Late last night I sent "The Outline of Contract Bridge" by Louis H.
Watson to the printers for reprinting.

It should be out and available for sale in ten days to two weeks. When
it comes out it will be available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

Does anybody have the dust cover for this book and for the other
Watson Book "Watson on the Play of the Hand"? I have several copies of
these books but only the hard cover book, not the dust cover. I really
need the dust cover to make my own cover.

After that comes out I will also be reprinting the next Watson book,
which will appear at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first, for the simple
reason that it is short enough to digest. The section on The Play of
the Hand is only 149 pages and I could get through that much more
easily than the 492 page longer book.

Sam Sloan

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891943

samsloan wrote:

Late last night I sent "The Outline of Contract Bridge" by Louis H.
Watson to the printers for reprinting.

It should be out and available for sale in ten days to two weeks. When
it comes out it will be available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

Does anybody have the dust cover for this book and for the other
Watson Book "Watson on the Play of the Hand"? I have several copies of
these books but only the hard cover book, not the dust cover. I really
need the dust cover to make my own cover.

After that comes out I will also be reprinting the next Watson book,
which will appear at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first, for the simple
reason that it is short enough to digest. The section on The Play of
the Hand is only 149 pages and I could get through that much more
easily than the 492 page longer book.

Sam Sloan

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891943

Uh, you realise "Play of the Hand" is still in-print, right?

--

On Mar 22, 5:40 pm, "Tyler Eaves" wrote:
samsloan wrote:
Late last night I sent "The Outline of Contract Bridge" by Louis H.
Watson to the printers for reprinting.

It should be out and available for sale in ten days to two weeks. When
it comes out it will be available on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

Does anybody have the dust cover for this book and for the other
Watson Book "Watson on the Play of the Hand"? I have several copies of
these books but only the hard cover book, not the dust cover. I really
need the dust cover to make my own cover.

After that comes out I will also be reprinting the next Watson book,
which will appear at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first, for the simple
reason that it is short enough to digest. The section on The Play of
the Hand is only 149 pages and I could get through that much more
easily than the 492 page longer book.

Sam Sloan

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891943

Uh, you realise "Play of the Hand" is still in-print, right?

--

What is "in print" is "Watson's Classic Book on the Play of the Hand
at Bridge By Louis H. Watson New Edition Enlarged and Modernized by
Sam Fry, Jr." published in 1958 by Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.

That book is entirely different from the book that I am reprinting,
which is entitled "The Outline of Contract Bridge: Part I Contract
Bidding, Part II The Play of the Hand". Not a single word is the same.

In addition, the 1958 book says © 1958 by Sterling Publishing Co.,
Inc. That is a false copyright notice. I know this because I have
encountered another "copyright" by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.,
which turned out just to be a copy of a book published in the Soviet
Union in 1923 by an author who had died in the Soviet Union in 1942.

Sam Sloan

I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first

because you are aware of its existence. Most newcomers to the game of
bridge won't recognize the name Louis Watson any more than they will
the name Kenneth Harkness, and, preferring new books to old as you
note so many people do, my guess is that they will buy the books their
friends or teachers recommend, or they will browse at the local
Borders or B&N and find something there rather than take a chance on
publishers' blurbs on Amazon.

The reviews that will come out in Bridge Bulletin and The Bridge World
and perhaps other magazines (you have sent out or will be sending out
review copies of your titles of course) may help, though a survey
commissioned by ACBL a couple of years back found that the vast
majority of bridge players in the US had never heard of ACBL, so they
would not see the Bulletin review-to-be anyway. Otherwise I'm just
not clear on how your intended customers will encounter your
products. The good news is that the market doesn't much care what I
or any other individual consumer thinks. Only time will tell.

David

On Mar 23, 1:24 am, David Babcock wrote:
I know that if I were going to start playing bridge again, I would
read Watson's "Outline of Contract Bridge" first

because you are aware of its existence. Most newcomers to the game of
bridge won't recognize the name Louis Watson any more than they will
the name Kenneth Harkness, and, preferring new books to old as you
note so many people do, my guess is that they will buy the books their
friends or teachers recommend, or they will browse at the local
Borders or B&N and find something there rather than take a chance on
publishers' blurbs on Amazon.

The reviews that will come out in Bridge Bulletin and The Bridge World
and perhaps other magazines (you have sent out or will be sending out
review copies of your titles of course) may help, though a survey
commissioned by ACBL a couple of years back found that the vast
majority of bridge players in the US had never heard of ACBL, so they
would not see the Bulletin review-to-be anyway. Otherwise I'm just
not clear on how your intended customers will encounter your
products. The good news is that the market doesn't much care what I
or any other individual consumer thinks. Only time will tell.

David

Thank you for your helpful suggestions.

The truth is that I never heard of Louis Watson myself until a few
weeks ago. I always thought that Charles Goren was the World's
Greatest Bridge Player. Silly me!!

It was my old friend Richard Laver, a chess master and Math Professor
at the University of Colorado who played as my bridge partner 40 years
ago, who started writing me about these Watson books upon learning
that I had recently restarted my publishing company, The Ishi Press
(that underwent a hiatus of 10 years without publishing any new
books).

Due to the wonders of new print-on-demand technology if I can just
sell around 20 to 30 books I will break even and thus far almost all
of my books have done that with the notable exception with the Kenneth
Harkness book "Invitation to Bridge". I have published 34 books in the
past year and a half. If you ever get to see one of them, you will see
that the print and production qualities are superior to the original
books. (By the way, do not believe my long time detractors such as
"Rob" and "Jeron" who will try to tell you that I make my books at
Kinko Copies. I use a very high quality printer.)

The serious bridge players will know that Louis Watson was a great
player who tragically died in 1936 at age 29 and whose books are still
studied today by all the top players. That is where I hope my market
to be.

Sam Sloan

I can assure you that I have studied the subject, I know copyright law
very well, and I have consulted with the Copyright Office and the
Library of Congress in Washington DC.

I know what I am doing.

Sam Sloan

samsloan wrote:
I can assure you that I have studied the subject, I know copyright law
very well, and I have consulted with the Copyright Office and the
Library of Congress in Washington DC.

I know what I am doing.

For certain values of "know what [you] are doing." Republishing Kenneth
Harkness's trivial re-presentation of Culbertson, a book of little
interest in its time and almost none now, republishing Watson's _outline
of Contract Bridge_, which even you suggest ignoring half of, a half
that is a minimalist rehashing of Culbertson's books; republishing the
unexpanded and uncorrected version of Watson's _Play of the Hand_: all
these suggest that you haven't a clue what you are doing.

On Mar 25, 1:10 am, Martin Ambuhl wrote:
samsloan wrote:
I can assure you that I have studied the subject, I know copyright law
very well, and I have consulted with the Copyright Office and the
Library of Congress in Washington DC.

I know what I am doing.

For certain values of "know what [you] are doing." Republishing Kenneth
Harkness's trivial re-presentation of Culbertson, a book of little
interest in its time and almost none now, republishing Watson's _outline
of Contract Bridge_, which even you suggest ignoring half of, a half
that is a minimalist rehashing of Culbertson's books; republishing the
unexpanded and uncorrected version of Watson's _Play of the Hand_: all
these suggest that you haven't a clue what you are doing.

Sorry, but you are mistaken. The book, Invitation to Bridge by Kenneth
Harkness, is not a "trivial re-presentation of Culbertson". It has
nothing to do with the Culbertson System. The term "honor tricks" is
never mentioned in the Harkness book.

Rather, the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

Also, Harkness was a professional writer who happened to play bridge,
as opposed to other authors who were professional bridge players who
happened to write too. Harkness worked as a writer and editor of radio
articles and textbooks before he got involved in chess and bridge. I
am not qualified to make a comparison but I would imagine that his
explanations are easier to read and understand than that of other
writers.

Regarding "The Outline of Contract Bridge", I briefly considered
reprinting just the part that deals with The Play of the Hand for
which Watson is famous, but since the play of the hand is affected by
the bidding, I had to leave that in. Also, as Watson points out, there
is a best contract for every deal and in principle every correct
bidding system should reach the same contract. Of course, we realize
that this is just in theory, as in practice it does not work out that
way.

I have been through every page of the original 1934 book "Watson on
the Play of the Hand at Contract Bridge" and compared it with the 1958
update by Sam Fry and I am unable to find any changes at all in the
text. Sam Fry just added 12 pages at the end, which is the equivalent
of two or three issues of a daily newspaper column. Sam Fry also added
footnotes to the bottom of some of the pages, but I am unable to find
any other changes. The original Watson book was not even retyped. It
was just a photocopy of the original.

When my book comes out next week, you will be able to see clearly that
my books are much better. The fonts will be larger, clearer and easier
to read. The pages will be blown up and bigger. I took several of my
new books to Foxwoods this past weekend and everybody who saw them
agreed that the print quality is superior to that of the original
books.

Sam Sloan

http://www.amazon.com/dp/092389182X

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891749

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0923891943

samsloan wrote:
On Mar 25, 1:10 am, Martin Ambuhl wrote:
samsloan wrote:
I can assure you that I have studied the subject, I know copyright law
very well, and I have consulted with the Copyright Office and the
Library of Congress in Washington DC.
I know what I am doing.
For certain values of "know what [you] are doing." Republishing Kenneth
Harkness's trivial re-presentation of Culbertson, a book of little
interest in its time and almost none now, republishing Watson's _outline
of Contract Bridge_, which even you suggest ignoring half of, a half
that is a minimalist rehashing of Culbertson's books; republishing the
unexpanded and uncorrected version of Watson's _Play of the Hand_: all
these suggest that you haven't a clue what you are doing.

Sorry, but you are mistaken. The book, Invitation to Bridge by Kenneth
Harkness, is not a "trivial re-presentation of Culbertson". It has
nothing to do with the Culbertson System. The term "honor tricks" is
never mentioned in the Harkness book.

Again proving you haven't a clue.
1) An evaluation technique is not a bidding system.
2) Ely Culbertson published books using point-count evaluation, and
after his death his wife Jo taught point-count evaluation
exclusively. "Culbertson" and "honor tricks" by no means
imply each other
3) Goren's methods of 1950 were nothing more than Culbertson's with
a short-suit count for distribution instead of the exactly
equivalent long-suit count the Culbertsons were using, but with
additional conceptual errors.

Rather, the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding.

This is simply a lie. You have been told, for example, of Goren's
_Point Count Bidding_ (a year before Harkness)
_Standard Book of Bidding_ (6 years before Harkness)
_Contract Bridge in a Nutshell_ (4 years before Harkness)
_Contract Bridge Complete_ (8 years before Harkness)
And all of the last three had gone through at least two editions (the
last through 4) before Harkness's book.
You have been told this; you ignored it; now you lie pretending that it
isn't true.

Further, Goren was a real champion. Harkness was not. Goren's writing
was extremely accessible, and has the virtue of being the real thing.
Why would anyone bother with Harkness's completely inconsequential
scribblings?

The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

And page 1 of Goren's _Contract Bridge Complete_. What's your point?

As I said, you haven't a damn clue. You don't know anything about
bridge, the history of bidding systems, or the history of bridge
publication. You clearly have no idea about what is worth reprinting.
You are attempting to fool the few people more clueless than yourself.

the Harkness book is one of the very first books to introduce
the "Goren Standard American" system of bidding. The system under
which Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1 is introduced on page
72 of the Harkness Book.

From Milton's Work's _Contract Bridge_ (1927):

"Reckon an Ace as 4, a King as 3, a Queen as 2, and a Jack as 1." (p.
28).

On a related matter, I have spoken with Amazon about the
misattribution of the authorship of the Harkness reprint to Goren in
the listing on their site; their customer support representative
appreciated the information, repeated everything back to me (at his
suggestion), and said he is forwarding the information to a
supervisor. Perhaps Mr. Sloan's hope that the error will be corrected
is just a bit closer to realization.

David