Subject: Falkbeer as chess journalist

On 2 February 2004 (Jeremy Spinrad) wrote in
Message-id:

A comment about Falkbeer in a chess book made me wonder. In discussing his
role
as a chess journalist in England and Germany, a modern writer says that he
brought
"mehr schlecht als Recht" into his column. Anyone know what gave rise to
this
negative view of Falkbeer? I know he had a column in The Sunday Times, and
that
Staunton resented this as he resented all foreigners having columns, but know
little about what he actually wrote.

Jerry Spinrad


According to the late Ken Whyld, Falkbeer wrote of Staunton the following:
"The man has a rich and varied past behind him. In his younger days he was an
actor. They say that he led a very adventurous life, that he made a wild,
romantic marriage which he afterwards dissolved."

This quote appeared in the May 1881 edition of Brentano's Chess Monthly, page 5
- nearly seven years after Staunton's death. It first appeared in Neue
Illustrierte Zeitung, published in Vienna. Brentano's Chess Monthly, by the
way, was a lavishly produced magazine that was published in New York for only
16 months in 1881-1882. Anyone who has copies of this defunct publication has a
valuable chess asset.

George Mirijanian