The Annotated Erdnase Pdf

[Ken Reels]

Thisis NOT a perfect BD, in fact quite the opposite. This is ok for maybe a starting magician, but i dont get why you, Daniel Madison, and various other so called experts that have a nice following claim to have the best and-or a perfect BD and then your grip gives away your bottoms even before you start dealing them. Show some dignity and respect for your fans and dont make them buy this unnatural looking BS.

just because the second finger is half an inch from the side of the deck you think this is a unnatural grip. as if anyone notices wether the second finger is on the side of the deck or curled around the corner. you damn finger flickers think if its not a mechanics grip its no good, you dont realise every one can see your fingers drop using your push outs. the strike from the modified erdnase is indetectable no finger flutter at all !

Who wrote The Expert at the Card Table? This document compares approximately 250 linguistically and thematically similar examples extracted from the writings of S.W. Erdnase and W.E. Sanders. These correspondences add additional weight to the hypothesis that Sanders wrote The Expert at the Card Table under the pseudonym (and anagram) of S.W. Erdnase. A summary of the other sources of evidence supporting the case for Sanders as the author is also presented.

Just as the book doesn't give up all its secrets easily, the author's identity has remained shrouded in mystery ever since the book's publication. The author's name of S.W. Erdnase was generally recognized as being the name E.S. Andrews spelled backwards. But no compelling candidate with that name was ever found. In 1999, David Alexander and Richard Kyle in a brilliant bit of intuition, abductive reasoning, and legwork proposed a new candidate, one who fit the known and likely characteristics of whom Erdnase must be. That candidate was W.E. Sanders (1861-1935), a mining engineer from Montanta who was educated at the Columbia University School of Mines. Sanders was the son of Wilbur Fisk Sanders, the first Senator of Montana and had every reason to keep his identity hidden. He hid it through a clever double anagram, S.W. Erdnase.

After coming up with the candidate, a good deal of biographical evidence was uncovered, first by David Alexander and later by Marty Demarest. The present document builds on that work and provides a large number of striking linguistic and thematic correspondences discovered in the process of comparing the texts of both writers. These textual correspondences substantially augment the prior evidence that Alexander, Kyle, and Demarest had already uncovered. We start by summarizing the overall evidence:

Sanders' early diaries and notebooks provide remarkable evidence that reinforces the anagram theory. They contain examples of partial anagrams and rearrangements of the letters in his own name. For example, he plays with the letters in his name to spell out "WandersS" and "Wes Anderson." In another instance, he modifies the letters in his name to "Saunders" and places them into a 2x8 grid.

In addition to the anagram itself, it has been noted that embedded within the book's subtitle "Artifice RUSE AND Subterfuge" is the name "Andrews" ("AND RUSE") phonetically permuted into "RUSE AND." This is another possible clue signaling that the obvious backwards spelling of "E.S. Andrews" was perhaps a ruse, artifice, or subterfuge itself. In addition, in one of his poems, Sanders performed a similar phonetic shuffling on the name of one of his college classmates. And elsewhere he makes various puns on the names of several other college classmates. All in all, Sanders was clearly fascinated by wordplay based on names.

In a footnote about Captin William Clark(e) to an article published by the Historical Society of Montana (1896), Sanders discusses the varied spelling of Clark's name (with and without the "e") and declares that "A similar mutation in the spelling of names is illustrated in many other instances beside this." This is yet another example of Sanders' strong and recurrent interest in names and letter combinations. And it perhaps also hints that among the "other instances" is the mutation from "WE Sanders" to "ES Andrews" to "SW Erdnase."

Physically, Smith described Erdnase as being of slight build and between 5'5 and 5'7, while Sanders at age 20 was reported as being 5'8 and weighing 130 lbs. Smith, himself, was a tall man, probably at least 6' and remembered looking down at Erdnase. People tend to categorize other people's heights in approximate categories, and aren't particularly accurate when the height is different than their own. So it is easy to imagine Smith's 45 year old recollection being in the right direction (significantly smaller than himself) but off by an inch or two. Estimates of Sanders' actual height are examined here.

Erdnase mentioned to Smith that he had a family connection to the well known cartoonist Louis Dalrymple. According to Marty Demarest's research [Montana Magazine of Western History Winter 2013], the Dalrymple and Sanders families had been related since the late eighteenth centuries. And Dalrymple had also seemingly caricatured Wilbur Fisk Sanders, in one of his cartoons, as the face of Montana.

As noted above, Sanders clerked in the US Sentate when his father was serving on the Senate Enrolled Bills Committee. As such, he was likely involved with the preparation of the 1890 Copyright Act, which would be useful in publishing and copyrighting EATCT. In addition, Sanders was reported to be writing a book around 1900. This is possibly EATCT, given that Mine Timbering was a collection of existing articles (two by Sanders) and wasn't published until 1907.

Likewise, the writings of both men manifest a healthy ego, proud ofwhat they've achieved. Neither is shy about claiming superiority oftheir systems over others ("vastly superior", "far inadvance of"). Both authors take delight in pointing out hypocrisyand pretense, as they sarcastically rail against so-called "professionals" and their ruses and deceptions. Using almostidentical hyphenated terms and scare quotes, Erdnaseand Sanders respectively mock "self-styled 'ex-professionals' " and "self-constituted 'historians' " as the producers of worthlessinformation.They then underline the point using the same metaphor(exhuming). Erdnase refers to"EXHUMING some antiquated moss-covered ruses," while Sandersdescribes bogus mining reports that are "EXHUMED from their obscureplace of burial."Both menu employ a similar self-deprecating humor when describing themselves: inErdnase's "insufferable conceit" and Sanders' "yer braggin'yet".

In addition to the actual content of the book, Erdnase's facility withlanguage and the clarity with which he expresses his thoughts make himstand out among magic authors of his and any other time. Erdnasevaries his style substantially throughout the text. The Preface,Introduction, and the first few pages of both the Card Table Artificeand Legerdemain sections most strongly represent what we think of asErdnase's writing voice. This is where he makes especially incisivecomments and exhibits his personality and mode of thought. Incontrast, much of the body of the main text, describing sleights, isvery analytical and precise. There are trenchant generalizations andinsights infused throughout, but the main text is primarily focused ondescribing the mechanics of the sleights as clearly and accurately aspossible. The third style is in the patter for the tricks, which has amuch more oratorical flavor. All three styles, while different, areextremely well executed and integrated.

Sanders' writings exhibit many of the same attributes and qualities,but applied to a different and wider range of topics. There is muchstylistic and topical variety among the following: his miningarticles, which share Erdnase's precision, and attention to detail;his Columbia class reunion writing, in which he shines as a humoristin both his prose and poetry, while often presenting a morevaledictory voice as well; and his studies of Montana's history(including the linguistic derivation of its name), which is presentedin a leisurely and scholarly tone. It is very easy to imagine Expert atthe Card Table as a Sanders treatment of yet another specializeddomain, that of card table artifice, where these various stylisticstrains combine into the overall voice we know as Erdnase.

The uncanny linguistic similarity between Erdnase and Sanders includesword choice, idioms, syntactic/semantic patterns, metaphors, and theunderlying themes they invoke. They both take great pleasure in thenuances of language and use it in a very creative manner. Hence thefrequent and varied useof puns, scarequotes, parentheticalpunctuation, colloquial language("langwidge", "Get yo' own han' "), alliteration ("wiles andwickedness", "wicked waste"), etc. In one instance they both makea pun that pivots on the same word: "shift".

Topic-wise, Erdnase and Sanders sometimes even cross into each other'sdomain, with Erdnase invoking mining for patter ("metals as gold,silver, or copper...prospected area") and Sanders touching ongambling themes ("Make simple faro, poker plays..."). Thethemes and patter of Erdnase's first two and most distinctive tricks(Exclusive Coterie and The Divining Rod) echo Sanders'background in private salons/clubs, his profession as a miningengineer, and his duties as Librarian for the Historical Society ofMontana in preserving ancient artifacts andcultures.

There are some other interesting biographical hints in EATCT. Forexample, Erdnase describes himself in his youth as "aself-satisfied unlicked cub with a fairly fat bank roll." This isan apt description of Sanders, who came from a prosperous family andattended prep school in New England and college in New York. Inaddition, Sanders grew up on the Frontier in Montana, and we find inEATCT a significant number images and phrases (e.g., "flush the quarry" and"trap shooter") that evoke countrylife .

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