On Mar 18, 3:44 pm, Jürgen R. wrote:
"samsloan" schrieb im ...



The two Watson books were both published in 1934. It is not possible
to determine which was published first because they both cite the
other one.

However, there is a big difference between them. "Watson on the Play
of the Hand at Contract Bridge" is 492 pages, a very dense book. It
only deals with the play of the hand.

"The Outline of Contract Bridge" by Watson in only 348 pages and only
147 of those pages deal with the play of the hand. The rest of the
book is about bidding on the "Honor Tricks" system which is of course
obsolete (I think).

What most have probably read is the updated version of "Watson on the
Play of the Hand at Contract Bridge" updated by Sam Fry in 1958 and
several times thereafter. Sam Fry was often the partner of Watson.

I have both of the 1934 books in hard cover mint condition. I plan to
reprint both of them. I cannot touch the Sam Fry updates because the
copyrights are current on those.

The introduction to "Watson on the Play of the Hand at Contract
Bridge" by Oswald Jacoby states that Watson never made a mistake in
the play of the hand. You heard that right. Watson never made a
mistake. Remarkable. The only other person I ever heard of who never
made a mistake was me.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sam Sloan

Yes, I do have a suggestion: You do not hold the copyright for the Watson
books and they are not in the public domain.

In the US these books may be in the public domain. In the US:

1. All books published before 1923 are in the public domain

2. All books published between 1923 and 1963 are in the public domain
unless their copyright was renewed by the copyright holder within 28
years of publication at the Library of Congress

3. All books published since 1964 are not in the public domain


Andrew