The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge
by Edward McPherson
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good/No Jacket as Issued
- ISBN 10
- 0061127647
- ISBN 13
- 9780061127649
- Seller
-
La Porte, Texas, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
There is one card game that towers above all others as the most intelligent, intricate, and psychologically absorbing ever to be invented. It has a rich history. It's played and loved by some of the world's most famous and influential people. And it's not the one that's currently on television twenty-four hours a day.In 1925 Harold Stirling Vanderbilt invented modern bridge, and a national craze was born. In the 1930s, bridge was even bigger than baseball. Its devotees would eventually include the Marx Brothers, George Burns, Wilt Chamberlain, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played to unwind before the Normandy invasion. Today bridge players number about twenty-five million in the U.S. alone; current celeb-rity addicts include Warren Buffett (who goes by the online handle "T-Bone"), Bill Gates, Hugh Hefner, Sting, a sitting Supreme Court justice, and the guys from Radiohead.In this spirited homage, Edward McPherson recounts the history of the game while attempting to master its deep mysteries in time to compete at the North American Bridge Championships in Chicago. Barely able to shuffle cards let alone play bridge, he sets out to discover why the game became and remains such a popular pastime, stopping in Dallas, Kansas City, Gatlinburg, Gettysburg, Las Vegas, and London. He focuses on a handful of professionals and eager but fumbling amateurs, and the characters he meets convince him that in a game that pits mind against mind, close attention to the cards often reveals much about those sitting at the table. He attempts to learn from bridge's devoted fans—from white-haired grannies and international playboys to teenage pros and billionaires—how its legacy can be preserved for future generations. And along the way, he picks up a playing partner of his own: Tina, a New York octogenarian with sharp card skills and energy to burn.Insightful, funny, and steeped in respect for bridge, The Backwash Squeeze and Other Improbable Feats is an affectionate view of a grand game by an outsider trying to make his way into the inner circle.
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Details
- Seller
- Bookmarc's (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- EC20750BB
- Title
- The Backwash Squeeze & Other Improbable Feats: A Newcomer's Journey into the World of Bridge
- Author
- Edward McPherson
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket as Issued
- ISBN 10
- 0061127647
- ISBN 13
- 9780061127649
- Publisher
- HarperColins Publishers
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2007
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
- Keywords
- CARD GAMES BRIDGE SOCIAL SCIENCE SOCIOLOGY UNCORRECTED PROOF ARC
- Bookseller catalogs
- Games & Recreations; Social Sciences / Sociology;
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- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Reading Copy
- Indicates a book that is perfectly serviceable for reading. It may have a defect or damage. As such, reading copy is not a...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Uncorrected Proof
- An uncorrected proof is a printed copy of a book that needs to be reviewed for errors and corrections. They are released prior...