Until I was fully introduced to bridge, I never imagined that any card game could be dissected and observed as finely as some players examine the game of chess. Bridge is certainly one of the most widely written-about card games – and there have been many highly-prolific writers that have made their way through the game.
Some prolific bridge writers have more than 100 books about bridge in their bibliography; as a writer and bridge player myself, I find this to be an incredible feat. (Where on earth did they find the time?) It’s inspired me to take a closer look at bridge writers and their earlier books.
Are any of these earlier bridge books by prolific writers part of your bridge library?
#1: Bid Boldly, Play Safe
- First Publication: 1966
- By Rixi Markus
Rixi Markus was bridge’s first female Grandmaster.
She was known for one victory after another at the bridge table, and outside of this, biographies mention that Markus worked as a translator for the Red Cross.
Markus also received an OBE “for services to bridge” and wrote a column about the game for The Guardian.
Bid Boldly, Play Safe teaches the reader how to do just that, from of the greatest players to ever grace the bridge tables.
#2: How to Read Your Opponent’s Cards
- First Publication: 1975
- By Mike Lawrence
Mike Lawrence has built an entire life and career from the game of bridge after beginning to play as a chemistry student.
His books on bridge have received wide acclaim (and been released to wide appeal!). It’s safe to say that a great number of bridge players today will have learned at least a technique or two from the writings of Mike Lawrence.
How to Read Your Opponent’s Cards was first published in 1975. It covers the intricacies of one of bridge’s most important hands: The ones you don’t see. Unseen Information can be guessed at and calculated accordingly; this book shows you how.
#3: A New Lessons Series
- First Publication: 1960
- By Eddie Kantar
Readers can find player and writer Eddie Kantar at Kantar Bridge, but also every time they open a book that’s been written by this prolific bridge great.
He’s known for authoring Bridge for Dummies – among many (and that’s many) more bridge books.
Currently, he’s one of very few bridge players with their own Wikipedia bibliography page.
Before Bridge for Dummies and all the other books, there was A New Lessons Series, published in 1960.
If you’re wondering, the #1 Billboard song for that year was the theme from A Summer Place. (It’s catchy, too.)
#4: Partnership Defense in Bridge
- First Publication: 1980
- By Kit Woolsey
Kit Woolsey is one of the board-game greats that you’ll encounter through more than just one game. (Backgammon, anyone?)
New Ideas in Backgammon and Modern Defensive Signaling are just two random picks from Kit’s library of written books; by any means, it’s an impressive bibliography to put together during a lifetime’s worth of writing.
Before all this, though, there was Partnership Defense in Bridge, published in 1980.
Oh, and everything said still applies. It’s a great book for anyone hoping to improve their defensive play.
#5: Famous hands of the Culbertson-Lenz match
- First Publication: 1932
- By Oswald Jacoby
Let’s go back just a little bit earlier to another era entirely: The 30s.
Radio, jazz, blues, bridge – and, well, apparently the Great Depression right at the start.
Oswald Jacoby, still one of the most prolific figures of the game today, was playing bridge at its historical peak. Watching bridge (and, presumably, seances) was a huge pastime – and this gives us Famous Hands of the Culbertson-Lenz Match.
The book is everything you ever wanted to know about the Bridge Battle of the Century.