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Erdnase: Each card is MARKED at both ends, so as to be read in any position. The peculiarity of the FIGURES or design across the end is first closely considered, and twelve fairly distinct points, or dots or dashes, are noted and located. The Expert at the Card Table, originally titled Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table: A Treatise on the Science and Art of Manipulating Cards, often referred to simply as Erdnase, is an extensive book on the art of sleight of hand published in 1902 by S. Erdnase, a pseudonymous author whose identity has remained a mystery for over a century.

Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table: A Treatise on the Science and Art of Manipulating Cards by S.W. Erdnase.

Later published as The Expert At The Card Table, it is a Card Magic Book containing a collection of sleights used, supposedly, by card cheats, including false shuffles, cuts, and deals, culling techniques, palms, and shifts. It also contained a section devoted to card tricks.

It has been in continual publication since 1902

Erdnase, most likely a pseudonym, is one of the enduring mysteries of the magic community.

Book reviewed in Genii 1945 January

• 3Editions

Highlights

• The Exclusive Coterie -- a four card assembly

Quotes

• Palming, page 84: ' The art of card palming can be brought to a degree of perfection that borders on the wonderful. It is very simple to place one or several cards in the palm and conceal them by partly closing and turning the palm downward, or inward; but it is entirely another matter to palm them from the deck in such a manner that the most critical observer would not even suspect, let alone detect, the action.'

Editions

• 1902 First Edition Self-published, HB, green cloth

Frederick J. Drake & Co.

• 1905 Drake Hardback (HB) Pictorial Green Cloth
• 1905 Drake HB, Embossed Plum Cloth
• 1905 Drake HB, Blue Pictorial Cloth
• ~1918 Drake HB, embossed blue cloth
• ~1918 Drake Paperback (pb), green wraps, KH cover
• ~1918 Drake pb, green wraps, KH without pips cover
• ~1918 Drake pb, grey wraps, KH without pips cover, 178 pages
• 1934 Drake pb, orange wraps, KH cover
• 1937 Drake pb, yellow wraps, KH cover

Frost Publishing Co.

• ~? pb 205 pages, KH cover with dark blue titles
• ~? pb 205 pages, KH cover with black titles
• ~? pb, 205 pages, yellow wraps, KH cover

Charles T. Powner Co.

• ~1944 Fleming HB
• ~1944 Fleming HB (Includes Hoffman commentary)
• 1944 pb, 205 pages
• 1945 pb
• 1946 pb, 206 pages
• 1949 pb
• 1953 pb
• 1958 pb, 205 pages
• 1963 pb, 205 pages
• 1968 pb, 205 pages
• 1975 Powner perfect bound / The Charles T. Powner Co.

Wehman

• 1953 pb, 205 pages

Magic Inc.

• ? - Comb bound. Title page is facsimile of 1st edition title page.

KC Card Company

• ? - KC Card Company edition (Chicago)
• 1946 Card Secrets Exposed/ KC Card Company

Gambler's Book Club

The Gambler's Book Club published various editions (which would have been after 1964).

• ? - GBC Comb Bound, white with yellow cover
• ? - GBC Comb Bound, blue cardstock cover with Bee design
• ? - GBC Comb Bound, no price on cover, red cover with Bee design (GBC address includes ZIP code, so it is post 1963)
• ? GBC perfect bound, price 2.50, red cover with Bee design
• ? GBC perfect bound, price 3.50, red cover with Bee design
• ? Hardback GBC edition / Gambler's Book Club

Conjuring Arts

• 2007 pb The Bible editon The Conjuring Arts Research Center - Pocket-size with an all new typeset and numbered lines for reference sleights via the Bible verse method. Printed using the same paper as a bible, gilt edges, a ribbon place holder and bound in soft leatherette. There are three color variations, green, red and black in order of availability.
• 2010 Indestructible Erdnase - pocket sized edition printed on waterproof, tear resistant paper with a sewn binding by the Conjuring Arts Research Center.

Other

• 1945 Fireside Publications, Toronto, Canada. (Same cover as KC Card Company edition/Chicago)
• 1980 Coles SB / Canada
• 1984 Casino Press SB/Casino Press, New York
• 1995 Dover SB
• 2002 Facsimile Edition (unknown publisher) distributed by Michael Canick Booksellers. Gold stamped cover, hard bound
• 2008 Pocket Expert at the Card Table from Houdini.com - The booklet consisting of 218 pages and measuring only 6 x 3.5 inches with space for the readers notes.
• 2008 The Erdnase Scroll by Miracle Factory - The book in scroll form with a handwritten calligraphy font on ivory parchment paper, maple-tone wood ornaments, suede tie cord, and a velour protective drawstring bag. Also includes Todd Karr's extensive research on Erdnase's identity.
• 2010 The Expert At The Card Table - The Classic Treatise On Card Manipulation, Publishers: Obscure Press, Hardback edition, Dover Edition text, 144 pages, 8.6X 5.6 [Print on Demand]
• 2010 - Softcover reprint facsimile of the 1902 first edition by anonymous. 7x4 inches 206 pages. Printed for a gift for friends with leftovers sold for a limited sale.^[1]

Annotated Editions

• 1944 Card Mastery, HBDJ, Circle Magic Shop by Michael MacDougall's Card Mastery (contains the complete text of Expert)
• 1975 Card Mastery, Tannens, pb (Back Cover price: $2.50)
• 1975 Card Mastery, D. Robbins, pb
• 1984 Revelations / Magical Publications - contains thoughts from Dai Vernon.
• 1991 The Annotated Erdnase/ Magical Publications by Darwin Ortiz. Contains notes, annotations, photographs, citations and references. Also contains two appendices: 'New Moves' and 'The Search For Erdnase' by Martin Gardner.
• 2007 - Marlo on Erdnase, Jon Racherbaumer (editor) - A compilation of Ed Marlo's writings, both published and unpublished. This book is a preliminary effort to show how an annotation of Erdnase by Marlo might look like. As it stands, it is a partial, supplemental work.
• 2008 Revelation, Magical Publications, HBDJ - An update to the 1984 version that contains 160 long-lost photographs of Dai Vernon’s hands that were taken in 1961 specifically to illustrate this manuscript. Plus more than 100 pages of added material.
• 2010 The Erdnase Journal - a notebook in the format of a reproduction of the original 1902 publication, with just the 101 drawings by M.D. Smith in their respective positions.

Electronic Editions

• 2011 The Expert at the Card Table [Kindle Edition], edited by Marty Demarest - this Erdnaseum Edition preserves all the quirks of the 1902 First Edition text featuring a fully functional Table of Contents; replicas of the original Contents pages, copyright page, and title page; all 101 original illustrations, remastered and undoctored; a new Foreword and Errata section detailing errors of description.^[2]

Translations

• Japanese (1989)
• German - 1991, HB, Der Experte Am Kartentisch
• German - ?, pb, Der Experte Am Kartentisch
• Spanish - 1992, El Experto En La Mesa De Juego
• French - 1992, HB, L'Expert aux Cartes, black cloth
• French - 2002, HB, L'Expert aux Cartes, green cloth
• Italian - 1996, L'Esperto Al Tavolo Da Gioco
• Italian - 2008, L'Esperto Al Tavolo Da Gioco

A Man In A Room Gambling

A Man In A Room Gambling is a 1992 ten part series for string quartet and spoken word by Gavin Bryars created with the late sculptor Juan Muñoz, who included texts describing card tricks adapted from 'Expert at the Card Table'.

Written as ten short pieces for the BBC Radio, Bryars music weaves in and out while Juan Muñoz narrates. Bryars envisioned creating a larger work for the theater based on Erdnase's life for the full music-theater piece called Who Was Erdnase? which has been commissioned by Peregrine Arts to open in 2010.

Expert at the Card Table Deck

These playing cards release in 2010 are printed using the same color green as the original 1902 'Expert at the Card Table' book on Aristocrat stock using the Bee® back design with white borders.

Annotated Erdnase

The deck include two custom jokers, a custom Ace of Spades, and two ad cards printed to look like pages from the book. The box looks like a miniaturized version of the book with the same texture.

The Expert at the Card Table — How to Cheat at Cards

Since 2017 a stage show based on the book has been performed by jden redden titled The Expert at the Card Table — How to Cheat at Cards. The show has played a limited engagement at the 2017 Adelaide Fringe Festival and is set to return in 2018.

Contents

Film adaptation

A film based on the life of the mysterious author, adapted by German director Hans-Joachim Brucherseifer, is currently in production. The magicians Yann Yuro (S.W. Erdnase) and Alfonso Rituerto (himself) play the lead roles. It is scheduled to be released in November, 2019.

References

1. ↑http://www.danielmadison.co.uk/Erdnase.html
2. ↑http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Card-Table-ebook/dp/B005JDRYTS

• Information about different editions available at Erdnase.com
• www.EverythingErdnase.com, created by Julie Eng and Jason England, explores all of the different editions of The Expert at the Card Table, a book which has been perpetually in print for over 100 years.
• Erdnase Film - Official Website of the feature film about the book

See this page as a MindMap

Annotated Erdnase Pdf

Description

The top card men in the world disagree on many things. One thing they all agree on is that no other book in the history of card manipulation deserves careful study more than The Expert at the Card Table. After one hundred years, it is still considered the foundation upon which modern card magic is based. It contains some of the most perfectly constructed sleights in all of card magic. Even more important are the profound lessons in the real secrets of magic: naturalness, attention to detail, uniformity of action and the psychology of deception. For a century, the methods of S.W. Erdnase have been studied, practiced and written about by countless card experts. One person who spent a lifetime studying every detail of this landmark book is Darwin Ortiz. The copious notes he kept while meticulously dissecting each move and every sentence of The Expert form the basis for The Annotated Erdnase. Darwin’s 273 annotations shed new light on the history of the various moves and effects, provide technical insight into their proper execution, give cross references for further reading and include hundreds of obscure bits of information.

For The Annotated Erdnase we completely re-typeset The Expert at the Card Table resulting in the most readable copy ever offered. We have reproduced a few pages from The Annotated Erdnase to illustrate how the book has been laid out. The inside column of each page (nearest the spine and surrounded by a rectangular box) is the original text from The Expert at the Card Table. The number of each annotation appears in bold type. The outside columns contain Darwin’s annotations, which more than double the size of the original book. Whether you’re a skilled professional looking to increase your already considerable knowledge, or just a beginner hoping to learn the basics of card magic, The Annotated Erdnase will provide you with years of pleasure.

There has been a lot of speculation about the true identity of the man who wrote The Expert at the Card Table. Was S.W. Erdnase actually Milton Franklin Andrews, a gambler and murderer who took his own life? The evidence is truly fascinating and reads like a Hollywood script. The final chapter of The Annotated Erdnase is an article called he Mystery of Erdnase written by the late Martin Gardner wherein Gardner recounts his search for the man behind the book.

Regardless of your level of expertise or specific area of interest, The Annotated Erdnase is a valuable companion to the greatest book ever written on sleight of hand with cards.

Approximately: 270 pages – Hardbound with dust jacket. Dimentions 8 1/2″ x 11″