The Expert at the Card Table
The 1902 bible of card sleight of hand, self-published as S. W. Erdnase. The identity behind the pseudonym is card history's most famous unsolved question.
- Original byline
- S. W. Erdnase
- Published
- 1902
- Form
- Novels
- Authorship
- Pseudonym; identity unresolved
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
The Expert at the Card Table, self-published in Chicago in 1902, remains the most studied book in card magic and card cheating, its techniques still standard a century on. Its byline, S. W. Erdnase, is universally treated as a pseudonym, and the hunt for the man behind it is the great parlor game of magic history: reverse the name and you get E. S. Andrews, and candidates of that and other names have been argued in book-length investigations for decades. None has been established. This site records the byline as documented and the identity as unresolved, which after more than a century it genuinely is.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote The Expert at the Card Table?
The Expert at the Card Table was published under the byline S. W. Erdnase. The identity behind the byline has never been established in the documented record.
Can I read The Expert at the Card Table for free?
Yes. The Expert at the Card Table is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
When was The Expert at the Card Table published?
The Expert at the Card Table was published in 1902, credited to S. W. Erdnase.
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