First American to write a Checker book.

tommyc · Post by **tommyc** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:31 pm

I note that the 1st American to ever write a checkers book was none other than..............G.A.Pierce from N.Y. I wonder is this completely true/

Perhaps somebody better placed can help me with this.

George Hay · Post by **George Hay** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:45 pm

Tommy, I don't know about the earliest, but The Elements of Draughts, first edition, was published in 1859. It is written by I.D.J. Sweet, draughts editor of The New York Clipper.
--George Hay

Ingo_Zachos · Post by **Ingo_Zachos** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 8:11 am

Tommy, there is an early account on early checker life in America by W.T. Call in his book "R.D. Yates, Checker Player".

http://archive.org/stream/rdyateschecke ... l_djvu.txt

He credits I.D.L Sweeney and his New York Clipper in July 1855 as the beginning of serious checker playing in the USA, and it seems that the book mentioned above was also considered the pioneer book in America by Call.

Greetinx from cloudy Germany,

Ingo

George Hay · Post by **George Hay** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 12:59 pm

Tommy, the first American to write a checkers book was B. Pierce, not G.A. Pierce who came along later!
The year of B. Pierces' book is given as 1815 in W.T. Call's The Literature Of Checkers, entry 9.
--George Hay

tommyc · Post by **tommyc** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:08 pm

Were they Pierces brothers by any chance?

On another subject .............Sam Gonotsky it seems wasnt held in such high regard at all in America even if they were fine players they werent respected otherwise ...Gonotsky or M.Lieber either seems neither evr took out U.S citizenship ,paid tax, voted or owned property .But then again one was Polish and the other Austrian?...............BLOW-INS?

George Hay · Post by **George Hay** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:11 pm

Tommy, I don't know if B. Pierce and G.A. Pierce are related, but I think it is safe to say they were not brothers. As I look in The Literature Of Checkers, B. Pierce shows up in 1815 in entry 9. G.A. Pierce shows up in entry 208 for the year
1902, and in entry 211 for the year 1904.

http://books.google.com/books?id=4Nk8AA ... rs&f=false

As for Gonotsky and Lieber, I find Richard Fortman a great source of historical perspective and commentary in
Basic Checkers and the interview featured in the ACF website.

http://www.usacheckers.com/richardfortmaninterview.php

--George Hay

The American Checker Federation

First American to write a Checker book.

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