Letterati

Paul Mccarthy

Description

Charts the development of competitive Scrabble in North America and the control exerted by the holder of the game's trademark, Hasbro. Through more than 100 interviews, readers follow the evolution of the popular board game from the hustler-populated game rooms of New York in the 60s to the 2004 National Championship. Letterati examines the foundation of the game, the best players and the trademark. The examinations of the Scrabble club scene gives a flavour of the game and concludes with a look at how the game has been controlled by its various owners.

Sujets

• Hobbies
• Afición
• Popular culture
• Hobby
• Board game
• Loisir

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554903238
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Letterati
An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It
Paul McCarthy
Copyright Paul McCarthy, 2008
Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2 416.694.3348 / [e-mail]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and ECW Press.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
McCarthy, Paul (Paul Edward), 1943- Letterati: an unauthorized look at Scrabble and the people who play it / Paul McCarthy.
ISBN 978-1-55022-828-1
1. Scrabble (Game) - History. 1. Title.
GV1507.S3M33 2008 793.734 C2007-907102-3
Cover Design: David Gee Text Design: Tania Craan Typesetting: Gail Nina Production: Rachel Brooks
All photos courtesy of Ann Sanfedele, except page this image , which is courtesy of Larry Sherman.
THANKS
Steve Alexander, Tim Anglin, Jessica Arts, Paul Avrin, John Babina, Nick Ballard, Mike Baron, Pat Barrett, Nathan Benedict, Louis Berney, Jim Bodenstedt, Tim Boggan, Marlene Boyda, David Boys, Dan Brinkley, Gary Brown, Dr. Linda Bunker, Lynne Butler, Cheryl Cadieux, Brian Cappelletto, Jean Carol, Gorton Carruth, John Chew, Pat Cole, Lee Cooper, Chris Cree, Bruce D Ambrosio, Robin Pollock Daniel, Al Demers, Robert Denicola, Steve Dennis, Jan Dixon, Joe Edley, Paul Epstein, Shazzi Felstein, Bob Felt, Ann Ferguson, Leon Fernandez, Diane Firstman, Stephen Fisher, Shirley Fliesser, Alan Frank, Jeremy Frank, Lawren Freebody, Jim Geary, David Gibson, Daniel Goldman, Stu Goldman, Charles Goldstein, David Goodman, Bernard Gotlieb, John Green, Dr. Susan Greendorfer, Roz Grossman, Eileen Gruhn, Albert Hahn, Jonathan Hatch, Randy Hersom, Jim Homan, Barbara Horsting, Jim Houle, Don Jansen, Dennis Kaiser, Jeff Kastner, Zev Kaufman, Paula Kaufmann, Elizabeth Frost Knappman, Claudia Koczka, Jim Kramer, Jonathon Lazear, Frank Lee, Mark Lemley, Chris Lennon, Joe Leonard, Jerry Lerman, Robin Levin, Bob Lipton, Adam Logan, Robert Lowe, Glynn Lunney, Jr., Joey Mallick, Lew Martinez, Jere Mead, Karen Merrill, Mark Milan, Jim Miller, Susan Moon, Peter Morris, Gary Moss, Jim Neuberger, Rita Norr, Kathryn Northcut, Dr. Carol Oglesby, Steve Oliger, Sam Orbaum, Bill Palmer, Robert Parker, Jim Pate, Steve Pellinen, Steve Pfeiffer, Scott Pianowski, Steve Polatnick, Kenneth Port, Dan Pratt, Pat Prentice, David Prinz, Peg Pywar, Stanley Rabinowitz, Larry Rand, M. G. Ravishandran, Janet Rice, Sherrie Saint John, Ann Sanfedele, Elliot Schiff, Bob Schoenman, Lester Schonbrun, Dean Scouloukas, Mike Senkiewicz, Luise Shafritz, Gordon Shapiro, Carol Shaver, Brian Sheppard, Joel Sherman, Glenda Short, Paul Sidorsky, Hilda Siegel, Alan Stern, David Stone, Dan Stock, Willie Swank-Pitzer, Graeme Thomas, Susi Tiekert, Ron Tiekert, Steve Tier, Siri Tillekeratne, Audrey Tumbarello, Mike Turniansky, Gene Tyszka, Barbara Van Alen, Alice Van Luenan, Carol Felstein Vignet, Joel Wapnick, Bob Watson, Al Weissman, Milt Wertheimer, Ginger White, Regina Wilhite, John Williams, Mike Willis.
Special thanks to my wife Paula who has lived through both the writing of this book and my many Scrabble ups and downs.
DISCLAIMER
This is an unauthorized look at the history of competitive Scrabble in North America. It is not sponsored by, written for, or with the approval of Hasbro, Inc. In the text that follows, for ease of usage, I use the word Scrabble. By using this word, I mean Scrabble Brand Crossword Game. Scrabble is the trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in North America and Mattel in other countries around the world.
INTRODUCTION
From the time he was in high school Nick Ballard knew that he wanted to earn a living playing games. Today, as the number-one ranked backgammon player in the world, he does just that. Ballard s first love, though, was Scrabble. He was a top player in his twenties, edited Medleys (considered the best newsletter ever to grace the Scrabble world), and did much to develop the game. Yet Ballard couldn t earn a living from Scrabble, and so in 1994 he turned to backgammon. The problem for Ballard and others like him is the corporate control of Scrabble, which for the most part is a leisure time activity.
Scrabble is a trademarked game, and as such, is the property of Hasbro, Inc., the multibillion dollar toy and game manufacturer that over the years has bought up Parker Brothers, Selchow Righter, Coleco, Milton Bradley, and others. Today it produces over 200 products and controls the board game market in North America. But that s not all. It claims the right to manufacture Scrabble exclusively, as well as to control all club and tournament activity in North America. That is, all clubs and tournaments must be sanctioned through the National Scrabble Association, a de facto arm of Hasbro.
For most Scrabble players this is not a problem. For them, Scrabble is lazy Sunday afternoons where the click and clack of tiles go hand in hand with munching goodies and arguing over the spelling of arcane words. Yet, Scrabble can be much more than that. Although unknown to most parlor players, over the past thirty years a cadre of committed Scrabblers, those I call the letterati, have worked to advance the game to rarefied levels, where tournaments are commonplace, and as one would expect, the lure of professional Scrabble sings a siren song to those who wish to hear it.
This is both the game that millions of parlor players know and something else all together. It does use the standard board layout and distribution of tiles that are available in any game shop, but that s where the similarity ends. The letterati have refined Scrabble to the point that the strategy and tactics used, as well as the words played, bear little resemblance to parlor play. New Scrabble club members, for instance, often only half jokingly ask when glancing at a game in progress, Are you playing in a foreign language? Well, no, but it can appear that way.
Even so, Scrabble remains a product and an entry in Hasbro s balance sheet. No matter how much the players have done to advance the game, they really have no say in where Scrabble is going, because it s not in the public domain like chess, checkers, or bridge. Rather, it s a trademarked good with various associated copyrights. This is fine for Snakes and Ladders or Clue, but problematic for Scrabble, which has a dedicated player base, some of whom would like to earn a living from the game. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the letterati, the owners have always asserted that they enjoy total control over Scrabble and seem to want to use it solely as a public relations vehicle to sell more Scrabble sets. Any advancement of the game would appear to be an unintended consequence. So while some of the letterati want to take Scrabble to the professional level, they have been thwarted by the trademark holders at every turn. This book tells that story at the same time as it looks at the evolution of the game and the people who play it.
For most parlor players Scrabble is just a fun, family pastime. That s the way it s sold and that s the way it s played. I first learned of another side of the game, a parallel universe if you will, some ten years ago when I joined the newly formed Honolulu club. My involvement with Scrabble, along with my commitment to learning its finer points, increased when a year later I moved to Colorado and became a member of the Denver club.
I discovered that I was a babe in the Scrabble woods. Just about everyone in the club had played longer, knew more words and strategy, and had more natural ability. There were methods of studying and techniques of playing that I had never dreamt of. There were also those who committed large chunks of their lives to mastering this ever fascinating and often frustrating game. This book provides a glimpse of that world. It focuses on the ways in which the players have developed the game, how they play the game, what it takes to excel, and how the game s owners have actually stood in the way of this development.
The story begins three decades ago in New York s public game rooms, where many of the conventions of contemporary tournament play were born. It goes on to explore the foundations of organized play that came along in the 1970s and 80s; the first clubs and tournaments instituted by Selchow Righter, the game s manufacturer at the time; the compilation of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary ; the development of the North American rating system; and the formation of the players organizations, run for the benefit of the game s owners. Most importantly, it tells the story of the players, who through their own efforts have made the clubs and tournaments work and the game advance from a fun, family activity to the full contact, brain bending, mind sport that at its topmost levels it is today.
Letterati also looks at how the clubs and tournaments are run and why so few people, out of the tens of millions who play at home, ever get involved in the organized game. It also shows how the letterati learn all those words and the lengths to which some go to compete, including playing hurt and cheating. There are also chapters that tease out the qualities exhibited by the top players, show how the game has changed over the years, explore the reasons for the lack of top women players, and profile teen prodigies.
Throughout the book there is a concern, shared by many players, about the control exercised by Hasbro, Inc. The players are not allowed to earn a living from the game, solicit outside sponsorship for their tournaments, or, for all practical purposes, write how-to books. There would appear to be something inherently unfair about this, even if Hasbro does own the rights to the game. These issues are addressed in the hope that one day the players and the company will be able to reach s