

B. Lang => G. Nalb (and again a surname that exists)

P. Anders -> S. Rednap (and again a surname that exists)

M. Anders -> S. Rednam
E.M. Anders -> S. Redname
F. Anders -> S. Rednaf

H.T. Ims -> Smith (the most common surename)
H.T. Imse -> E. Smith
H.T. Imsee -> E.E. Smith (Imsee is actually a small lake in Austria. I also like to take a bath 'im See' which explains my nickname Imsee, but my real name is NOT Smith

What are the odds?! I found these in 5 minutes. Imagine I do this for 5 hours. (Now I need a rednap).

[Tom Sawyer]

In general (not addressing Gallaway), I am one of those who does not see a lot of intrinsic difficulties in "Erdnase" as a nickname.

Whether the nickname theory is as valid as an anagram or quasi-anagram theory, I cannot say for certain. I'm not sure that a good decision can be made about that in a vacuum.

If a candidate has the real name E.S. Andrews, or Wes Anders, that is ordinarily going to be a key part of a proposed case.

But I do believe that the best arguments in favor of the author's name being Andrews stem in significant part from what Smith said, and from what Sprong said, and maybe to some degree from what Rullman said -- and not from the solitary fact of, "Hey, we managed to reverse part of S.W. Erdnase and arrived at Andrews!"

[Bob Coyne]

A. Roterberg -> G.R.E. Bretora (Yes a surname that exists. You may google it and find Nakh Bretora.)

Ro. Giobbi -> I.B. Boigor (Another surname that exists. Google to find Benjamin Boigor.)

Astor -> Rotsa (yes, again a surname as in Ani Rotsa. Google is your friend.)

B. Lang => G. Nalb (and again a surname)

What are the odds?! I found these in 5 minutes. Imagine I do this for 5 hours.

Ok, let's try to be quantitative and data-driven. Here are 33 reversed spellings culled from the 100 most common US surnames (keeping those with 7 or more letters).

nosnhoj, smailliw, nosredna, noskcaj, nospmoht, zenitram, nosnibor, zeugirdor, zednanreh, zelaznog, llehctim, strebor, spillihp, llebpmac, sdrawde, snilloc, trawets, zehcnas, nosdrahcir, nosretep, zerimar, srednas, ttenneb, nosredneh, nameloc, sniknej, nosrettap, notgnihsaw, snommis, selaznog, rednaxela, llessur, niffirg,

I don't see any names in there. It is very rare for a name of any significant length to spell backwards to another name. If you add a couple initials, you've greatly relaxed the constraints. But even with that, it's still extremely difficult to construct common names of moderate length (none of your reversed names are common and most are quite short). But it does make it quite a bit easier to construct some pronounceable yet fake/contrived/foreign names (whether real or not) similar to sw erdnase. For example: LL Essurna from AN Russell, or NA Melocca from AC Coleman. Your examples fit into that category. And even assuming those existed as real names, they would be so obscure in the US in 1900 that it would be pretty obvious that they were just reversals of the author's real name.

As i mentioned, using initials in the author's name gives you more degrees of freedom to find a meaningful derived name. Plus the form and number of those initials can be varied. Your example of Ro. Giobbi (first two letters vs initials) is a good example of modifying the constraints in a plausible way to do that. Or you could just pick a single initial if that worked out better. Or going to three initials as you did with Rotenberg (though that's more of a stretch and suspicious). It's interesting to note that both Gallaway and Sanders used their full first names in the work they published under their own names. Using initials seems to me to be a clue that something's afoot when paired with backwards spelling in the author's name.

Also, interestingly, one name from the list above, popped out at me: nosnibor (robinson backwards) which is pronounceable on its own. And not surprisingly a quick google search reveals people using that as a pen name. And as someone on this thread pointed out a while ago, the same is true of book titles (Samuel Butler's Erewhon being an example). If you see a nonsense or weird sounding name or word and it has a common name/word as its backwards spelling, it's likely that the backwards spelling is the real one.

[mam]

An Illinois report on taxation (from the mid-1890s) says 50 by 100 for the address, and I think that is probably correct for 1902.

Yes, 100 makes more sense as it makes it as deep as the other (still existing) buildings on the block.

[Denis Behr]

Yes, I can attest that Erdnase is a German word and I am sure every German would read or identify it as such.
But I would also guess that >90% would neither have heard the word before nor have a clear idea about its meaning. Why? Because it is a widely unfamiliar and obnoxious word.

I can confirm that. I've never stumbled upon this word anywhere else by chance.

[lybrary]

(none of your reversed names are common and most are quite short)

Bob, you make no sense. Smith is probably the MOST COMMON surname. H.T. Imsee -> E.E. Smith
This is the perfect counter example. Imsee works as a German nickname as Erdnase does. And it reverses to a perfectly normal English surname. Your insistence, that the reversal to a surname is so unique and unlikely that this explains it, is ridiculous. On top of it, it does not factor into the nickname theory. If a German nickname reverses to a common surname or not, does not change the viability of the nickname theory.

If we relax the requirement to an anagram one could fill a book with examples. All this shows is what Jan Isenbart has tried to point out - the flexibility of arranging characters is remarkable. In and of itself it doesn't mean anything.

If you really need more examples here is one that can even be a palindrom:

S.M. Adams -> S.M. Adams (Adams by the way is also a German surname, not only an English one)
S.M. Adami -> I.M. Adams

You may also want to check out the wikipedia article on pen names. You are hell bent on arguing a name reversal is common and thus a likely explanation for Erdnase being Andrews. Check this list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pen_names Reversal isn't a common theme among pen names. Bottom line, the reversal theory is NOT a particularly likely scenario for Erdnase in general. Of course, if you have a candidate like E.S. Andrews then it is a perfectly good explanation. But the reverse logic does not apply. It does not mean that this proves or suggests it was an Andrews.

[lybrary]

Yes, I can attest that Erdnase is a German word and I am sure every German would read or identify it as such.
But I would also guess that >90% would neither have heard the word before nor have a clear idea about its meaning. Why? Because it is a widely unfamiliar and obnoxious word.

I can confirm that. I've never stumbled upon this word anywhere else by chance.

Most people will not have heard most nicknames, because that is the very nature of them. (Read the Wikipedia article on Spitznamen.) They are personal, created for a particular person, and not common names which are widely used. No surprise that people will be unfamiliar with Erdnase.

[Bob Coyne]

(none of your reversed names are common and most are quite short)

Bob, you make no sense. Smith is probably the MOST COMMON surname. H.T. Imsee -> E.E. Smith

You seem to disregard what I actually said. Of course smith (like andrews) is common! That's the point of listing the 100 most common names and seeing if any produced real sounding names when reversed. Imsee isn't common and doesn't sound like a name (it's in the same class as erdnase). Smith is also very short (as I said, I removed the ones shorter than andrews)...It gets harder to find something even pronounceable as as the name gets longer.

If you see something very strange sounding name like HT Imsee that spells backwards to something common lilke EE Smith, you can either conclude a) that the author's last name is Smith (extremely common) and the author realized it could be spelled backwards into something pronounceable as a name (Imsee) by tacking on some initials or b) you can believe that the person had some private meaning for Imsee (or that it's an obscure foreign name/word), and the author chose it among all the other obscure foreign words/names and it coincidentally just happened to spell out Smith backwards (by adding initials). The likelihood of scenario (a) is boosted by the millions of Smiths and the relative ease of getting something pronounceable by reversing it and the likelihood of scenario (b) is reduced by the dearth of Imsee's and the low chance of getting a common name via reversal.

[lybrary]

Of course smith (like andrews) is common! That's the point of listing the 100 most common names and seeing if any produced real sounding names when reversed. Imsee isn't common and doesn't sound like a name (it's in the same class as erdnase).

Thank you for making my case. We are talking about Erdnase here. Not the general reversability of German names into English surnames. BTW, Imsee is both a real name and a believable nickname 'im See' (meaning in the lake).

[lybrary]

Who knows what Morris Martin's at 100 Adams Street in Chicago is? Apparently gambling took place there around or before 1896.

[Tom Sawyer]

Correction: Back on the dimensions of the McKinney building at 73-75 Plymouth Place, The Inland Printer, June 1899, actually has the building at 50 feet by 100 feet. That was when the street was called Third Avenue. I had the length (depth) wrong. I probably got the 80 feet from a post a long time ago by Bill Mullins, wherein he stated that the height of the building was 80 feet.)

[Bob Coyne]

Of course smith (like andrews) is common! That's the point of listing the 100 most common names and seeing if any produced real sounding names when reversed. Imsee isn't common and doesn't sound like a name (it's in the same class as erdnase).

Thank you for making my case. We are talking about Erdnase here. Not the general reversability of German names into English surnames. BTW, Imsee is both a real name and a believable nickname 'im See' (meaning in the lake).

The online US census database containing 150K different names doesn't have Imsee. So I stick to my assertion that it doesn't sound like a name and/or is very rare...which is effectively the same thing for these purposes (low likelihood of it being an author's real name given that it spells out a common names backwards with the added initials). It is just like Erdnase in that respect.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/thesweetestsound/popindex.php

The general principle (which applies to SW Erdnase, HT Imsee, and all the others you constructed) is that if you see an author or title or fictional character with a very unusual or strange-sounding name that happens to be reversed spelling of something very common, then it's very likely that the unusual word/name was used as a stand-in for the other. We have several examples of that: selbit, rendrag, nosnibor, erewhon. Another example is the sorcerer in Fantasia called Yensid (disney spelled backwards). And there's always the Olram subtlety

[Bill Marquardt]

Examples of "nameplay":

Oprah created Harpo Productions

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz created Desilu Productions

This sort of thing does happen. It would not surprise me that "E. S. Andrews" was a word play on "E.S and R.E.W.S." but I cannot make real sense of it other than my concocted theory earlier that the E.W. could refer to Erich Weiss.

What truly amazes me is that Erdnase was able to actually hide his true identity, not only within his own lifetime but afterward. It is not impossible, but it seems unlikely, that no one else was aware of his true identity. It is very rare indeed for such a secret to remain as such. Why has everyone who knew kept quiet? D. B. Cooper comes to mind, so I guess there is more than one example.

And, for what it is worth, there was a man named Edward Arness who lived in Iowa from 1856 to 1919. I know nothing about him other than that, but given that the name Edward was often abbreviated as Edw. in those days, his name could be written as "Edw. Arness," which is another anagram of "S. W. Erdnase." I believe this sort of coincidence could be found ad infinitum if one researches all possibilities.

Maybe we should just be happy to let it remain a mystery, but what would be the fun in that?

[Richard Hatch]

Just taking the "HT Imsee" example: did Chris construct it by taking a German expression, "Im See" and adding two meaningful initials (those of his parents, Hans and Teresa?) and end up with a pseudonym that just happened to reverse to a common American name, "E. E. Smith", or did he start with the latter and notice that meaning could be imposed on the reversal? My guess is the latter, and that is also my guess in the case of S. W. Erdnase. I could well be wrong in both cases, of course.

[Richard Hatch]

It would not surprise me that "E. S. Andrews" was a word play on "E.S and R.E.W.S." but I cannot make real sense of it other than my concocted theory earlier that the E.W. could refer to Erich Weiss.

I believe David Alexander's deconstruction of the title page to arrive at the author's "true" name (W. E. Sanders, according to Alexander) involved reversing a line of the title page:
"RUSE AND SUBTERFUGE" and noting that if we eliminate all but the first and last letter of "Subterfuge" We get "E...S AND RUSE". He argued that this was the author's "ARTIFICE", a false persona Sanders created and used in meeting with the printer, illustrator, etc. to help hide true his identity. Certainly an ingenious theory.

[Leonard Hevia]

I believe David Alexander's deconstruction of the title page to arrive at the author's "true" name (W. E. Sanders, according to Alexander) involved reversing a line of the title page:
"RUSE AND SUBTERFUGE" and noting that if we eliminate all but the first and last letter of "Subterfuge" We get "E...S AND RUSE". He argued that this was the author's "ARTIFICE", a false persona Sanders created and used in meeting with the printer, illustrator, etc. to help hide true his identity. Certainly an ingenious theory.

Alexander's theory is fascinating Richard but I don't remember reading about eliminating the word "Subterfuge" in David's Genii article. Perhaps Alexander shared that with you via private correspondence? David noted that the words "at" and "the" looked really tiny compared to the font size of the other letters in the title page of the first edition. Tiny enough to discard when reading the title page backwards:

ARTIFICE, RUSE, AND SUBTERFUGE at the CARDTABLE read backwards: CARDTABLE SUBTERFUGE, AND RUSE ARTIFICE.

Andrews artifice. I also believe that Erdnase wanted to be followed and left this clue on the title page. It's one explanation for the reason why this book has two titles.

[Richard Hatch]

Alexander's theory is fascinating Richard but I don't remember reading about eliminating the word "Subterfuge" in David's Genii article. Perhaps Alexander shared that with you via private correspondence?

Thanks, Leo, I think you're right about David Alexander's theory and I don't think he invoked the first and last letters of "subterfuge". I think others before him had pointed out the "E...S And Ruse" reversal of the second line. It may even be in the Busby/Whaley book. The "Andrews=And Ruse" idea is not certainly not new but nonetheless intriguing.

[mam]

Who knows what Morris Martin's at 100 Adams Street in Chicago is? Apparently gambling took place there around or before 1896.

Morris Martin was a very prominent con man in Chicago at the time, he is mentioned at a few places in this book. I have not yet figured out exactly where 100 Adams Street was located, because renumbering documents are contradictory, but it most certainly was close to both "Gambler's Alley" (two blocks delineated by La Salle, Washington, Dearborn and Madison that housed a large number of gambling joints and saloons) and "The Store" (half-gangster Michael C. McDonald's empire – "the grandest, gaudiest, and most brazen twenty-four-hour gambling place in the Midwest"). See this map where I've added a Gambling layer that I will start to fill in with known joints, I have a list to begin with.

[mam]

It seems by the way that where Edward Gallaway later had his office, was part of one of the major red-light districts in Chicago at the time: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory. ... /6341.html

Wow, look at these vice maps I found: http://www.artifacting.com/historic-vic ... f-chicago/

[lybrary]

Gallaway certainly seems to be located close to the gambling action. Another book that looks very promising for backround reading is "Chicago by Gaslight" http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Gaslight- ... XS7XQZVZ8F It covers the period from 1880-1920.

[mam]

By the way, I don't think Erdnase gambled at the social, reputable membership clubs. Any kind of artifice, ruse and subterfuge at the card table in one of these would probably mean being expelled, and getting a bad reputation in circles you would rather stay in, why go down that path? Especially if there are a hundred rough saloons to do your dirty deeds in.

[Brad Jeffers]

By the way, I don't think Erdnase gambled at the social, reputable membership clubs. Any kind of artifice, ruse and subterfuge at the card table in one of these would probably mean being expelled ...
Why go down that path, especially if there are a hundred rough saloons to do your dirty deeds in.

And just what do you think would happen if he were to be caught cheating at Hell's Half Acre or The Bucket of Blood.

Better to face possible expulsion from the Washington Park Club than to face the wrath of Blubber Bob Gray or Dago Frank Lewis.

[Tom Sawyer]

Hi All,

A fair amount of discussion in this thread has related to the reversal of names. Regarding S.W. Erdnase, one of the concepts is that, at least in magic, the reversal of names is not infrequent. However, I am not certain of the utility of such discussions, since (from what I have seen) they tend to focus upon the reversal of surnames.

In the S.W. Erdnase case, you are not really dealing with a surname. You are dealing with “SWERDNASE,” or with “ESANDREWS.” This concept had been alluded to at least a couple of times, but I have not seen it explored meaningfully by anyone. Instead, it seems that people are inclined to look principally at surnames.

Again, I am not saying that this has been ignored. For instance, Chris Wasshuber, in his analysis of the name “Smith,” plainly appreciates the importance of this concept, because he did not simply say, “Reverse SMITH and you get HTIMS, so Smith is unreversible.”

Bob Coyne also alludes to the adding of letters.

Yet when I consider examples of magicians who have reversed their names to create pen names or stage names, I see none off hand that fit the pattern of two initials and a surname, reversing perfectly into two initials and a surname. Put simply, this means that (in the case of S.W. Erdnase) you add two letters ("S" and "W") in order to get "Esandrews," but you also have to DROP two letters to arrive at "Andrews."

This has long seemed to me to be a major weakness in the argument that the author's real name must be Andrews.

If you can get past Smith, Sprong, and Rullman, it appears to me that the name-reversal argument is quite far from having been proven. If you can't get past Smith, Sprong, and Rullman -- well, I guess you are sure the author's name is Andrews.

--Tom Sawyer

[mam]

By the way, I don't think Erdnase gambled at the social, reputable membership clubs. Any kind of artifice, ruse and subterfuge at the card table in one of these would probably mean being expelled ...
Why go down that path, especially if there are a hundred rough saloons to do your dirty deeds in.

And just what do you think would happen if he were to be caught cheating at Hell's Half Acre or The Bucket of Blood.

Better to face possible expulsion from the Washington Park Club than to face the wrath of Blubber Bob Gray or Dago Frank Lewis.

Yes, you are right about that, it was a flaw in my reasoning. If we instead were to assume he did not cheat at that kind of place, but at the same time assume he did cheat, then he must have done so elsewhere. Then there are not that many places left except just those membership clubs. And clubs with tradition also tend to keep a tidy membership roll and save it forever, hmm…

[Bill Mullins]

By the way, I don't think Erdnase gambled at the social, reputable membership clubs. Any kind of artifice, ruse and subterfuge at the card table in one of these would probably mean being expelled ...
Why go down that path, especially if there are a hundred rough saloons to do your dirty deeds in.

And just what do you think would happen if he were to be caught cheating at Hell's Half Acre or The Bucket of Blood.

Better to face possible expulsion from the Washington Park Club than to face the wrath of Blubber Bob Gray or Dago Frank Lewis.

But he may have worked for Blubber Bob, or Dago Frank.

[Roger M.]

And clubs with tradition also tend to keep a tidy membership roll and save it forever, hmm…

This is a most interesting angle.

A book like Prus's Road Hustler demonstrates the many different types of gentlemen's clubs and venues scufflers tend to ply their trade.

These Gentleman's Clubs would certainly be the kind of place where a member in good standing might fall prey to the skills of a miscreant - or perhaps be the miscreant himself?

That Mr. Erdnase might be a member in good standing of one (or more) of these establishments in Chicago could be considered extremely logical.

Based on the deep thinking demonstrated throughout his book, Erdnase would have the concept of not burning a game very well thought out, and therefore comfortable in the same game (or games) for months, if not years.