Mark
09-01-2011, 06:36 PM
As of today, Wikipedia mentions the following about S. W. Erdnase (of course known for 'The Expert At The Card Table'):
Wilbur Edgerton Sanders
Some argue that Erdnase was probably a well educated, locally prominent individual, hiding behind an alias to protect his social standing. The most prominent individual mentioned in this regard is a mining engineer named Wilbur Edgerton Sanders, proposed by magician and private detective David Alexander. (Note that "S. W. Erdnase" is an anagram of "W. E. Sanders".) Genii Magazine devoted a large portion of its September 2011 issue to an exploration of this theory.
For most years, it was said that S. W. Erdnase stood for E. S. Andrews, when read backwards. Apparently, this 'fact' changed as of last month. The Genii Magazine has a whole article on how this was discovered and even D&D made a deck devoted to it:
http://store.dananddave.com/files/images/erdnaseum-playing-cards-back.jpg
(Indeed, the ambigram is quite unreadible. No idea why they made the E/S combination like that. After Frank (MeandmagiC) and I tried by ourselves for only 15 seconds, we made a much clearer and simpler E/S. But... it says "W. E. Sanders" nonetheless.)
Is it another marketing campaign or is it for real? Fact is that there is no hard evidence and the way it was discovered is basically relying on pure guessing and being lucky to find someone with a name that contains the letters in question. My personal theory is that S. W. Erdnase is a pseudonym without any relation to the actual guy who wrote it, because people would've been able to see his own name being mixed up.
Wilbur Edgerton Sanders
Some argue that Erdnase was probably a well educated, locally prominent individual, hiding behind an alias to protect his social standing. The most prominent individual mentioned in this regard is a mining engineer named Wilbur Edgerton Sanders, proposed by magician and private detective David Alexander. (Note that "S. W. Erdnase" is an anagram of "W. E. Sanders".) Genii Magazine devoted a large portion of its September 2011 issue to an exploration of this theory.
For most years, it was said that S. W. Erdnase stood for E. S. Andrews, when read backwards. Apparently, this 'fact' changed as of last month. The Genii Magazine has a whole article on how this was discovered and even D&D made a deck devoted to it:
http://store.dananddave.com/files/images/erdnaseum-playing-cards-back.jpg
(Indeed, the ambigram is quite unreadible. No idea why they made the E/S combination like that. After Frank (MeandmagiC) and I tried by ourselves for only 15 seconds, we made a much clearer and simpler E/S. But... it says "W. E. Sanders" nonetheless.)
Is it another marketing campaign or is it for real? Fact is that there is no hard evidence and the way it was discovered is basically relying on pure guessing and being lucky to find someone with a name that contains the letters in question. My personal theory is that S. W. Erdnase is a pseudonym without any relation to the actual guy who wrote it, because people would've been able to see his own name being mixed up.