The Cardsharp and his Book by Chris Wasshuber

The hunt to find the true identity of S. W. Erdnase, the author of The Expert at the Card Table, published in 1902 in Chicago, has been raging for more than a century. The book is as revered by gamblers and magicians as the Bible is by Christians.

One of the first and most active Erdnase hunters was well-known science writer, puzzle expert, and magician Martin Gardner, who erroneously thought he identified cardsharp and murderer Milton Franklin Andrews as being Erdnase. After Andrews, many other candidates were proposed, but none had a case strong enough to withstand scrutiny. None wrote like Erdnase, nor had sufficient opportunity, nor even a good motive, to write the book. Their cases were largely based on wild theories built on little evidence and held together by flawed assumptions.

DI Dr. Chris Wasshuber, a trained scientist, engineer and hobby magician with an interest in puzzles and hard problems, took on the challenge of trying to find Erdnase. Rather than continue to massage the same old evidence, he decided to look for new documents that would aid in the search. In a breakthrough discovery, he found the James McKinney and Jamieson-Higgins bankruptcy files from 1903. James McKinney & Co. was the printer for the self-published The Expert at the Card Table.

In this ebook Dr. Wasshuber tells the story of how the bankruptcy records were found, and how they allowed him to zero in on Edward Gallaway. Rather than focus on aspects we had no good evidence for he centered his investigation around the book itself and the linguistic ‘fingerprint’ of the author. Over the course of six years, Dr. Wasshuber inspected and searched in countless newspapers, archives, and genealogical records to piece together the remarkable life story of Edward Gallaway, a learned printer and entrepreneur, who was fluent in German, who had an insatiable appetite for reading and knowledge, and who most surprisingly also had a circus career performing magic and Punch & Judy. Every new piece of evidence found about Gallaway further confirmed that he was S. W. Erdnase.

Dr. Wasshuber hired renowned forensic linguist Dr. John Olsson to conduct a detailed study of the writings of Erdnase, Gallaway, Roterberg, Hilliar, Sanders, and Wilson, which resulted in Gallaway most likely being the elusive Erdnase due to their very similar linguistic profiles. Dr. Olsson’s entire report is included in this ebook.

The ebook includes all the primary evidence, and analysis on which Dr. Wasshuber bases his conclusions, except the bankruptcy records, which are available separately. A century-old mystery has been solved. Erdnase has been found. Read the fascinating story and learn everything we know about a man who made quite a name for himself in the print industry, but whose alter ego would become revered by gamblers and magicians the world over.

Contents:

1. The Mystery
   • Why do we care?
   • Failed Attempts
   • A New Approach
2. My Interest in Erdnase
3. The Prosecutor Takes on Gallaway
   • Opportunity
   • Motive
   • Means
4. Physical Appearance
   • Height
   • Thumb
   • Wrist and Sleeves
   • Handedness
   • Age
   • Voice
   • Complexion
   • Appearance
   • Soft Hands
   • Origin
   • Wife
   • Summary
5. Linguistic Analysis
   • Dr. John Olsson’s Report: The Linguistic Magic of Erdnase
     • Introduction
     • ‘There is no evidence’
     • Anagrammatic attributions
     • The knaves
     • The magic of language
     • The magic of the individual
     • Language change over time
     • Change and individualism
     • Focus of the investigation
     • Why vocabulary is important in authorship studies
     • Vocabulary sources
     • Aspects of vocabulary: very long words
     • Aspects of vocabulary: words relating to cognition
     • Aspects of vocabulary: relative rarity of the lexicon
     • Period and manner of composition
     • Author consistency
     • Conjunctions
     • Conjunctions and punctuation: a series of author choices
     • Decline of the semi colon
     • The comma in relation to conjunctions
     • Punctuation in relation to ‘or’ and ‘nor’
     • Style comparisons
     • Comparing Expert and Roterberg
     • Comparing Expert and Hilliar
     • Comparing Expert and Wilson
     • Comparing Expert and Sanders
     • Summary of tests
     • Comparing Expert and Gallaway
     • Conclusion
   • My Comments To Olsson’s Report
   • Cinnamon Word Analysis
   • Compound Expressions
   • Analytic Negative
   • System of
6. Copyfitting Book
   • The Monotype System Part I and II
   • Comparing Hands
7. Traits, Habits and Interests
   • Instructor, Educator, Pedagogue
   • Performer
   • Reading
   • Wit
   • Religious Questions
   • Business Knowledge
   • Gambling and Magic
   • Pretty Money and Stock Market
   • Math
   • Print
   • Detail-Oriented
   • Learning from Failure
8. Erdnase Spoke German
   • Other Books Erdnase Must Have Known
9. Cover, Title Page, and Bookplate
10. Career and Circus
    • Circus Time in Detail
    • James Harto
11. Estimating Books
12. My Thoughts on the Smith Recollections
    • Bank Account
13. Dalrymple Deception
14. The Name S. W. Erdnase
    • My Favorite Explanation
    • Other Explanations
15. Eugene Edwards
16. Edward M. Vernelo
17. The Book
18. The Copyright Registration Form
    • Gallaway’s Knowledge about Copyrights
    • Earlier Copyright Rumor
19. Alexander August Gallaway
20. Carl A. Jettinger
21. Places
22. Timeline
23. Summary
24. Further Research
25. Envoi
26. Appendix 1: Copyright Registration Form
27. Appendix 2: Estimating for Printers
28. Appendix 3: Marshall Gardner Letters
29. Appendix 4: Western Carbon Paper and Supply Company
30. Appendix 5: McKinney & Gallaway Co
31. Appendix 6: Copyright Registration (How To Price Job Printing Properly)
32. Appendix 7: Interesting News Reports

The hunt for Erdnase started in January 2015. First edition, titled “The Hunt For Erdnase: and the Path to Edward Gallaway” 2016; Title change to “The Cardsharp and his Book” 2022; PDF 338 pages.