Foster's Pirate Bridge; The Latest Development of Auction Bridge, With the Full Code of the Official Laws
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co, 1917. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. xiv + 190pp. Original green cloth with gilt titling and playing card design to upper board and titling to spine. While staying in Adams Cottage, Lake Pasquaney, New Hampshire, in 1916, Aleister Crowley had amused himself with various card games, and in the process came up with a refinement of auction bridge, that was later termed "pirate bridge." The game was taken up by the great card authority, Richard Frederick Foster (1853-1945) who embraced it enthusiastically, and for a short time it became something of an international sensation in the bridge fraternity, although it was surplanted by contract bridge in the 1920s. Foster's book is intended as a "complete description and exposition" of the game. Foster starts the work with a "Historical" chapter, in which he includes a brief outline of Crowley's part in its development. From the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper is well- known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. Spine slightly canted, light bruising to spine ends, page edges darkened, text pages lightly toned. There has been a damp exposure to the rear of the volume - weirdly this has left just a bit of mottling to the rear cover, left not a mark on the pastedown, but left a tide-mark to the portions of the last 50% of text pages (a photo of two of the worst affected pages will be included to give an example). Despite this the volume is solid and an otherwise clean and perfectly readable Good copy in a fair example of the very scarce dust jacket (the panels of the jacket are largely intact, but there is a significant chip missing from the top of the spine and some discoloration. Now protected by a removable mylar sleeve). Item #66120
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