Summer might be coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean that your card game playing has to stop. Instead of gin rummy or poker, we’ve found a more cerebral card game for your next game night. It’s called “Authors.”
The literary card game plays like Go Fish for readers. The game features thirteen authors with four cards each and the object of the game is to collect the most sets.
According to Wikipedia: “The game is the creation of Anne Abbott, a Beverly, Massachusetts clergyman’s daughter and editor of a young people’s literary journal. Abbott also designed one of America’s earliest board games, The Mansion of Happiness (1843), as well as the hugely popular mid-19th century card game, Dr. Busby.”
In the video embedded above, you can see the 1888 version of the game and includes authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Unfortunately this set was already auctioned off. But Barnes & Noble and Amazon are selling more modern editions, and eBay is full of vintage versions of the game.