Did Richard Canfield invent Klondike Solitaire?

Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), was a prominent American art collector, gambler, and proprietor of several fashionable gambling houses in New York, Rhode Island, Newport, and Saratoga Springs, including the famous Saratoga Clubhouse (aka Canfield Casino).

He is popularly credited with the invention of a form of Solitaire that bears his name - Canfield. From Wikipedia:

It [Canfield] was popularised in the United States in the early 20th century as a result of a story that casino owner Richard A. Canfield had turned it into a gambling game, although it may actually have been Klondike and not Demon that was played at his casino.

Wikipedia, retrieved 12 July, 2023 ¹

Or so goes the legend. Wikipedia is rightly equivocal, citing “a story” rather than events (although it is decidedly less so later in the article).

Two things are clear: Firstly, that the game was not named Canfield, but Klondike at the time it was allegedly played in New York; and secondly, that a dice game by the name of Klondike was played extensively in the gambling houses where Canfield is claimed to have been played.

As you can imagine, these two facts have led to a great deal of confusion.

The evidence is reasonable that Canfield didn’t host the game

1. Well researched accounts of his life concur; anecdotes do not

Several detailed accounts of Canfield’s life that were written in the few decades after his heyday, are emphatic that the game was not played in his establishments:

Many a nice old lady, whiling away a quiet hour with her favorite solitaire, must have shrunk from the neat columns of cards in horror and breathed a shocked “God bless my soul!” on learning where the game got its name. It is true that canfield was never played by the man for whom it was named, that it had no part in the spectacular and illegal operations by which the greatest of american professional gamblers capitalized one of mankind’s condemned passions to the tune of millions. But for the more sedate there is something Mephistophelean even in the name of the person who, 30 years ago, was being held up to the public as one of Satan’s most accomplished emissaries.

The Glamorous Gambler who was “Host to the Nineties”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Vol 82 Iss 261, 25 May, 1930.²
Emphasis added

But possibly 500 years from now his name will live in a card game he never played and which is only theoretically a gambling game

Gardiner, Alexander (1930), Canfield: The True Story of the Greatest Gambler, New York, Life Press Garden City

It is popularly supposed to have been devised by Richard Canfield, but as a matter of fact that famous gambler never invented it, and there is no record that he ever played it or that it was ever used in any of his gambling houses.

The present author made a diligent effort to trace the origin of the game, but ran into a curious maze of confusion, complicated by the fact that there was also a dice game known as Klondike, which was played in virtually all of the second-class houses in New York around 1900.

Asbury, Herbert (1938), Sucker’s Progress - an informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield, New York, Dodd, Mead & Company³.

Asbury, of The Gangs of New York (1928) fame, is a credible source, living in New York at the time he wrote this, and presumably - given his prior works - having access to sources with first-hand knowledge of Canfield’s operations.

2. Too low stakes

The premise of Canfield inventing the game is made further unlikely by the stakes. Canfield was known to have focussed exclusively on a high-end clientele, with luxuriously appointed clubs, and limits exceeding $1000. It seems unlikely that such an operator would be interested in a game that earns a maximum of $52 for the house, and that might take an hour to complete.

The gambler wanted as patrons only persons who were willing to risk considerable amounts and who could afford to lose

The Glamorous Gambler who was “Host to the Nineties”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 25 May, 1930.²

As a benchmark, Canfield’s Saratoga resort averaged about $250,000 a month in net earnings³, and high-stakes players were known to lose over $100,000 in a night:

“Faro, roulette and poker were played in the Canfield houses and the play was high. His roulette limits were higher than those of Monte Carlo, and he often raised those limits when a patron requested it. The gambler wanted as patrons only persons who were willing to risk considerable amounts and who could afford to lose…

…Canfield’s patrons who plunged at roulette included Phil Dwyer, race-track owner, who lost $90,000 in one night at the wheel, and Reginald Vanderbilt, who, according to court testimony, settled with $130,000 for $300,000 in IOUs”

The Glamorous Gambler who was “Host to the Nineties”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 25 May, 1930.²

3. The Canfield name was applied by Harris B. Dick in 1908

Canfield was applied by Harris B. Dick to what was previously known as Seven-Card Klondike, and Gambler’s Delight in his 1908 edition of Dick’s Games of Patience or Solitaire ⁴. He even attached a “Copyrighted” to the name.

This labelling of the game, is almost certainly what led to

Like Napoleon before him

The situation parallels that of Napoleon, where homonyms are confused in one or two reports, a name is applied, and conjecture quickly becomes lore.

And thus today we have Napoleon Solitaire and Canfield Solitaire, despite no substantive evidence of either individual having played the game.

Read more about the history of Solitaire and gambling.