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Letterati: An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Mccarthy
Publisher: Ecw Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $7.74
You Save: $9.21 (54%)
New (30) Used (13) from $6.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 763247
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1550228285
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9781550228281
ASIN: 1550228285
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
This guide charts the development of competitive Scrabble in North America and the control of the game exerted by Hasbro, Inc., the holder of the game's trademark. Through more than a hundred interviews, the evolution of Scrabble from the hustler-populated game rooms of New York City in the 1960s, before the organized game even existed, to the 2004 National Championship, where more than 800 players vied for $89,000 in prize money is detailed. Examining its origins, strategies, changes, and the business behind it all, this is a comprehensive look behind the game of Scrabble.
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| Customer Reviews:
My View of Letterati August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read Letterati from the viewpoint of someone whose hobby is Scrabble. It is a wonderful history of how Scrabble developed from a family game to tournament play and the players who caused that to happen.
Scrabble is a relatively recent game dating from the 1930's. It became popular after WWII when it is believed that the owner of a major New York City department store saw the game and began to sell it in the store. Then some of the people that frequented the NYC game clubs -particularly one by Times Square-began to play the game competitively. They developed strategies for the game and word lists to study. Today we have books on strategy and written and electronic study tools. There are Scrabble clubs throughout the US and tournaments almost every weekend, and the game can be played online.
The author is himself a tournament Scrabble player and he knows the players that he describes. He weaves into his chronicle the history of the various companies that have owned the Scrabble brand and their different relations to it. He talks about the difficulties that tournament players have with the current owner Hasbro and its reluctance to fully support them and to overprotect its brand, as seen in the recent removal of the Scrabble lookalike Scrabulous from Facebook.
Letterati and Stefan Fatsis' "Word Freak" are two recent books on competitive Scrabble. I recommend them both.
Then go to a local club and play the game in its purest form. You can find a list of clubs on the website of the National Scrabble Association.
James Cassidy
Washington, D.C.
squire on the Internet Scrabble Club
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