Comprehensive bibliography of Solitaire and Patience games

The 13th edition is the first known text to describe any type of Patience game.

Two games are described, named Patience, and Cabale. Patience (or Patiencespiel as it is also termed) is described as a game where there are two players, but they play alternately, and third parties bet on the outcome. The (machine translated) description is somewhat confusing, but the general idea appears inline with the theme of Patience-type games.

A 128-page book of rules that was bundled together with playing cards, and sold for 1 Swedish riksdaler in Stockholm in 1834.

It is exhibited at Sormlands Museum.

A very early patience book, containing detailed instructions and illustrations for forty-six patiences. Many of the patiences listed feature in later, more well-known texts.

The author - Józef Wawrzyniec Krasiński - was a Polish officer, master of the royal court, senator, and writer. His introductory chapter offers insight on the perceived history of the game at that time:

Wielka iest różnica między nazwiskiem Pasians (Patience) i Kabała, lubo częstokroć używane bywaią w iednakowym znaczeniu, chociaż ich cel iest wcale różny, gdyż w istocie Patience w iężyku francuskim, wyraz znaczący cierpliwość, oznacza pewne zatrudnienie, służące iedynie do przepędzenia czasu, zaięcia myśli, rozrywki, a nawet kiedy iest, tak zwana kombinacyjna, do ćwiczenia umysłu w rachunkowości i układania planów do uzyskania życzonego swej pracy skutkur kabała zaś, w rzeczywistem swem znaczeniu od dawnych wiekow używana, służyła niegdyś do przewidywania przyszłości, przepowiadania wypadków, wróżenia skutków życzeń i t.p. My tego rodzaiu wróżbiarstwem wcale się nie zajmuiąc, żadnej o nim nie uczyniem wzmianki, oddaiąc się iedynie niewinnej zabawie, czyli opisaniu Patience Cierpliwości, niekiedy Pasiansa, Kabała, lub Kabałka nazwanej. - Początek takowej zabawy iest zupełnie nieznajomy, pewnie iednakże późniejszy będzie od wieku XV. w którym za panowania Karola VI dla iego rozrywki w słabości, karty zostały wynalezionemi, gdy tym czasem kabały wróżbiarskie daleko są dawniejsze, albowiem rozmaitych wrozeń iuż używano w znacznie bardziej oddalonych wiekach za użyciem wody, ołowiu topionego, fusów, ziół, hiromancii czyli przewidywania przyszłości z rysów na reku i za pomocą wielu innych iuż dziś nie znanych nam środków, później Astrologowie z planet gwiazd i lunacjów, a za czasów Rzymian i Greków, z lotu ptastwa i wnętrzności zwierząt i t.p. wróżono, co wypełniali urzędowi wieszcze, zwani Augures i Araspices.

Machine translation:

There is a great difference between the names Pasians (Patience) and Kabbalah, although they are often used in the same sense, although their purpose is not at all different, because in fact Patience in French, meaning patience, means certain employment, serving only to pass the time, thoughts, entertainments, and even when it is so-called combinational, to train the mind in accounting and to make plans to obtain the desired results of one’s work, and the Kabbalah, in its real meaning since ancient times, was once used to predict the future, foretell events, foretell the effects wishes, etc. We do not deal with this kind of divination at all, I will not make any mention of it, devoting ourselves only to innocent fun, i.e. describing Patience Patience, sometimes Pasians, Kabbalah, or Kabbalka named. - The beginning of such a game is completely unknown, but it will probably be later than the fifteenth century. in which, during the reign of Charles VI, for his amusement in weakness, cards were invented, while divination Kabbalahs are far more ancient, for various divination have already been used in much more remote centuries by means of water, molten lead, coffee grounds, herbs, hiromancy, or prediction of the future from the scratches on the hand and by many other means unknown to us today, later the Astrologers from the planets of the stars and lunations, and in the times of the Romans and Greeks, from the flight of birds and the entrails of animals, etc. prophecies were carried out by official seers called Augures and Araspices.

First French text on the game of Patience, and is the ultimate source for numerous English language Patience books that followed.

An enormous number of editions have been (and still are being) published. An enormous number of editions have been (and still are being) published. See direct links above.

This book is primarily a fortune-telling text, but includes a chapter (17 - pp. 118-127) describing the following seven patiences:

• Les Parquets (The Parquet Floors)
• Les Onze (The Eleven)
• Les Quatorize (The Fourteen)
• Les Quinze (The Fifteen)
• La llêpublique (The Republic)
• I.a Bonaparte (The Bonaparte)
• La Légitime (The Legitimate)

It is useful as a reference to understand the fortune-telling origins of the game. Below is the the introduction to the chapter:

Les Patiences sont une annexe aux Réussites, et peuvent servir , comme elles , à révéler le sort des désirs que l’on forme, des espérances que l’on conçoit, ou des personnes que l’on aime; mais c’est plutot un jeu de distraction qu’une science divinabire.

Nous avons cru, toutefois, les comprendre dans notre ouvrage, parce que nous avons eu pour but d’offrir le répertoire complet de toutes les opérations fatidiques. Les personnes qui voudraient expérimenter avec les Patiences pourront le faire de deux manières;

1. Elles suivront la Méthode usuelle que nous allons indiquer, et qui se prêle à toutes les variations que chacun peut imaginer;

2. Elles pourront en vérifier le résultat en lui appliquant les principes de lecture fatidique exposés dans le chap IV, § 2, de ce volume.

Edited machine translation:

The Patiences are an appendix to the Successes, and can serve, like them, to reveal the fate of the desires that one forms, of the hopes that one conceives, or of the people one loves; but it is rather a game of distraction than a divinatory science.

We believed, however, to include them in our work, because our aim was to offer the complete repertoire of all the fateful operations. People who would like to experiment with Patiences can do so in two ways;

1. They will follow the usual Method that we are going to indicate, and which lends itself to all the variations that each can imagine;

2. They will be able to verify the result by applying to it the principles of fateful reading set out in chap IV, § 2, of this volume.

Containing seventy-eight patience games, including:

• 32 games for one deck of cards
• 40 games for two deck of cards
• 3 games for two players
• 3 games for specialty decks of cards

Jonathan H. Green was a famous 19th century card-player and gambler, who later in life – after finding God – reformed and became a vocal opponent of gambling. He was instrumental in enacting anti-gambling legislation in various states and investigating illegal gambling operations. He also wrote several books on the subject, the most famous being The Reformed Gambler (1858)

In his 1857 book - Gambling Exposed - he describes a game by the name of “Solitary” on pp. 220 – 222 as follows:

SOLITARY. — This is a game that is played by but one person. By some it is played, when they are alone, for amusement or diversion only; by others, for purposes of gain. It is played as follows: A person takes a pack of cards and shuffles them; he then lays off cards from the top, turning their faces up as he lays them off. He is not allowed to make more than four heaps until he comes to an ace, and every ace begins an additional heap. He is then to put the cards upon the aces in the order of their pips; a deuce on an ace, and a three on a deuce, & c., until each heap that began with an ace is completed regularly from ace to king. It is of no con sequence about following suit; any card that has the regular number of pips to make the order complete, is propet. The four heaps that began without aces, are only to aid in completing those that began with aces; so that in the end there must be but four heaps. The player cannot go below the top card of any of his heaps to get a card, but must make complete his ace heaps by taking cards only from the top; and when there are no cards on the top of his heaps, which began without aces, that will suit to go on the ace heaps, he draws from the top of the pack until he gets one to suit. Those that will not suit he lays upon his heap that began without aces, and as long as there is any on those heaps that will suit his ace heaps, he does not draw from the pack. This game is difficult to play successfully; a common player might not put them up completely more than once in a dozen times; but I would advise all not to bet on this game; for if a man should offer to bet that he can do it once in every three times trying, he will do it; for gamblers never bet on tricks they cannot perform. This game is said by players to have been introduced by Bonaparte when confined at St. Helena; but it was more probably invented by some gambler in solitary confinement for some of his misdeeds.

Although many earlier English references to the game exist, this appears to the first where the game is described in detail, and also with a “Solitaire” like name.

Carl Jakob Durheim was a Swiss draftsman, who worked as a photographer and lithographer. He was one of the pioneers in the early history of Swiss photography, and authored texts on geography and botany, yet still found time to write four books on patience.

This book contains eighty patiences and a card guessing game. It was published both in German and in French (see below)

Carl Jakob Durheim was a Swiss draftsman, who worked as a photographer and lithographer. He was one of the pioneers in the early history of Swiss photography, and authored texts on geography and botany, yet still found time to write four books on patience.

This book contains eighty patiences and a card guessing game. It was published both in French and german (see above).

This appears to be the first of many patience books published by Kern.

The exact publication date - and author - are unclear. It is referenced in the title of the 1865 book Patiencen Buch…, and is listed on page 422 of the 26 December,1857 edition of the German periodical Illustrirte Zeitung, which states that it:

has just been published by Joh Urban Kern in Breslau

This 1858 listing of Kern publications offers the following description:

This booklet contains a number of interesting solitaire games for the ladies on long winter evenings, the most popular card game

Oddly, a “first edition” is listed for sale here shows a date of 1883.

This is the first English language translation of Madame De F’s Le livre des patiences, and appears to be the first book on Patience published in England.

It is listed as a second edition in Jessel’s 1905 bibliography. It is unclear if this means it is the second edition of this translation (in which case the date of the first edition is unknown), or whether this is a translation of the second edition of Le Livre des patiences.

We have not seen this book, but Cremer appears to have been primarily an editor of books on magic and card tricks, with titles such as:

• The Secret Out; or. One Thousand Tricks with Cards, and other Recreations (1871);
• The Magician’s Own Book (1871); and
• Hanky- Panky : a Collection of Very Easy Tricks, Very Difficult Tricks, White Magic, Sleight of Hand (1872).

The book is described by Ellic Howe in Notes and Queries (1948) as:

a charming little book, but not of great use to the ‘scientific’ player.

This is a comprehensive book, describing 115 games over nearly 200 pages. It is subtitled:

Theilweise aus dem Französischen übertragen und aus verschiedenen Ländern durch freundliche Mittheilungen in einem Zeitraum von 25 Jahren gesammelt.

Partially Transcribed from the French and Collected from Various Countries by Kind Communications over a Period of 25 Years.

A second “Zweite vermehrte und verbesserte” (augmented and improved) edition followed in 1864.

Advertised in the 17 March 1863 periodical Le Constitutionnel as “Boite complète” (complete box)

Later edition by the same name published by Watilliaux in 1897

This book is listed in the 1865 reference Catalogue of Books - Periodicals maps atlases etc. Published in Germany from January to June 1865 (Hathi Trust / Google books).

It is described as a continuation of the 1857 Kern book - Das Buch der Patiencen und Orakel-Spiele.

Described in one sale listing as rare and funny.

The Oxford library has the author listed as Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand, likely because she went by the pseudonym “Madame de Bawr.”, however given that she died in 1860, this seems highly improbable.

Also published in Geneva in 1868.

This appears to be a series of books, each containing one of nineteen patiences. The linked online version contains:

La Tour de Bable, Huit Femmes parfaites, La Cligne-Musette, et Un Diner,

Which we believe translate to:

The Tower of Babel, Eight Perfect Women, Hide and Seek, and a Dinner,

Described in a sale listing:

In this very curious publication, 26 types of solitaire are considered, each of which has its own name: “Desire”, “Sympathy”, “Red and Black”, “Sheaf”, “Fly”, “Monarchy”, “Caesar”, “Sultan” , Vassal, etc. The author talks in detail about the rules of their layout.

Ednah Cheney was a prominent 19th century Bostonian reformer and writer. She championed the rights that many of us take for granted today, and was a vocal advocate for women’s rights, abolition, and free religious association. Her written work encompassed various genres, from novels to memoirs and her own autobiography.

It is perhaps surprising to see a Patience book published by such an author. As she describes it in her autobiography - Reminiscences of Ednah Dow Cheney (born Littlehale), 1902:

”Next came a little book, in 1871, called " Patience " a book of solitaire games with cards. It has been very popular and is an invaluable resource for invalids. The profits went to furnish libraries for the Freedmen. Another book of social games followed in 1871.”

Although not named, it seems likely that Madam De Chatelain’s 1859 translation of Madame De F’s 1842 French book Le Livre des Patiences was the source for this book. Cheney writes:

It remains for me to indicate the sources whence I have derived my information. The majority of these games are taken from a little book published first in France, and afterward translated into English, which accidentally came to my notice.

Republished in 1875, and 1895 with changes and additions.

Despite being published four years after Cheney’s Patience, and fifteen years after Madame De Chatelain’s English-language translation of Le livre des patiences, Lady Adelaide Cadogan’s Illustrated Games of Patience is often described as a “seminal work”, and the “first-ever compendium on patience games”.

It is perhaps the first novel work published in England on the subject, but a number of English-language books were already in print at the time.

Despite it’s popularity, it is surprisingly brief, with 24 games described in only 48 pages. What it does contain, are very clear descriptions of the games, with accompanying illustrations.

Many editions were published in subsequent years, but without significant revision, until 1914 when Lady Cadogan’s illustrated games of solitaire or patience was published.

Second edition of Cheyney’s 1870 text, with an additional 18 pages and 3 games. From the preface:

I gladly take the opportunity of a new edition to make such corrections and additions as four years’ use has suggested to me. These consist only of slight verbal additions to make the text more clear, and of three new games which have come to my notice, and which are very valuable.

There is some contention as to to whether this book is a translation of the French Le Livre Illustre des Patiences, or vice versa.

What seems clear that this book was published first. The book itself contains no attribution, but Kern later listed the author as Max Müller (the owner of the publisher). He is described in his obituary:

On October 1, 1918, Mr. Max Müller, the long-time and meritorious treasurer of the section for fruit and horticulture, died…

Max Müller was born in Breslau on December 1, 1841. Growing up in a respectable family in a mentally active environment, he graduated from the Realgymnasium at the Zwinger at the age of 16 and then turned to the book trade. He spent some of his apprenticeship in the Trewendt and Granier bookstore in Breslau For years he looked around the world, especially in Vienna, Geneva and London, and in 1869 acquired the publishing house of JU Kern in Breslau which mainly published legal, administrative law and scientific works. So the still existing journal Cohns Contributions to the Biology of Plants emerged from the Müllersche Verlag, which played a major role in the history of bacterial research. Here Ferdinand Cohn published his fundamental work on the botanical side of bacteriology and they were followed by the first investigations by Robert Koch on anthrax, which also laid the foundation for medical bacteriology. Max Müller attached great importance to the illustration of the works taken over as an exemplary achievement, among other things, the Weberbauer mushroom plates, which unfortunately remained unfinished.

See the French version for further discussion on authorship.

• 1878 – Second edition
• 1879 – Third edition
• 1883 – Fourth edition
• 1884 – Fifth edition

There is some contention as to to whether this book is a translation of the German Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen, or vice versa.

Looking at both books, they are clearly the same underlying volume. In the preface to this book, Comtesse de Blanccoeur, while dedicating it to Madame la Baronne (both likely pseudonyms), explicitly claims it to be an original work:

Here it is, done at last, even illustrated, this book of patiences we’ve talked so much about at the waters of Baden*… … Do you remember, Madame, one afternoon when the rain was lashing against the windows? You said to yourself, while shuffling the cards: Alas! it’s November weather! It reminds me of winter; you will be in your castle, I will often be alone at home! ha! loneliness! how I fear her! - As for me, I answered you, for next winter at least, I have created work for myself. “And what?” “It’s to put in order the pretty patience games that you taught me, to add to them those that I already knew, to bring them together in a small volume that I would be very happy to dedicate to you as a souvenir.” “So many other women like us will find some resource there against our most cruel enemy, boredom!”

* Baden Baden is a famous spa town in the south-west of Germany, very close to the French border.

Evidence of originality? Or a nice story, possibly penned by Müller himself under the Comtesse psuedonym?

The earliest publication date in various catalogs and book listings for both this and the Kern book is 1880, but Michael Keller’s biblography lists the publication date for the first edition of Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen as 1877.

This date is further supported by a notice placed by Kern in the October 7 1898 edition of this Leipzig periodical, in which they identified the author of the first edition of the Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen as Max Müller, and list its publication date as 1877. The same notice lists the author of the 1885 “Neue Folge” (New Edition) as Julius Rudolf von Beld, Major.

Confusingly, some catalogs (German National / Berlin State libraries) list Comtesse de Blanccoeur as the author for the German edition. In addition to Haar & Steinert in Paris, the French edition was also published by Kern in Breslau.

While it seems clear that the German edition was published first, the exactly authorship is apparently still up for debate.

A Swedish language translation was also published in 1880.

1881 Polish solitaire book listing 80 solitaires.

Names are given in both Polish and French, suggesting perhaps a translation from a French source.

Dick and Fitzgerald were primarily publishers of games, card and magic tricks, and other “amusements”. This is their first Patience book, containing forty-four games and thirty-three full-page tableaux. It was followed by an expanded edition a year later, and a second series in 1898.

In the preface, Dick cites Lady Cadogan’s “elegant English work on Solitaire” as the source for a number of games:

a number of the games have been arranged and adapted from Lady Adelaide Cadogan’s elegant English work on Solitaire, with the addition of numerous games of American origin;

New edition, revised and enlarged, containing sixty-four games. Illustrated with fifty explanatory tableaux. From the preface:

The first edition of this work contained forty-four games and thirty-three tableaux. In this new issue the original games have been subjected to thorough revision, and still greater variety attained by the introduction of twenty additional games and seventeen new tableaux.

All of the sixty-four games, which the book now contains, are plainly described. The fifty tableaux show at a glance the necessary disposition of the cards at the commencement of each game, and serve to illustrate its progress as the play advances toward success or failure.

A new version of Kern’s 1877 Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen. The author is not listed in the book, but attribution was later announced by Kern in 1898.

From the introduction:

Der em ersten Bändchen des Illustrierten Buches der Patiencen ist eine so wohlwollende Aufnahme zuteil geworden daß es seitdem in zehn deutschen und zwei französischen Auflagen und mehreren anderen im Auslande erschienenen Übersetzungen eine weite Verbreitung gefunden hat Dies und die häufigen Anfragen nach einer weiteren Sammlung von Patiencen haben die Verlags handlung zur Herausgabe der hier vorliegenden Neuen Solge des Illustrierten Buches der Patiencen bestimmt sie ist dabei durch verschiedene gütige Einsendungen neuen Stoffes aus den Kreisen der Sreunde und Sreundinnen dieses Spieles unterstützt worden Auch diese Neue Solge hat eine gleich freundliche Beurteilung gefunden so daß sie hier in einer vierten Auflage vorliegt

Machine translation:

The first volume of the Illustrated Book of Solitaires was so well received that since then it has been widely distributed in ten German and two French editions and several other translations published abroad. This and the frequent requests for a further collection of Solitaires The publishing company intended to publish the present new sequence of the illustrated book of solitaires. It has been supported by various kind submissions of new material from friends of this game. This new sequence has also found an equally friendly assessment, so that it is here is available in a fourth edition

We have not seen this book, but it is described as containing “instructions for Playing Fifty different Games of Patience”, and is promoted by the publisher in The Publishers’ Circular, March 1, 1888 as:

An explanation of a great variety of the games known to card players as Patience. A well and explicit little guide…This booklet clearly describes a number of games of patience suitable for leisure hours and is a clearly compiled book of its kind.

– Mr JW Arrowsmith, The Publishers’ Circular, March 1, 1888.

This title appears to be a booklet. It is listed in The Bookseller, Nov 8, 1889, p. 1293, for a price of one shilling, under the heading of New Games for Indoor Amusement, published by E. Mortimer, Halifax, and supplied by most of the Wholesale Houses.

The description reads:

Innocent, Entertaining and Instructive. In a neat box with book of rules and four packets of cards.

It is quite possible that this is the same text referenced in Jessel’s 1905 bibliography under the title Twenty Games to Puzzle and Amuse any number of players of any age., as that title is dated only one year later and also lists twenty games in the title.

We have not seen this book, but it is described by the publisher in The Bookseller, April 7 1888:

A new edition of this excellent little book of card games all of which more or less involve the exercise of that inestimable quality know as Patience The games are specially designed for the amusement and occupation of the young they will however serve equally well in the way of relaxation or distraction for their seniors.

– Mr JW Arrowsmith, Bristol, The Bookseller, April 7, 1888

Subtitled as: “A collection of more than one hundred entertaining games for evenings at home and social parties.”

A fagot is the name given to a particular game or amusement, brought to a “Fagot Party” for the enjoyment of all present. As Hale describes it:

THIS name is given to an entertainment, to which each member of the company invited must come prepared with some game, story, riddle, or song for the amusement of the rest.

Such a series of entertainments was carried on by a company of friends who had long been in the habit of meeting often. The families who composed this lively set lived in one of the delightful suburbs of Boston, all but the Brunton family, who passed their winters in Boston.

The Brunton family were well known in Boston, as living in an ever-open and hospitable mansion, welcoming friends and strangers with genial cordiality, and very glad to share in any social amusement, even though it involved frequent excursions into the suburbs.

The Fagot-parties introduced by this collection of friends brought out a variety of games and amusements, new and old, which are given here with the suggestions and additions of the merrj party as they gave them a trial

Included in the book, are descriptions of the following games:

• Boarded, for two players, p. 200
• Five Faces, p. 268.
• Four Fans of Five, p. 249.
• German Constitution, p. 22.
• Great Expectations, p. 268.
• Idiot’s Joy, p. 56.
• Margie’s, p. 265.
• One on Many, Many on One, p. 269.
• Robert, p. 267.
• Valentine, p. 266

There is also discussion referencing Dick’s Games of Patience and “Mrs. Cheney’s book”:

“Leaving mamma and me,” interrupted her daughter Sally, “to gape over a game of * Patience’ that we have played the last hundred years — "

" Oh! you needn’t play the same game every night,” interrupted Mrs. Fortescue, “if you will only get ‘Dick’s Games of Patience,’ — for of course you have Mrs. Cheney’s book. What should I do without them when Clara goes off to her parties?”

Mary Whitmore Jones was an English author, and likely the most famous and prolific of all 19th century Patience book writers, producing a five-series, 172-game collection of books titled Games of Patience for One or More Players between 1888 and 1900, followed by two editions of *New Games of Patience, in 1905 and 1911.

She also designed - and later licensed for production - the “Chastleton Patience Board”, a device resembling a long wooden box, which is designed to house the cards for an in-progress patience game, permitting the game to be played when a suitable surface is not available, and allowing the game to be “paused” and transported elsewhere as required.

This book is her first, and contains the following games:

Sir Tommy; Picture; Knaves’ Dial; Roll-Call; Puzzler; Travellers’; Grandfather; Push-Pin; Number Eleven; One to Six, or, Duchess de Luynes; Noir et Rouge, or. Blonde and Brunette; Square; Fair Lucy; Nuniher Fourteen; Windmill; Metternich; Sultan; Congress; Backbone; Legitimist; St. Helena; Q.C.; Nivernaise; Salic Law; Blockade; Lady of the Manor; Fifteen in a Row; Conjugal; Sympathy; Domino; Dictation; Hasty; Imaginary Thirteen; King’s; Number Ten; Wheat-Ear; Bezique; Clock; Grabbage.

This is the first Patience book published by Thomas De La Rue, the publisher that went on to author (and publish) their own titles on the subject under the pseudonym of “Tarbart” (see Patience Game).

The Saturday Review, London, January 18, 1890, includes a detailed review of the book, emphasizing that it differs quite significantly from patience volumes that came before it:

In the old-fashioned, and probably best-known form of Patience, which consisted merely of four foundations and four depots, the player was not allowed to look at any of the underneath cards in the depots or to shift the cards from one depot to another. This form ot the game was one of almost pure chance, aided slightly by recollecting what cards were already covered up and where — that is to say, that the exercise of memory gave it the only element of play that it possessed.

To show how radically “Cavendish’s” games of Patience differ from this, it is only necessary to point out that in all of them it is permissible at any time to spread out and examine the cards in the depots and in the rubbish-heap, though not, of course, those as yet undealt from the stock. “Cavendish” disdainfully says, “Patience is not a game of memory."

The bulk of the volume is taken up by detailed instructions for the different games. For each “ Cavendish ” gives a page of diagrams, showing the number and arrangement of the respective foundations and depots, the cards being depicted with their proper colours and pips in the style adopted by him in his ‘well-known treatises on whist and other games of cards. Some idea of the problem involved and of the merits of the particular game may thus be gained by a mere glance at the diagram. On the page opposite are placed the rules, followed by an example, together with its solution, in which every move is given by a concise system of coloured notation. Next come some hints for play, with especial reference to the game under consideration ; and, lastly, there is generally a Patience Problem, accompanied by the notation for its solution.

Second in the series of Jones’ classic text, containing the following games:

Distribution Patience; Odds And Evens Patience; Star Patience; Fortune-Telling Patience; Pairs Patience; Grandfather’s Clock Patience; Watch Patience; Haden Patience; Squaring The Circle Patience; Four-Corner Patience; Corner Patience; Prison Patience; Stop Patience; Block Eleven Patience.

Michael Keller cites this magazine in his bibliograpy and postulates that “Devonia” is none other than Mary Whitemore Jones. This is further supported by the donation of Honiton Lace-Making by “Devonia”, to the National Art Library, by Miss Jones in 1873.

Keller helpfully lists the games, which are all from Jones’ third series:

• Octave p. 22
• Brigade p. 148
• Problem p. 258
• Block Tan p. 271
• The Queen and Her Lad p. 319
• Colours p. 448
• Missing-Link p. 459
• Scotch p. 550
• Burleigh p. 579
• Demon p. 671,
• Vanbrugh p. 873

The magazine itself, as described by Globe:

Published three times weekly, viz., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, contains much useful and entertaining matter ou Art, Mechanics, Travel, Live Stock, Needlework, Gardening, Literature, Sport, &c, for Amateurs; and affords an unique and unrivalled medium for procuring or disposing of every description of property. “Like all grand conceptions the process is remarkable tor its simplicity” – Globe.

This comprehensive 628-page volume on both card and table games includes a 19-page section on “Patience Games (or Games for One Player).

The games are divided into “Games of Chance”, and “Games combining Chance and Skill”, and appear to have little overlap with Hoffmann’s primary patience text - The Illustrated Book of Patience Games - published the following year..

Referenced in several bibliographies. Specifically, in Hoffmann’s “The Illustrated Book fo Patience Games”, he quotes “Dr. Pole, in the Cyclopedia of Card and Table Games. Tit., Patience Games”.

Hoffman (Angelo John Lewis, a barrister and writer) was a recognized authority on card games and magic tricks and a prolific author on the topic. As lybrary.com describe him:

In 1873 he undertook a series of articles titled ‘Modern Magic’ for Routledge’s every boy’s annual, which launched his career as the most prolific and influential magic author and translator until modern times.

This book - his first on the topic - describes 63-games, and is “reviewed” in The Christmas Bookseller, 1891:

Professor Hoffmann is such an authority on all matters connected with card playing and card tricks that as in ancient Rome when he lays down a law there is no more to be said This book of patience games is a translation from the German but Professor Hoffmann in translating has edited where he found it necessary and the volume now forms probably the most complete and trustworthy guide upon the subject extant in the English language.

Similarly, from The Christmas Bookshelf, 1891:

A gift that will be much appreciated and is specially appropriate for old or invalid friends may be found in “The Illustrated Book of Patience Games,” by Prof. Hoffmann, the most complete set of solitaire games thus far arranged, with diagrams of every game tastefully printed in red and black on a red-bordered page.

The book itself has the following description in the introduction:

The games described in the following pages are of varying degrees of difficulty, but no attempt has been made to classify them, save by reference to the number of cards employed. Those played with the piquet pack are first described; then those with a single whist pack, and finally those for which two whist packs are necessary. It may now and then strike the reader that the instructions given are almost unnecessarily minute. For this peculiarity the German original must be held responsible. If it be a fault, it is one on the right side, and it has been thought wiser to make no attempt to correct it.

This book was reprinted many times, although no significant updates appear to have been made. Jessel’s 1905 bibliography lists a second edition in 1900, but the undated tenth edition shows no apparent changes. Furthermore, the entry in the English Catalogue of Books for 1900 lists the book as “2nd ed.” with the page count is the same as the first.

Paul Wilstach was an American author, born in 1870. His books were primarily non-fiction, covering the history and geography of various areas, but he also authored biographies and various unpublished plays.

At the age of twenty-one, he published this Solitaire book, apparently his first publication, and also the last for many years.

The book is not widely referenced and given the publication timing, one can imagine it contains a collation of other authors’ work.

Third in the series of Jones’ classic text, containing the following games:

Octave; Cover; Brigade; Following; Problem; Colours; Missing- Link; Demon; The Queen and Her Lad; Block Ten; Scotch; The Burleigh; Vanbrugh; Above and Below; American Toad; Halma; Display; Grand Round; Wheel-of- Fortune; Matrimonial; Triangle; Lady Betty; Primrose; Double Pyramid; Gemini; Chequers; Doublets; Alternate; The VVaning-Moon; Ninety-One; Court Puzzle; Reverse Puzzle; Ten-to-Five Puzzle.

Third edition of Cheney’s 1870 text, adding another 41 pages and 17 games over the second edition. From the preface:

In bringing out a new edition of my little book, I have taken the opportunity to make a few explanations of difficulties which have been reported to me in regard to the old games, as well as to add new ones.

We have not seen this book, only references in a few catalogs.

Cady appears to have been quite a prolific author of books on games, with several titles on backgammon, checkers, etc. published in the late 19th century. She is also described as playwrite, translator, and historian, and appears to have been a suffragist and strong advocate for women’s rights.

Chapter six of this Encyclopedia of card games is dedicated to patience games, with a full description of sixteen patience games:

• Le treize
• Les six paquets
• La blocade
• Le carré
• La patience de Sainte-Hélene
• La brune et la blonde
• La patience pâtience
• La mazas
• La réussite du piquet
• La chaîne des dames
• Les seize paquets
• La tercet
• La mère Michel
• La consolation
• L’Impériale
• La crapette

Second in the series, containing “seventy games illustrated with sixty-six tableaux”, and edited by Harris B. Dick. From the preface:

When the first series of sixty-four games was issued, it was supposed to fulfil all the requirements of the most ardent votaries of Solitaire ; but it appears to have created a demand for “fresh fields and pastures new,” to satisfy the desire for still greater varieties.

To meet this demand, seventy attractive games are here offered to the devotees of Solitaire; and, as none of the games in the first volume have been duplicated in this series, it is hoped that this ample addition to their repertory will meet with their approval and satisfy their most exacting desires.

Fourth in the series of Jones’ classic text, containing the following games:

Casket; The Dog; Khedive; Caledonian; Rosamond’s Bower; Obstruction; Blind; Dowager’s; Maria; Bisley; Contending Knights; Grandmamma’s; Barton; Heads-and-Tails; Cable; Colonel; Triplets; Giant; Princess; Hobbled; New York; Somerset; Progressive; Czarina; Chastleton; Triple Alliance; Limited; Hammer of Tlior; S; Vacuum; Marriage; Antipathy; " Up to the Nines"; The General’s; Gateway; German; Uncle Walter’s.

Mary Whitmore Jones was the inventor of the “Chastleton Patience Board”, a device resembling a long wooden box, which is designed to house the cards for an in-progress patience game, permitting the game to be played when a suitable surface is not available, and allowing the game to be “paused” and transported elsewhere as required.

The device was manufactured by John Jaques & Son starting in 1898, and included this booklet.

Michael Keller describes this book as being devoted to a single variant of the game, namely Prison as later described in Whitmore Jone’s Third Series.

From an advertisement in the 1899 periodical Über Land und Meer:

Eine Sammlung von ausgewählten Problemen dieser fesselndsten und schwierigsten Patience deren jedes in auf und absteigender Ordnung lösbar ist Jeder Freund des Patiencespiels wird in dieser Sammlung eine reiche Quelle neuer Anregung und eigenartiger Zerstreuung finden

Machine translation:

A collection of selected problems of this most fascinating and difficult solitaire, each of which can be solved in ascending and descending order. Every friend of the solitaire game will find a rich source of new stimulation and unique distraction in this collection

Subtitled: “Containing 31 different solitaires for one and two players with one and two decks of cards. In addition to instructions on how to thoroughly learn how to play dominoes”.

WorldCat (and the catalog of the University of Frankfurt) lists a 60-page 1864 edition by the same publisher.

Very little information availabe on this title. Listed in catalogs as “collected and edited by M..h.”.

A sale listing states that it contains 45 patiences including: Rouge et noir, Quatre coins, Der Halbmond, La belle Lucie, Die Blockade , Le crapaud, Der Kürassier, Die Promenade, Le salon des Dames, Die Insel Elba.

Fifth in the series of Jones’ classic text, containing the following games:

• Ladies’ Battle; Cripette; Divorce; Fairport; HerringBone; Stonewall; Rovers; Thumb-and-Pouch; Miss Milligan; ThreeUp; Nines; Word; Club; Great Wheel; Tramp; Cock-o’-the-North; Tribuse; Ladder; Right-and-Left; Indian; Milton; Seventh Wonder; Drivel; The Round Dozen; Jubilee; Drop; Rows of Four; HiggledyPiggledy; Monte Carlo; Narcotic.*

The five series were also published in a single, almost 500-page volume and released in the same year by L. Upcott Gill

This book is listed in Jessel’s 1905 bibliography, but no other references could be found. It is apparently a 57-page book, suggesting it is perhaps an earlier version of his 63-page, 1916 title Selected Patience Games.

A slightly expanded (61-page) second series was apparently followed one year later in 1901, although this could also not be verified.

This is assumed to be the French translation of the German book “Zweihundert Napoleon Patiencen”, given the likely first publication date of 1900. It is described in the 10 December, 1901 Le Journal des chambres de commerce:

Comme il est presque impossible de se rappeler toujours exactement cette place, quand un certain nombre de cartes ont été dérangées, l’auteur de ce livre a, voulant, aider la mémoire, choisi deux cents patiences comme particulièrement attrayantes parmi une plus grande quantité qu’il a composée, el en a fixé, sur le modèle qui figure à la page suivanle. les tableaux de sorte que les cartes des séries peuvent en foule occasion être remises avec précision à la-place où elles étaient au début.

…

Ces deux cents patiences seront pour les amateurs de ce genre de jeu comme une collection de problèmes, — analogues aux problèmes d’échecs,— sur lesquels ils pourront exercer leur sagacité el leur patience, assurés que, s’ils procèdent d’une manière exacte, ils en trouveront, immanquablement la solution dans l’ordre ascendant, et dans l’ordre descendant.

Machine translation:

As it is almost impossible always to remember exactly this place, when a certain number of cards have been disturbed, the author of this book has, wishing to aid the memory, chosen two hundred patiences as particularly attractive from a greater quantity than he composed, and fixed some, on the model which appears on the following page. the tableaus so that the cards of the series can on many occasions be returned precisely to the place where they were at the beginning.

…

These two hundred patiences will be for the amateurs of this kind of game like a collection of problems, — analogues to chess problems—on which they can practice their sagacity and their patience, assured that, if they proceed from a exact way, they will inevitably find the solution in ascending order, and in descending order.

Sandwiched between several poems, and an article titled How I Became a Housekeeper, this six-page article in volume 9 of The Puritan (A Journal for Gentlewomen) magazine describes:

Nine varieties of a very pleasant and restful amusement for the idle or the overtired who are condemned to solitude.

The nine varieties include one and two-pack games, but only five are named:

• The Great Napoleon (one-pack)
• Number Eleven Patience (one-pack).
• Push Pin Patience (two-pack)
• Number Fourteen Patience (two-pack)
• Picture Patience (two-pack)

Following on from his publication of Cavendish’s book ten years earlier, Thomas De la Rue authored and published his own book on the subject under the pseudonym “Tarbart”.

The book describes 46 one and two pack patience games.

A substantially updated second edition was published 5 years later.

Mabel Virginia Anna Bent was a writer, photographer, and explorer, who - together with her husband - traveled extensively around Africa, the Mediterranean, and Arabia, producing multiple travel books documenting the experience. She also penned this book.

Without seeing the book, we can only presume that is a compilation of games from other books, prepared as a “pocket book”, perhaps more suitable for travel.

This is a vastly expanded second edition of the 1901 version, with more than twice the number of pages.

101 one and two pack games are described, including 5 two-player games.

Hoyle’s needs no introduction, having served as the authoritive source of all things game related since Hoyle penned his first treatise on the game of Whist in 1742.

This book of course was not authored by Hoyle (who had been dead for nearly 130 years), but is one of the countless updated, expanded, revised, enalrged and “brought up to date” collected editions that followed the expiry of copyright.

This edition is notable as it is the first to describe the gambling version of Solitaire, named within as Klondike and Seven-Card Klondike (which was subsequently named Canfield in the following year by Dick), with a full description of the betting element. This the game that was later popularized as having been invented by Richard Canfield and played in his gambling houses.

See our articles on Solitaire and gambling and Canfield Solitaire for a detailed discussion.

Described by lybray as:

Very rare set of original games making use of the Joker card, invented by Angelo John Lewis and published under his stage name. You will find games for one and two players.

Cover image courtesy of lybrary

George Hapgood, Esq., author of Home Games and Ready-made Speeches - a volume of ready-made speeches for such occasions as: “Workman to Foreman Who is About to Resign His Position”; “Presentation to the Captain of a Fishing Schooner for an Heroic Rescue”; and “Address to Graduating Class of Trained Nurses” - published this title in 1908.

It is described in The Publisher’s Weekly, Nov. 28, 1908 as follows:

George Hapgood, Esq., has made a book of “Solitaire and Patience,” by the aid of which and two decks of cards any one anywhere can make a lonely hour pass quickly. It describes 50 games, affording infinite opportunity for the observation, judgment and readiness of the successful card player.

Among the games are such old favorites as Demon, Babette, Rainbow, Squaring the Circle, Matrimonial Confusion and many more.

The most interesting game listed is Canfield. 1908 was the first year we saw use of the name in print, in this case referring to the modern game, or what was described as Seven-Card Klondike the prior year in Hoyle’s.

The Canfield name was used the same year by Harris B. Dick in his 1908 edition of Dick’s Games of Patience or Solitaire. See our articles on Solitaire and gambling and Canfield Solitaire for a detailed discussion.

This is reportedly the first text to use the term Canfield to describe the Klondike game described the prior year in Hoyle’s.

See our articles on Solitaire and gambling and Canfield Solitaire for a detailed discussion.

A very brief, 26-page book. Described by Michael Keller as primarily plagarizing Mary Whitemore Jones’ Games of Patience.

From The Publisher’s Weekly, May 8, 1909:

Comprises most of the best known games of “Solitaire.” Many have been taken from the English book, “Games of patience”; others are translated from the French. All have been rewritten and expressed in simple language so they can be readily understood. Some are intricate and will demand close attention. It is hoped the pamphlet will contain much amusement for weary, lonely hours.

Detailed description of eight patiences. From the article:

I cannot attempt in one article to deal at all exhaustively with games of Patience. I shall only give a few of those which I myself consider good, but I shall try to give a clear explanation of those few, and to* illustrate them by play. They will all be one-pack games, with the exception of my favourite, “Miss Milligan.” Two-pack games would require a whole magazine to do them justice.

This book features a new title, but the author describes it as the 7th in her series. From the preface:

In presenting this series of Patience Games (the seventh I have compiled) to the world, I have to thank many kind friends, both known and unknown, for their contributions to the collection.

That “Patience is a virtue” has been proclaimed to the world in hundreds of copybooks; that Patience possesses many virtues is not less true. It soothes the pain of the invalid, brightens the long, lonely hours of the solitary, clears the brain of the author or business man. I have heard of an engineer officer who, when engaged on very intricate calculations, always worked with the little pigmy cards beside him, and occasionally swept his papers aside and laid out a game to refresh his brain and straighten out the difficulties of his task. In the hope that this volume also will be found of assistance to the worker and solace to the (possibly perforce) idler, I commend it to the generous consideration of the public.

This is a substantially expanded edition of Lady Cadogan’s Illusrated Games of Patience, published for the American market. It is described as a “New Revised Edition including American Games”.

It addition to the change of name from Patience to Solitaire, it is twice the length, with an additional 23 games described, including American variations such as “Canfield”.