- Name Book: Something for Nothing – The Lore and Lure of Gambling
- Author: Clyde Brion Davis
- Year: 1956
- Publisher: J.B. Lippincott Company
- Location: Philadelphia, New York, USA
Something for Nothing – The Lore and Lure of Gambling
by Clyde Brion Davis – 1956 (Philadelphia, New York)
In his book “Something for Nothing – The Lore and Lure of Gambling,” writer Clyde Brion Davis describes gambling throughout the years in America. In his chapter, Minor Games, he writes about side games and refers to Solitaire. Most of the information about Solitaire in the book is adapted from Herbert Asbury’s Sucker’s Progress, but he also makes some claims of his own that are otherwise unsubstantiated. He states that Canfield would have invented the Solitaire game while he was in prison serving a sentence of 30 days.
“There is that Solace of the elderly and bored called Canfield which, by legend, was invented by the Gambler Richard Canfield while serving a 30 day jail sentence in Cranston, Rhode Island. The game has been installed in Gambling Houses as a gambling game wherein the player buys the deck, say for $52 and the house pays 5 for one for every card got off to what is sometimes called the tableau. That is, the house pays $260 if the player goes out.”