An Annotated Bibliography of Card Solitaire (Patience)
compiled by Michael Keller

Illustrations are scans of covers from my personal collection; these are books I would particularly recommend.   An early version of this bibliography was posted in 1997 to a private e-mail discussion group devoted to solitaire.  Thanks for help on this bibliography to Paul Eaton, David Parlett, Jeroen Romme, Boris Sandberg, Teun Spaans, and Peter Voke.

Arnold, Peter -- Card Games For One, 2002, Octopus (Hamlyn), 176 pp., paperback, ISBN 0-600-60727-5, $7.95
Some of this collection is taken from Hervey's 1977 The Illustrated Book of Card Games For One.   Some games have been left out, and Arnold has added some new games, totalling almost 100.   Well-written and illustrated.

Arnold, Peter -- Chambers Card Games For One, great games of patience, 2008, Chambers Harrap, 165pp., ISBN 978-0550-10407-6
A different collection of games than the Hamlyn book, 65 games in all, quite a few not in his earlier collection.  One publishing flaw is that most of the games take up two pages, but almost never on facing pages.   Includes a very skimpy list of alternative names.

Barry, Sheila Anne -- World's Best Card Games For One, 1992, Sterling, 128 pp., hardback, ISBN 0-8069-8636-0, $12.95  (paperback, ISBN 0-8069-8637-9 $4.95) (Reissued 2010 by Puzzlewright as Great Card Games For One, ISBN 978-1402771163)
One of the least accurate solitaire books: Barry makes some appalling errors (e.g. her explanation of Pyramid is absurd: you cannot match a card still in play with something you've already discarded!).  Covers over 100 games and variants (57 one-deck and 47 two-deck), rating games according to 'level' (is this difficulty of winning, or skill required?) as well as table space required (a nice feature).  A few games are not found in most other sources, such as the excruciatingly hard Russian Solitaire (Yukon with tableau packing in suit a la Scorpion), but overall the selection of games is questionable (there are certainly at least five hundred games better than Auld Lang Syne).  Well-illustrated by Myron Miller, who has illustrated other books for Sterling, including Alfred Sheinwold's book on card games (see below).  A smaller paperback edition in reduced size print (63pp.) was published under the title 58 Ways To Play Solitaire (licensed to Popular Products, Inc., which also sold a solitaire board for play while traveling); many of the better games were eliminated, though Auld Lang Syne and Tam O'Shanter still made the cut.  

Belton, John, and Joella Cramblit, Solitaire games, [Milwaukee] Raintree Editions, [Chicago] Childrens Press, 1975, 47 p., hardback, ISBN 0817200282, $3.95 (Juvenile)
Nine solitaire variations of varying difficulty, but many of them with arbitrary names: Around the Clock (Clock), Squeeze Play (Accordion), Up and Down the River (Golf).  Illustrated in red and black.

Bergholt, Ernest George Binckes -- A New Book of Patience Games, [London], Routledge, [New York] E. P. Dutton, 1915, 1941, 1953, 120 pp.
Bergholt, Ernest, A Second New Book of Patience Games, 2d imp., [London], Routledge, [New York] E. P. Dutton, 1915, 1917, 119 pp.
My copy, printed in 1953, combines both books in one hardback volume.  Archive.org has the second book.  50 games are described, more than 20 invented by Bergholt or his colleague Margaretta Byrde.   Notable for the first appearance of Agnes and the first book publication of King Albert.   Bergholt contributed to a revised Hoyle in 1909, which contains no solitaires except Poker Patience and Bergholt's own variation Serpent Poker Patience.  This does not appear in the two books listed here: 25 cards are dealt out, and after examining them, the player must place them in that order, edge-to-edge, until they fill the 5x5 grid ("a rook's path on a chessboard of 25 squares"), which is scored as usual.  I have not found this described correctly anywhere else: the point is to see the 25 cards first, then choose a path which produces the maximum score.  Mary Whitmore Jones, in Popular Games of Patience, doesn't even understand the name, writing "there is nothing of the serpent about it".

Berveiler, David -- Strategic Solitaire, 1987, [Jefferson, NC] McFarland, 142p., hardback, ISBN 0-89950-264-4, $15.95
Discussion of strategy in Klondike (the Las Vegas version in which cards are dealt one at a time) -- the author seems unaware that any other card solitaires exist.   Some obvious points made, some not so obvious.  Many example deals are played through.  A harder (as if Klondike is not already hard enough?!) variant of Klondike is given, in which aces are buried in the tableau, with an interesting modified scoring system which rewards tableau play rather than foundation building.

Bogatz, Brian -- Brand New Card Games I Created: 20 Solitaires Plus a Two-Player Game, December 15, 2011, Trafford, 264 pages, paperback, ISBN 978-1-4669-0823-9
Self-published (print on demand) collection of original solitaires (plus a two-player adaptation of the last game, Simplex).   Profusely illustrated with hundreds of monochrome diagrams with low tech graphics: possibly screenshots from a computer version (no longer available) of the games.   Few of the games seem to use the usual solitaire mechanisms of building or packing.  The first game, Relevancy, resembles a closed version of Black Hole, in which cards are played to the foundation and must match in either suit or rank.   At least a few of the games appear to be self-working (No Vacancy) or almost trivial to win (Mail Delivery).   The publisher no longer lists the book, but it seems reasonably easy to find (probably new) from used book dealers.

Bonaventure, George A., ed. -- Games of solitaire, one hundred variations with a single pack, [New York] Duffield & Green, 1931, 199 p.  {Republished in 2011 as a trade paperback by Read Books, ISBN 9781447412397}
Bonaventure, George A. -- Two-Pack Games of Solitaire, seventy-five variations, [New York] Duffield & Green, 1932, 151 p.
The first book includes 100 illustrated one-deck solitaires.   Some odd terminology ("Suitors" for available cards; "Talon" misapplied to waste rather than stock) and ideas.  The follow-up volume is similar, with 75 two-deck games.   A number of the games don't seem to appear in other sources; possibly some were invented by the author.  His section on Fortune's Favor (called Fortune's Favors here) is bizarre: Fortune's Favor is of the easiest solitaires in existence, but his general rules for solitaire imply that groups of cards in sequence can be moved as a unit (most sources specify that cards in FF can only be moved one at a time).   He specifies (just for FF) that vacancies are filled from the stock rather than the waste, which in most games would make it too hard to backtrack through the waste.  Fortune's Favor is so easy, though, that it doesn't matter much here.   Despite this, he allows the waste to be turned and dealt a second time if the game is blocked.

Botterill, Ruth D. -- The New Book of Patience Games, Mystery, mustery & mastery and some jiggery pokery, 1982, [London] Foulsham, 64pp.[P], ISBN 0-572-01169-5, $6.95
Thirty original one-deck solitaires are included, marked for openness, tightness of rules, skill level (Mystery, Mustery, Mastery), space required, and approximate winning chances (based on the author playing each game 20 times!).   Regrettably re-uses a couple of names already being used for existing games (Fanny, Friday the 13th, Tournament).   None of these seem to have made a splash in the solitaire world.

Brock, Claude Cornelius Brock -- Solitaire, The Great European Game of "Patience", 1909, [Buffalo] C. C. Brock, 26 p., 25 cents
Rare book which I have only seen in digital form from the Library of Congress; downloadable from archive.org.  Claims to describe 40 games from American, English, French, and German sources, but they are lifted almost entirely from Whitmore Jones' Games of Patience, and printed verbatim, including diagrams (despite the author's claim to have rewritten them).

Brown, Douglas -- The Key to Solitaire, 1966, [Baltimore] Ottenheimer, 142pp., paperback    (reprinted as: 150 Solitaire Games, 1985, Perennial (Harper & Row), ISBN 0-06-092315-6, $7)
Poor; many rules are unclear.  Too many alternate names were apparently created by the author.  There are a few novelties, such as Can-Can (a version of Klondike with a doubled tableau); Brown may have invented some of these.

Some bookdealers list a book under the same title (The Key To Solitaire), published by Bell Publishing Company [New York], January 1, 1966, 142 pp., but with Walter Brown Gibson credited as the author.  I suspect this is a mistake in cataloguing: even the Library of Congress has an incorrect listing for 150 Solitaire Games (Barnes and Noble 1985), but theirs is clearly Douglas Brown's book.

Brown, Steve N. -- Spider Solitaire, Winning Strategies, February 27, 2016, Private Publisher, 240pp., paperback, ISBN 978-1-4951-8851-0, $19.99
Strategy guide for the standard four-suit version of Spider.  The author states that Spider can be won at least 45% of the time without undo, restarting, or skipping games.

Buttler, Morag and Frank -- The Best of Patience, 1997, Robert Hale, [P]96pp., ISBN 0-7090-6050-5, UK L.6.99
Forty selected games, classified by category (e.g. Klondike falls under "Sequences Built on Layout and on Base Cards").   The games are also rated by skill level -- the three most difficult are the well-known Spider and King Albert, and a infrequently described open solitaire called Battalion.   Includes a brief historical introduction and a glossary.

Cadogan, Lady Adelaide, Illustrated games of patience, 2nd ed., [London] Frewin, 1968, 48 p., ISBN 0090901002 {Facsimile reprint of 2nd ed., [London] Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1875.}, (4th edition, 1880, S. Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington) [1st American ed.] Prentice-Hall, 1969, 48 p., {Reprint of the 2d ed., 1875 with a new pref. and foreword.}, ISBN 0134510968 [1st edition, 1870] [2nd Series, 1887, Sampson Low]   {DP -- 1875; 1877 --German games}
Cadogan, Lady Adelaide -- Illustrated Games of Patience, 1875, (Prentice-Hall 1969)   [27]
Widely cited as the first English-language book on solitaire, but it appears to be later than the first edition of Cheney.   Parlett and other sources give a date of 1870 for the first edition, though Parlett says that no copies exist.  The original editions are of course quite rare, but the 1969 reprint is not too uncommon in used-book stores.   Beautiful old-fashioned illustrations on 24 color plates. Most of the two dozen games described are given under French titles, and all but four of the games are for two decks (nowadays most popular solitaires are one-deck games).   The only one-deck games are La Belle Lucie, La Forteresse (Fortress), Le Calcul (Calculation), and Le Parterre (Flower Garden).

Cadogan, Lady Adelaide, Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience including American Games, [Philadelphia] David McKay, 1914, 121 pp.
Lady Cadogan's 1914 book is available for download at the Gutenberg.org website.

Cavendish (Henry Jones) -- Patience Games With Examples Played Through, 1890, Thomas de la Rue, 216pp., hardback
Although most of the games he describes are not popular today, this is probably the best 19th century book on solitaire, with complete sample deals for most games (an excellent idea later followed by Bryden, Cynk, Dalton, and Gibson, among others).  Also gives hints and for/against odds for each game.  Illustrated in black and red.  Cavendish starts with a definition of terms and procedures of play (he states as a general rule that cards can only be moved one at a time; that is, sequence moves are not allowed).  He divides the games into Patiences Presenting Indefinite Problems (20 games) and Patiences Presenting Definite Problems (14 games, including The Fort (Fortress) and The Bouquet (Flower Garden).    This corresponds to what we call today closed and open games.   The last section contains tricks and puzzles, including magic squares and a 64-card Latin square.  Here is a quote regarding filling spaces: "Some players make it compulsory to fill spaces at once.  This is an absurd rule, as it can always be evaded by refraining from taking all the available cards, or from moving all the cards that the player is entitled to move, until a card appears with which the player desires to fill the space."

Charlton, Doris B. -- Fortyfour Games of Patience, 1973, James Pike, 32pp., ISBN 0-900850-93-0

Cheney, Mrs. Edna Dow Littlehale Cheney, Patience: a series of games with cards, [Boston] Lee and Shepard, (1st ed.) 1870, 96 p., (2nd ed. with additions) 1875, 114 p., (3rd ed.) 1895, 155 p.
Subtitled: Games for the fireside; explains the rules for, and method of play of, 35 different games of solitaire, also known as Patience.  The rare first edition is copyright 1869, and may be the first published book on solitaire in English, titled Patience: a series of thirty games with cards.  The games of the first edition are from Le livre des patiences by Madame de F**** (Fortia).

Collie, Margaret -- Games of patience, thirty-three ways to play, April 1, 1977, Havant, Kenneth Mason, 64pp., ISBN 978-0859370622
Collie, Margaret -- Games of patience (second series), 1978, Havant, K. Mason, 56pp., paperback, ISBN 0859371530   (republished 1987 by Hyperion Books, ISBN 9780859371537)
I have only the 2nd series, which is not hard to find.   The first series is apparently quite rare.



Coops, Helen Leslie -- 100 Games of Solitaire, [Racine] 1939, Whitman, 128pp., paperback, 55 diagrams    [171]
An unappreciated gem; contains a number of older games missing from more recent books.  Peter Voke calls it the "Definitive pre-war collection".  Well-illustrated and classified; excellent index.  Out of print, but not hard to find; reprinted as part of a massive paperback (2011, Read Books, 978-1-4474-2067-5) which also includes Moyse, Morehead and Mott-Smith, and the first volume of Bonaventure.

Coveyou, Donald -- Standard Games of Solitaire (Little Blue Book Num. 1747), 1934, E. Haldeman-Julius, 32pp., paperback
35 games crammed into a tiny book with only a few textual diagrams.  A few oddities: The Treasure of Tantalus is a variation of Demon with foundations built in alternate colors, and a 7-card reserve which can be started from either end.  The last game described is Klondike (still being called Canfield), with both single and triple stock deals.   Undated, but online catalogs of Little Blue Books give a publication date of 1934.   Nearly all of the games appear to be taken from Kearney and rewritten, including some of the same mistakes in King Albert, Nestor, and Golf.

Crépeau, Pierre -- The Complete Book of Solitaire, 2001, Firefly, [P]509 pp., ISBN 1-55209-597-5, $29.95
Translation from French (by My-Trang Nguyen) of Crépeau's 1999 Le Grand Livre des Patiences.  179 games are organized by a rough classification system, and well-illustrated in full color.  Badly marred by pointless alternate names for solitaires; some standard names are applied to the wrong game (e.g. Calculation, Forty Thieves).

Cynk, Boleslaw -- Competitive Patience Games, 1966, [London] John Baker, 103pp., hardback
When I bought this, I assumed it described two-handed games based on solitaire, of which there are many (with many names), such as Russian Bank (Crapette, Wrangle), Spite & Malice (see the book by Easley Blackwood), and the commercial games Flinch and Skip-Bo.  Actually, Cynk describes several variants of Montana (Gaps) with new rules to increase the strategic options, and removing the random element of reshuffling between redeals.   This produces a game which can be recorded and replayed, and Cynk gives hundreds of sample deals, many with full solutions.  Two of the variants are Cynk's own invention: Trains is a reduced-deck version with twos through eights (cf. Pretzel Solitaire described in Klarner's book).  Double Gaps is played on a 4x15 layout dealt with two empty spaces at the left.   Aces (and twos) may be freely played to the left end of each row, trying to produce a full suit sequence in each row as usual.  Both Trains and Double Gaps are played with no redeals.

Dalton, Basil Imlay -- The complete patience book, 3d print. entirely reset., [London] J. Baker, 1964, 259 p. 
Dalton, Basil -- The Complete Patience Book, 1948 John Baker (1967 Pan), 234 pp.[P], ISBN 0-330-30041-5, 35p.    [95:44/51]
(Games of patience : fifty selected games for a single pack, Grant Richards, 1924, 63pp., hardback), (Double-Pack Patience, Richards, 1925)
(1st ed., 1948, Brendon, 255 p.) (Richards Press, London, 1948, 1957)  (Patience Problems and Puzzles, 1941, 78pp.)
Originally published as three separate books: Games of Patience, Double Pack Patience, and Patience Problems and Puzzles.   Contains many illustrative deals to solve, with solutions (cf. Cavendish, Gibson); the third volume consists entirely of problems and puzzles.

Day, Trevor, and the Diagram Group -- Collins Gem Patience Card Games, 1996, Harper Collins [Collins Gem], [P]255pp., ISBN 0-00-472016-4, UK L3.50
Tiny (about 4-1/2 by 3 inches!) but nice guide to about 90 games, illustrated in red and black.  A few games not in most other sources, such as an easier version of Scorpion called Three Blind Mice.

De Muro, Martin -- Free Cell Game Solutions #1, 1998 (2000 printing), self-published, unnumbered, paperback, ISBN 0-9676388-1-X, $19.95
Printed solutions in card notation (e.g. 8C=>9D) of the first 1000 numbered deals in Microsoft FreeCell.    Solutions are long-winded compared to more recent solution catalogs.

Dick, Harris B. -- Dick's Games of Patience, or Solitaire With Cards, New Edition, Revised and Enlarged, 1912, 156pp.
Harris B. Dick, ed., Dick's games of patience, Dick & Fitzgerald, 1898, 113p.; 1908, 117 p.,
Dick's games of patience; or, Solitaire with cards.  2d series; containing seventy games illustrated with sixty-six explanatory tableaux, ed. by Harris B. Dick. New York, Dick & Fitzgerald [1898], 113 pp.)
  (1908, 117 pp., "Miss Milligan" and "Canfield" (that is, Klondike), each having a copyright number, were added to the series as published in 1898.)

Dick, William Brisbane, ed. -- Dick's games of patience, or, Solitaire with cards: Containing forty-four games, Dick & Fitzgerald, c1883, 143 p.,
Dick, William Brisbane -- Dick's Games of Patience, or Solitaire With Cards (2nd ed.), 1884 Dick and Fitzgerald, 154pp., 50d.
New ed., rev. and enl., containing sixty-four games.  Illustrated with fifty explanatory tableaux.
Cited as a reference in Neal-Schuman, but contains nothing of interest that cannot be found in Coops and other references.  Many rules taken verbatim from Lady Cadogan, but with feeble monochrome illustrations replacing her elegant color plates.

[An interesting historical note: The Sociable, Or, One Thousand and One Home Amusements, published in 1858 by Dick and Fitzgerald, includes a few board games, but not a single card game, much less any solitaire games.  The same is true of their 1864 The American Hoyle, or Gentleman's Hand-book of Games.]

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Fitts, John Nelson -- New Deal Solitaire; 33 New Games All For One Deck, [New York] Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, 1934, 96 pp.

[my full review: May 30, 2004]
Despite having been published seventy years ago, the original games in this book have made virtually no impression in the solitaire world.  Not a single game appears in the major compendia by Parlett or Morehead and Mott-Smith, though the authors of those books probably knew about it.  The plain fact is that the games are mostly unoriginal and unimaginative in their ideas; many of the games are self-working or nearly so.   The names attached are as dull as the games themselves, and the mechanisms are sometimes ill-conceived.  

For example, the game Pairs to Cover works as follows: Deal four cards from the stock to start four separate tableau piles.   Deal the remainder of the stock one by one, matching cards by rank with the top of one of the tableau piles whenever possible, and putting nonmatching cards into a waste pile.  When a card is placed on a card of the same rank, cover it with the top card of the waste (or the stock if the waste is empty).  Fitts does not say anything about having matching ranks in the first four cards; presumably if there are two kings in the first four cards, they must each be covered with the other two kings when they appear.  This happens over 30% of the time, but Fitts does not even mention the possibility.  Even worse is what happens if the covering card turns out to be a card matching a different pile.   For example, if the tops of the piles are K 7 T 3, the top of the waste is 6 6 T, and the next card from stock is a king, that king is placed on the first pile and covered by the six on top of the waste.  This frees the other six, which is placed on the first pile to match the other six, then covered by the ten.  We wanted that ten to match the third pile, but the rules, strictly followed, prevent us from using it there.  If the other two tens have already been paired, the first and third piles are now dead.   This situation, too, occurs quite frequently.   This attempt to vary the mechanism of pair matching games simply doesn't work.

Two of Fitts' games appear in the 1996 Collins Gem Patience Card Games by Trevor Day and the Diagram Group.   One of these is Leapfrog, an attempt to make a two-dimensional version of Accordion, which lacks interest because the 20 piles of cards do not sufficiently interact; there are four separate groups of cards which can never be matched between groups, because the author uses checkers-like jumps.   The other is Friday the Thirteenth, a one-deck version of Order of Precedence (Panama Canal), a well-known game found in most large collections.   Day grades the game as Difficult (next grade below the top, Very Difficult), and says "A game built on 13 foundations, requiring careful choices during play."   In fact the strategy is simple and obvious: when a card may be played in more than one pile, choose the one farthest to the right (which is the one with the fewest cards already in it), starting a new foundation pile if permitted.   Even Fitts realized the game is virtually self-working; he calls it "A game of luck, pure and simple".  Boris Sandberg includes the game in his computer package BVS Solitaire Collection.  He disables autoplay for the game, a wise choice,  Allowing autoplay is either going to make the wrong move if carelessly implemented, or give the player nothing to do but turn the stock.   I suspect that Sandberg got the book from the Collins Gem book, as none of Fitts' other games appear in BVS.   Friday the Thirteenth is a livelier game than Panama Canal, which requires a lot of waiting for the right cards to appear, but with 13 foundations instead of 8 it is simply too easy, even with only one redeal.

Fitts' terminology also leaves something to be desired.   He uses "talon" to mean the waste pile, an incorrect usage common to other authors as well, which has confused the meaning of talon so as to make it a useless term.  In fact the original meaning of talon (French for heel) is the unused portion of the deck (stock in modern terminology).  Worse yet, in some games his talon is not even a waste; in Straight Nine it is a discard pile, as no card can be used once it is dealt there.

In his game Seven Down, the cards are dealt one at a time.  Any card can be played on top of a card of the opposite color.  If every pile has, for example, a red card on top, and another red card is dealt, it is used to start a new pile. The object is to have at most seven piles at the end.   This is a self-working game, of course, but in his notes he says it "exposes the skill of the shuffler. If the colors are well distributed a win is assured."  Presumably he thinks that if the colors have a strong tendency to alternate the deck is well-shuffled, which could hardly be further from the truth.   In fact it would be easier to win this game by picking up the piles after a game and not shuffling at all!  The odds are somewhat against the player; a quick simulation of one million random deals shows a win rate of a little above 42%, with anywhere from 2 to 20 piles at the end.

Notes added March 2021: Pierre Berloquin's book includes more than a dozen of Fitts' games.  A handful have been implemented in Pretty Good Solitaire.

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Gardner, Janet -- Thirteen new solitaires, with hints for winning, 1954, [Los Angeles] Oxford Press, 35 p., hardback
Thirteen games invented by the author, illustrated with small monochrome photographs.  Estimated odds are given for each game (ranging from 1 in 4 to 1 in 78!), with superficial hints.  Terminology is odd, and I suspect, invented by Gardner.

Gibson, Walter Brown -- How to Win at Solitaire, 1964, [Garden City, NJ] Doubleday, 134pp., paperback  (originally in hardback from Frederick Fell Publishers, 1964)
Descriptions and playing tips for a variety of solitaires; gives sample deals played out step-by-step for many games (cf.  Cavendish, Dalton).   Canfield or Klondike gives a description of Klondike with rumors of its gambling origin.   Fascination (sometimes called Klondike or Canfield) describes Demon, followed by the chapter Demon which describes some optional rules to make the game easier (one of which he calls Grand Demon).   In the chapter Pyramid, he describes, not the popular game where cards adding to 13 are removed, but a moribund variation of Carpet with a triangular array of 15 cards.

This was republished in 1978 in Toronto, Canada by Info Books as Play Winning Solitaire, with the author listed as John Grant.  It is virtually identical except that there is a blank page after many chapters, running it to 152 pages.   Bookdealers also list another title by Gibson, How To Play Winning Solitaire (Lifetime Books, 1976), but the ISBN points to a completely unrelated book (Production and Inventory Control, by George W. Plossl, which I suspect is not about solitaire).

Grant, P. Francis -- Something New in Patience. Twenty New and Original Games, 1947, [London] Geoffrey Bles, 63pp.
Reprinted as Patience, Twenty New and Original Games, n.d., 63pp., paperback, ISBN 978-1-4474-1220-5 (Leiserson Press, May 19, 2011 according to isbnsearch.org)
I just received this book (March 11, 2021).  A quick glance through shows a lot of pictorial solitaires, a mixture of vague and interesting names, and long-winded explanations.  Hopefully careful study will indicate whether any of the games have interesting features.   The book is a facsimile reprint of the rare 1947 original with no publication information except the ISBN; I would assume it is print-on-demand.

Hapgood, George -- Solitaire and patience: Seventy games to test the card player's skill and make a lonely hour pass quickly, [Philadelphia], Penn, 1908, 179 p. (1911, 191 pp.; 1920, 191 pp.)
I have a 1910 printing which is 179 pages.  This is the same as the 1920 edition posted on archive.org.   The original 1908 title apparently read:  ...Fifty games to test...

Harrod, Jacqueline -- Pick of the Pack Patience Games, 1997, Right Way, [P]128pp., ISBN 0-7160-2077-7, UK L3.99  (1992??)
Reprinted as part of The Biggest Book of Games For One Ever!, 2005, [London] Carlton, 404pp., ISBN 1-84442-537-1
100 games are described, progressing from simple to more difficult games: chapter 4, Per Ardua, includes mostly difficult open games. The author confesses that she has never won at Beleaguered Castle: an illustration that difficulty is subjective.    I've  played B.C. over 500 times, winning about a quarter of the time.    MMS suggests that an even better win rate of 1:3 is possible. 

Hervey, George F. -- Card Games For One, 1965, Teach Yourself Books, 148 pp.   [87]
Hervey, George F. -- Teach yourself card games for one; patiences, solitaires, [London] English Universities Press, 1965, 148 p. (Hodder & Stoughton, 1982)
Contains a large selection of one- and two-deck games, including eight 2-deck games by Charles Jewell published here for the first time.   Parlett's later book with the same title is a completely different book.   The description of Strategy is catastrophically wrong: the eight tableau piles must be empty at the start.

Hervey, George Frangopulo -- The Illustrated Book of Card Games For One, [London] Hamlyn, 1977, 159 p., ISBN 0600340376, £2.95
(U.S.: Chartwell Books, 1977, ISBN 0-89009-113-7)  "over 120 games of solitaire"

Hervey, George F. Hervey -- Your Book of Patience, Faber, 1966, 60pp., hardback
27 solitaire games, briefly described for a younger audience.  Golf and Poker Patience are described in the last section, Competitive Patience Games, along with Stop! (Russian Bank).

Hoffman, Professor (Angelo John Lewis) -- The Illustrated Book of Patience Games, n.d. (1901?), 123pp., hardback
63 games, illustrated in black and red.   Relatively few of the games are popular nowadays.   English version of the German book Illustriertes Buch der Patiencen (the same book translated into French by the Comtesse de Blanccoeur). 

There are also several miniature versions of this, sold with decks of cards, at least one of which is credited to Hoffman, but they contain a different selection of games (see below)

Professor Hoffman (Angelo Lewis), The Illustrated Book of Patience Games, [London] George Routledge, 1920   {English edition of Blanccoeur}, (8th edition, 1914, 123 pp.)
Angelo John Lewis [Professor Hoffman], Selected Patience Games, Charles Goodall, 1916, 1921, 63 p.[P]

Johnstone, Michael -- Card Games for One (Family Matters), 1989, Ward Lock, 95pp.[P], 9d., ISBN 0-7063-6747-2 (reprinted 1994 by Sterling, ISBN 0706372247)
Mediocre collection of about 100 games; most games are described better and more accurately elsewhere.  Many unnecessary alternate names (e.g. Bristol is here called Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion, and misses an important point in dealing; Colorado is called Grand Canyon).  Poorly illustrated.   Johnstone's 1988 Card Games contains 14 solitaires, of which 11 don't seem to be in this volume.   The three found in both books appear under different names and different rules.   This one includes both Canfield (Demon) and Klondike as separate games, calling Demon the one played in the Saratoga Springs casino.   The older book describes Klondike under the name Seven Up (with an unfamiliar rule for filling empty columns), calling it the game invented by Canfield.   Forty Thieves, which is called Le Cadran in the older book (and described correctly), is here named Big Forty, and Johnstone allows sequences to fill empty columns, and two redeals of the waste.   Sir Tommy is included in the older book (though he allows spaces to be filled with the available card from another column), while this volume calls it Old Patience, and seems to imply that cards which are played to the four tableau columns cannot subsequently be played to the foundations until the entire stock has been played (this would make it a much harder variation of Strategy).

Paul William Kearney, Fifty Games of Solitaire, Including Games For Two or More Players, edited and illustrated by Paul W. Kearney, [New York] Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1930, 94 p.
[I have the Seventh Printing, May 1934, Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith]
Paul William Kearney, More solitaire, including games for two or more players, 1931, [New York] J. Cape & H. Smith, 86 p.
I have only the first of these volumes.   Poorly written and illustrated with small monochrome photographs.  Full of incomprehensible mistakes: e.g., in King Albert, he only allows kings to fill spaces (which makes the game nearly unplayable).  In Nestor, he allows an uncovered card to be played on a card of the same rank anywhere, but then says that pair cannot be touched again (what does that mean?).    The game is either pointlessly easy or impossible, depending on how you read his description.  In Golf, he describes the layout, but says that the rows (not columns) are overlapped, meaning only five cards at a time are available instead of seven.  He also says that the lowest ranking card available which is one rank higher or lower must be played on the first foundation card, which takes what little choice there is out of the game (it's not clear whether he means every time a new foundation card is turned).

King, Tom -- Thirty-One Patience Games; Single and Double Pack, Foulsham, c.1920, ISBN 0-572-00172-X (paperback reprint), 1927   [28]
Includes 'A Brief History of the Pack of Cards' by Charles Platt, which is both historically shaky and irrelevant to the subject of solitaire and patience.   It also led at least one library listing to cite Platt as the author of the whole book.

Lee, Sloane and Gabriel Packard -- 100 Best Solitaire Games, 2004, Cardoza, 188 pp., paperback, ISBN 1-58042-115-6, $9.95   [101]
Erratic selection of games (the best 100 without Beleaguered Castle, Fortress, or Simple Simon?), with pointless renaming and misclassification (Fourteen Out, Nestor, and Gaps are all definitely strategy games).

Lewis, Brenda Ralph -- 101 Card Games For One, 2007, Amber Books, 112pp., paperback, ISBN 978-0-375-72234-9, $9.95
Attractively illustrated book with an odd selection of games (Cruel, one of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack, is included, but not FreeCell), with many mistakes (including the rules to Beleaguered Castle, Eight Off, Spider, and Penguin). The games are divided into four groups by Level (Easy, Moderate, Challenging, and Tough), but it beats me what the groups mean.  It clearly can't be win rate, because the almost hopeless closed version of Accordion is in Easy, while the almost-always-winnable Penguin is in Tough (one of Penguin's predecessors, Eight Off, is in Easy, but gives the erroneous win rate of 50%, probably from MMS.  Both Penguin and Eight Off, like FreeCell, have win rates well above 99% with skillful play).   The author is not aware that Cruel usually fails because the player runs out of available moves in the tableau. The back cover blurb contains the astonishing statement: "Card games for one player, also known as solitaire games, have existed for almost as long as playing cards themselves."   There is no historical evidence of solitaire until the 18th century, while playing cards date centuries before that.

Marre, Paul -- Solitaire, or Games of Patience -- 1911, [Chicago] Saalfield, 135pp., hardback
Cover bears the title Card Games You Want To Know.   40 chapters describing various solitaires, with a few games for two or more players.

Martin, K. Gerard -- Bench Solitaire: Using The Foundation For Help, 2021, 224pp., paperback, ISBN 978-1-935816-07-2
Imaginative but bizarre set of optional rules for Klondike and more than 70 other games.  New rules include packing temporary sequences upward in alternate color on the foundation piles, using empty foundation piles as temporary freecells for kings, creating new temporary pseudo-foundations, and returning foundation piles to the stock.  Many of the games included need no help from additional rules.  There may be some good ideas for difficult games here, but they may be unnecessarily complex compared to simple ideas like changing the number of columns or adding a freecell.  Profusely illustrated in full color with examples for many games; full standard rules for each game are also included.  The terminology ("A Pseudo, with Color-Agnostic Branching Clades, Deuce-Based") and some of the artwork are as strange as the ideas.



    

Morehead, Albert Hodges, and Geoffrey Mott-Smith, The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games, 1st ed., [New York] Longmans, Green, 1949, 190 p.
Morehead, Albert Hodges, and Geoffrey Mott-Smith -- The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games, 1949, Bantam, 190pp.[P], 87d., ISBN 0-553-20621-4, $4.95  [170]
Perhaps the best book ever on solitaire (cited herein as MMS): only Parlett's out-of-print 1979 book is a rival.  Widely available, inexpensive, and reasonably comprehensive, though Parlett describes more than twice as many games.  The authors were two of the best writers on card games; they also produced the best general game compendium (The New Complete Hoyle, 1964).  Although MMS is less comprehensive than Parlett, its strong points are playing tips for many skill games, and an attempt to give approximate odds of winning -- unfortunately these appear to be frequently (sometimes wildly) inaccurate.   MMS does a good job of sorting out alternate names, and many of the names it proposes are now standard.  It also contains almost 20 games and variants invented by the authors, including the magnificent Par Pyramid. (90 1D, 4 1S, 4 2S, 69 2D, 2 4D, 1 ------).

(Complete Book of Patience, Faber & Faber, [London] 1950) (David McKay hardback, Bantam paperback, 1966)    ISBN 0571094864 0571069894 571-09486-4

Morton, Laurence -- 'The Bazaar' Book of Patience, a series of twenty-four original games, [London] 1915, The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, 79 p.
(reprinted as 24 games of patience, September 1956 (reprinted August 1963), Thorsons, 80pp., paperback)

Morton, Lawrence -- Popular Games of Patience 1922, [London] Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, 166pp., hardback {Second Edition, Revised and Brought Up To Date}
Same set of 45 games as Whitmore Jones, with modernized terminology.  He changed the title of at least one game (from King Albert to Kaiser Wilhelm), and replaced the table of contents with an alphabetical index (why not have both)?

Morton, Laurence -- 12 New Games of Patience, Austin Rogers, c.1925, (Thorsons, 1927?), 63 pp., paperback

Moyse, Alphonse Jr. -- 150 Ways To Play Solitaire, 1950, U.S. Playing Card Co., 128pp.[P], 84d., $3.75 ppd.   [153]     [74 1D; 4 1S; 73 2D; 2 4D]
Available from the U.S. Playing Card Company (many decks made by the company have an advertising card listing the book).   A pretty decent book, not as good as MMS, but a good value.   It contains a few games not in MMS.  Well-illustrated, showing layouts for most games.    One major drawback is the lack of an alphabetical index.

Newton, Benjamin -- Newton Solitaires, Interesting Games With Playing Cards, [Newport, R.I.], no date, 58pp., hardback
29 games taken directly from the 1883-1884 edition of Dick's Games of Patience.  Newton changed the name of every game he chose, usually Americanizing them.



    

Parlett, David Sidney -- Solitaire : Aces Up and 399 Other Games, 1980, Pantheon, 367 pp., paperback, 33d., ISBN 0-394-73868-3, $5.95, hardback 0-394-51046-1, $15.00
[The Penguin Book of Patience, 1979, [London] Allen Lane, 367pp., hardback, ISBN 0-7139-1193-X, (paperback, 1980, Penguin, ISBN 0-14-046.346-1)
One of the best books ever on solitaire, for both accuracy and comprehensiveness.   It contains the largest selection of games in print (about 400), with a simple classification system.  Parlett also attempts to explain as many of the titles as possible, often giving interesting historical notes.  Parlett is also better than any other author at explaining rules, and has carefully researched and played each game to uncover rules problems. Unfortunately out of print: the original Penguin hardback is rare and fairly expensive, but the Pantheon paperback is widely available and absolutely worth getting.   Includes a bibliography (one of few solitaire books to do so) and an index of games.

Parlett, David -- Teach Yourself Card Games For One, 1994,  Hodder and Stoughton, 156pp.[P], $8.95   {1st edition 1986}   [156]
Excellent book including a number of games (Cat's Cradle) not described in other sources.  New games by Parlett are Pontoon Patience, Suit Yourself (possibly inspired by Sid Sackson's two-handed game of the same name in  A Gamut of Games), and Rittenhouse.   Notes on many games discuss winning chances and suggest possible rule changes to make the game more or less challenging.   More historical notes.   A completely new book not connected with Hervey's 1965 book with the same title.   The rules for Bristol are wrong: the game only works if foundations are built regardless of suit (oddly, he has it correct in his previous volume above).  [57 1D; 94 2D, 5 3+D]

Parlett, David -- Know the Game: Patience, 1976, EP Publishing Limited (published in collaboration with Games & Puzzles magazine), 48pp., paperback, ISBN 0-7158-0501-0
Selection of 38 games (split equally between one- and two-deck), carefull described by skill level, approximate win rate, and other notes.  Oddly, Parlett leaves out Klondike, but includes the loathsome Demon.  In the entry for Accordion, he mentions the possibility of making Accordion a game of skill "by dealing out all 52 cards and then analyzing backwards".

Parodi, Francesca -- Big Book of Solitaire, 2004, Sterling, 191 pp.[P], ISBN 1-4027-0944-7, $6.95 (Il Grande Libro Dei Solitari, Atreesia Progetti Editoriali)   [101]
Translation of an Italian original, with too many renamed games and questionable statements of origin (Moojub, invented by Morehead and Mott-Smith, is here called Black Panther, and claimed to be of Belgian origin).   Many nonsensical misstatements (the author claims Nestor is unwinnable without a rectified deal).



Pope, Arthur Lewis, and Harry Johnson -- 30 Games of Solitaire: A lifetime of entertainment, 1928, [Cincinnati] Lewis, 51pp., paperback
The book is written as though from a single author: possibly Johnson and Pope are publishers, though most listings give Pope as the author.  This is a very interesting selection of games (from a historical standpoint), described along with estimates of win rates based on the author's play .  There are no illustrations, and many games are described under odd names. Demon (called Canfield in more recent American books) is described under the name Klondyke, and what we know as Klondike is described, of course, as Canfield.   Golf is described (with wraparound; they claim a 1 in 10 win rate) under the name Monabelle Clifford (a web search turns up no historical person by that name).  The author claims Montana (possibly the first time that name was used for the game also known as Gaps) can be won 1 in 10 tries in three deals, despite not leaving spaces on redeals (still using aces to randomly place gaps) and not allowing twos to be moved once initially placed.   Accordion is described under the name Unattainable; they claim to have won once in about 1000 attempts.  The game described as Patience Poker is the version where 25 cards are dealt out, and the player tries to freely arrange them into five pat hands of straight or better.  This is frequently described nowadays as Maverick solitaire; they wrongly state it can always be won (the win rate is actually about 98%).  The game described as Quadruplets is now known as Cruel (published in the first Microsoft Entertainment Pack), differing only in the fact that Cruel prefounds aces and begins with 12 piles of four.   This is one of the few sources (along with Coops, Ostrow, and Parlett) which describes Whitehead correctly (Solitaire's Journey has the only computer version I have found so far correctly implemented).  I bought this used (and somewhat battered) for $18, but it was well worth it.

Preble, Henry -- A Month of Solitaires, 1909, Brentano's, 49 pp.,[H]
31 original solitaires (14 each for one and two decks, and 3 for three decks).  Hardly any of these seem to have been perpetuated in the later literature.  One game that has is All In A Row, which was also included in Bonaventure's 1931 book, but almost all recent sources have misunderstood the rules, mistaking it as a predecessor to Black Hole.

Pritchard, D. B. -- Know The Game: Patience Games, 1995, [London] A & C Black, 48 pp., paperback, ISBN 0-7136-4208-4, £3.99
Forty selected games, nicely described by one of the best modern writers on games.    Success rate is given verbally: Demon (Canfield) is rated "once in a blue moon".   "Verdict" gives a quick assessment of each game and its skill element.    Tips are given for many games, as well as other notes including graces (a 'second chance' given in certain games once you are blocked).   Nicely illustrated including a few full-color photographs; some of the open games show layouts which can definitely be solved -- a very useful device for learning some of the better games.   Mostly a completely different book than the earlier book of the same title by Parlett, though Pritchard was editor of G&P and wrote a brief blurb for the 1976 book.

Riches, Wendy, and Roma Thewes, Patience Card Games For All The Family, 1970, Corgi, 93 pp., paperback
39 games described, without a single diagram.   The authors admit to writing the rules mostly from memory, using a handful of books as references to jog their memories, but ignoring any differences they found.  The selection of games seems decades out of date (no Klondike).  One of the few books which describes the open version of Accordion (with the entire deck dealt at the start), but says there's no skill in the game.  Predictably, many familiar games appear under unfamiliar titles: Golf (Take One) and Clock (Travellers) both appear twice under different names, with minor differences.  Space Race is a 3x4 adaptation of the Fifteen Puzzle, which the authors fail to realize will be impossible half the time.




Smith, Evelyn E. -- 50 Games of Solitaire, 1981, Dell Publishing Co., 64 pp., paperback, 29 monochrome illustrations
A Dell Purse book (number 2554), which sold for 69 cents back in 1981.  Includes 37 one-deck and 13 two-deck games.  The author also wrote science fiction and mystery stories (she created the character Miss Melville).  Not a bad book for its size, clearly written and illustrated, with a few interesting oddities, such a progressive version of Klondike with a shrinking series of tableaux.   There are serious mistakes in the description of Matrimony (Nestor), but the book is pretty accurate in general.

Stanley, Bernard -- 40 Patience Games, n.d., [London] Universal Publications, Ltd., 89pp., paperback, 1s3d.
Cheap paperback, printed on pink pulp.  Only six diagrams, in monochrome.   My badly-worn copy is undated, but listings from booksellers suggest 1938.   Mahomedan Press reprinted it in 2011 (ISBN 978-1447412199, $26.99: I believe this is print-on-demand).

Street, Michael, illustrated by Alan Tiegren -- Lucky 13, Solitaire Games for Kids, 2001, SeaStar Books, 128pp., paperback, ISBN 1-58717-014-0, $6.95
Fair guide for children, covering 47 games (with 18 variations) and strategy tips.  Illustrated in black and red.   A few errors (Auld Lang Syne) and unnecessary alternate names (which he seems to have obtained from Johnstone).  Regrettably includes a nonsensical variant of Pyramid where discarded cards can be re-matched with cards still in play.

Tarbart (pseud.), Patience Games, Second Edition, 1905, Thomas de la Rue, 218pp., hardback   [46/49/5]
Major revision of the 1901 first edition (108pp.).  Describes 46 one-deck and 49 two-deck games, plus five games for two players.   Possibly the first book to describe Klondike, under the name Gambler's Delight.  He describes the version with the stock dealt three at a time, turned as many times as desired.
??[Games of Patience], 1921 , 1918?

Whitmore Jones, Mary, Games of Patience for One or More Players (1st Series), L. Upcott-Gill, c.1890, 92 p.[P]; (2nd Series), 1890, 88 p.[P]; (3rd Series) 80 p.; (4th Series) 96 p.; (5th Series - 1899) 98 p.
I have two editions, an undated one one combining the first four series and another (1904) combining the first five.
Mary Whitmore Jones wrote a series of books on patience games, and also invented the Chastleton Patience Board, a traveling set in a large wooden case, designed to keep a deal in progress in place, using miniature cards.

Whitmore Jones, Mary -- New Games of Patience; forty-five of the newest and best games clearly described and illustrated, 1911, L. Upcott Gill.
Later rewritten by Lawrence Morton (cf.).

Whitmore Jones, Mary -- A.B.C. of Patience, 1908, [London] Henry J. Drane, 128pp., hardback
Selection of 50 games, including 11 games for two or more players.

Whitmore Jones, Mary -- 1911, L. Upcott Gill
Whitmore Jones, Mary -- Games of Patience for One or More Players, 278 pp.
New Games of Patience (6th, 7th Series?), 1911? {DP -- 1st 1896, 3rd 1898, 7th 1911, ?8th 191?}

Wideman, Audrey -- Solitaire, 1986, Gordon Soules, 105pp., spiralbound paperback, ISBN 0-920045-84-7
A rarity from a small publisher, subtitled "Fascinating, Satisfying & Absorbing; How To Play 12 Games With Greater Success".   The book is written in a conversational style: the author discusses rules and strategy for a dozen games of the standard repertoire: Canfield (Demon), Klondike, King Albert, Calculation, Scorpion, Montana, La Belle Lucie, Beleaguered Castle, Windmill, Aces Up, Elevens, and Pyramid (some are referred to by nonstandard names).   There are observations on win rates and variations.

Poems, Songs, and Artwork

Benson, Frank Weston -- Girl Playing Solitaire, 1909
Oil painting.   The original is in the Worcester Art Museum.   Beautiful detail in everything except the cards on the table: the game cannot be identified.

Else, A.W. -- Solitaire, 1909, published by Tomaz F. Deuther, Chicago, Illinois
Popular song in waltz time (3/4), arranged for piano and vocal, three verses.    Subtitled: "Solitaire - Solitaire - Gee, what a lonesome game."   Cover shows a man playing an unidentified game.

Nash, Ogden -- Marriage Lines, Notes of a Student Husband, 1931, Little, Brown, and Co., 108 pp.
Pages 45-46 includes a poem written about his wife, who was apparently a solitaire enthusiast: To A Lady Passing Time Better Left Unpassed
"Why, even the Red Knave longing lingers, while Black Queens wait, in those white fingers.  See now the joy that lights your face, squandered on some fortuitous ace," [probably Klondike]


Books with chapters or sections on solitaire

Ainslie, Tom -- Ainslie's Complete Hoyle, 1975, Simon and Schuster, 526pp.[P], ISBN 0-671-24779-4, $11.95    [50]
Weak games compendium by an expert on horserace handicapping, out of his depth in writing on games.  His comments on blackjack are absurd: he says card-counting is unethical because it tries to give the gambler an edge, which is what he does in his profession as a handicapper of thoroughbred horseraces.  Is a bridge-player who is playing for money cheating if he keeps track of the cards played?  It is impossible to be a skilled bridge player without doing so.   Many descriptions (in the solitaire section and the book as a whole) are vague; some contain outright errors.  For example, he says that empty columns in Flower Garden can only be filled with kings, which makes the game unplayable: since cards can only be moved one at a time, sequences cannot be transferred from column to column, which is the whole point of the game.

Arnold, Peter -- The Book of Card Games, 1988, Christopher Helm (Hippocrene), 279pp., paperback, ISBN 0-87052-730-4, $14.95
Alphabetical guide to card game rules; 17 solitaires are scattered throughout the book, all of them included in Arnold's Card Games For One.

Barnett, Paul, and Ron Tiner, Card Games, Victorian Patience and Other Games..., 1992, [Boston] Little, Brown, Bulfinch Press, Anness Publishing Ltd., 95pp., hardback, ISBN 0-8212-1973-1, $8.95
Rules for six solitaires: Beleaguered Castle, Demon (a variation with five columns and foundations always starting with aces), Disloyal Travellers (Clock), Puss in  the Corner (a variation of Sir Tommy), Toad in the Hole (Frog), and Windmill.

Blackwood, Easley -- Spite and Malice, 1970, Cornerstone, 96pp., paperback
Detailed rules and strategy guide for one of the most popular two-handed games based on solitaire.

Botermans, Jack; Tony Burrett, Pieter van Delft, and Carla van Splunteren -- The World of Games, 1989, Facts on File, 240pp., ISBN 0-8160-2184-8 (English edition of Een Wereld vol spelletjes, 1987)
A tiny section on Games of Solitaire (pp. 86-89) covers Belle Lucie [sic] and Trefoil, Carre Napoleon, Parterre (Flower Garden), and Stacking (a variant of Weavers, or Leoni's Own).   The authors are puzzled by the name Parterre, unaware that it is French for flower bed.

Brandreth, Gyles -- The Book of Solo Games, 1984, Peter Bedrick (Harper and Row),  223 pp., paperback, ISBN 0-911745-53-X
Chapter 1, Card Games (pp. 2-27) briefly describes 53 solitaire games, mostly familiar ones.  Russian Solitaire, oddly, describes Aces Up (with an inferior set of rules), not the relative of Yukon.  Brandeth was on the staff of the original Games & Puzzles, founded the UK National Scrabble Championship in 1971, won the European Monopoly Championship in 1974, and is a prolific writer, including a book on Scrabble and many other game collections.

Brandreth, Gyles -- Home Entertainment for all of the Family, 1977, [Battleboro, VT] Stephen Green Press, 222 pp., ISBN 0
I've only seen this in digital form: it can be borrowed for an hour at archive.org.   It's barely worth including here (only nine games on pp. 41-45), except that it is cited as one of 35 sources for The Neal-Schuman Index To Card Games (see Markey and Roginski below), and the account of one game is worth discussing in detail.   Brandreth gives the rules for Great Aunt's Patience (a title which suggests a half-remembered folk game; the name is found nowhere else that I have seen).  The description confirms this: the game is essentially Klondike, but he deals the stock three-at-a-time with no redeal (he even calls a redeal cheating)!  He doesn't even specify whether sequences can be moved, but allows an empty column to be filled with either a tableau king or the top of the waste.  I would bet the odds against the player in this variant are at least 1000 to 1.

de Bruijn, N. G. -- Pretzel Solitaire as a Pastime for the Lonely Mathematician, pp. 16-24 in The Mathematical Gardner (edited by David A. Klarner), 1981, Wadsworth International/Van Nostrand Reinhold, ISBN 0-442-25336-2
Article on 4x4 Montana, with mathematical theory and many sample deals.  The author suggests playing deals out in your head before you ever move a card.

Bryden, Dean -- Fun with Cards, Solitaires, Tricks and Fortunes, 1927, [New York], George Sully and Company, 165pp., hardback
I just bought the 6th Printing, August 1936.   Like many books of that era, it is very skimpy on diagrams, which were very expensive to print.   Part I -- Games of Solitaire (pp. 1-95) describes how to play 30 games of solitaire; ten of those have sample games played through, but with verbose descriptions instead of notation (or diagrams of the tableau).  The remainder of the book tells how to perform card tricks and tell fortunes with cards.  The game listed under Pyramid is the 15-card ancestor of Carpet; he describes the game we know as Pyramid today under the title Elizabeth's Solitaire.  Under Canfield, he describes, of course, Klondike, but he attributes the scoring system (50 tokens for the deck, 5 back for each card played to foundations) as having been "developed during the gold rush to the Klondike."  No mention of Mr. Canfield.  Other games we know under different names today are The Right of Kings (Montana, with only one redeal) and The Garden (Flower Garden: he describes the standard and Relaxed versions).  His description of Golf Patience doesn't say whether ranks wraparound or even whether queens can be played on kings. 

The Diagram Group -- The Way to Play, 1975, Paddington Press, 320pp., hardback, ISBN 0-8467-0060-3
The Diagram Group -- Family Fun and Games, 1992, Sterling, 800pp., hardback, ISBN 0-8089-8776-6
28 solitaire games (plus Russian Bank and Spite and Malice) are described on pp. 142-159 of The Way to Play.  Several games are described differently from other sources: e.g. Spider is described with a 40-card initial tableau.  Eight Away (Eight Off) is given the restriction (which I have never seen anywhere else) that none of the tableau columns can ever contain more than eight cards.  This is a severe restriction, considering that they start with six cards each.  The unnamed author may have the tableau columns confused with the reserve (i.e. the eight freecells, four of which start occupied).   Family Fun and Games covers the same games (with the addition of Accordion) on pp. 678-747, making the same mistakes.

Foster, R.F. -- Foster's Complete Hoyle, The Encyclopedia of All Indoor Games, 1953, Lippincott, 697 pp., hardback
Includes ten solitaire games, some of them scattered throughout the book, including both Klondike and Canfield (Demon).

Fregger, Brad -- Lucky That Way, 1998, Sunstar, 211pp., paperback, ISBN 1-887472-56-8, $14.95
The author claims to have created computer card solitaire, on the basis of publishing Solitaire Royale in 1987.  This may have been the first commercial package, but it appeared about nine years after FreeCell first appeared on the PLATO system.  There's an account of Solitaire Royale in the book, but most of it is devoted to the author's work in the video game field in general.

Galt, David -- Card Games For One Or Two, 1994, Publications International, 64pp., spiralbound paperback, ISBN0-7853-749-4
The section on solitaire describes 18 games.    Attractive illustrations in black and red, but otherwise unremarkable.

Gardner, Martin -- Mathematical Magic Show, Vintage, 1978, (Knopf, 1977), ISBN 0-394-72623-5
Not a book on solitaire, but a collection of Gardner's legendary Scientific American columns.   Chapter 7, "Playing Cards", (pp.94-104) describes (though not by name) Baker's Game, a harder version of the solitaire Eight Off.   Baker's Game, with one rule change, became FreeCell, one of the three most commonly played computer solitaires (along with Klondike and Spider).    It also describes Maverick solitaire, which may be the original form of poker solitaire: deal out 25 cards from a shuffled deck and arrange them at will to form five pat hands (straight or better).   Chapter 17, "Trees", (pp. 240-250), has a brief note on the self-working childrens' solitaire called Clock, giving the exact winning chances of 1 in 13.

Gibson, Walter B. -- Hoyle's Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games, 1974, Dolphin (Doubleday), 398pp., paperback, ISBN 0-385-07680-0
Another alphabetical index of rules.  25 solitaire games (about 37 including variants) are alphabetized under one entry (pp. 320-352), well-illustrated and generally well-explained.   Too much space is wasted on alternate names (which could be done in an index), and sometimes oddball variants are given their own variant names (e.g. White Pass, a variant of Yukon which allows a grace in a blocked position: any column with face down cards is squared up, flipped over, and refanned, interchanging the face up and face down cards.  This sounds less like an established variant and more like someone's house rule).   Some familiar games are described under alternate names (Fascination for Demon), or as variants of less popular games (Forty Thieves under Lucas).  The game described here as Spider is not the popular game of today.    Worth a look for the oddities alone (e.g. Whistler is an easier variant of Klondike where the tableau is packed regardless of suit).

Goren, Charles H. -- Goren's Hoyle Encyclopedia of Games, 1950, 1961, Chancellor Hall, 656pp., hardback
The chapter on Solitaire (pp. 439-484) covers more than 50 games, much more than most Hoyles.   Well-written and accurate; the only error I have found is a mistaken diagram for Flower Garden, showing six columns of ten (instead of six) cards.

Green, Jonathan Harrington -- Gambling Exposed: A Full Exposition of All the Various Arts, Mysteries, and Miseries of Gambling, January 1857, [Philadelphia] T.B. Peterson, 312pp.
A book by a gambler turned anti-gambling reformer, viewable on Google Books.  Pages 220-221 have a muddled description, under the title Solitary, of the game Sir Tommy.  It is described as a sucker bet: the author implies that a skilled player might win one in three, while an average player would have a hard time winning one out of twelve.  So far this is the oldest reference I have seen in English (thanks to Jeroen Romme) of any solitaire game, and adds evidence that Sir Tommy is among the oldest known solitaires.

Harbin, Robert -- Waddington's Family Card Games, 1972, Elm Tree Books (reprinted 1974 by Pan Books, ISBN 0-330-23892-2)
Cited as a reference in David Parlett's Penguin Book of Patience.  Available for borrowing at archive.org.  In the section on Patience games (pp. 134-181), the author describes 25 games in a conversational style, many of them learned from family and friends.  Notable for Spaces and Aces, Harbin's own modification of Gaps (Montana), which also appears in Parlett.

Harwood, Jeremy -- 100 Card Games For All The Family, 2013, Anness, 128pp., ISBN 978-1-78019-303-8 (part of earlier How To Play 200 Card Games)
The section Patience and Solitaire Games (pp. 8-11) covers Klondike (he claims odds of 1:30 dealing three at a time), Accordion (he says you can deal no more than 13 at a time "according to experts"?), Aces Up, and Labyrinth.  He gives up after a few pages and starts describing multiplayer games (Spite and Malice, Spit, Nerts, Poker Patience) on p. 12. 

Henshaw, Annie B. -- Amusement for Invalids, October 24, 1870, [Boston] Loring, 66pp.
Available for download at archive.org, this is one of the earliest books on solitaire (and perhaps the very first to use that term), copyright a year after Cheney's book (which Henshaw recommends), and possibly the same year as the first edition of Lady Cadogan.   The last section of the book, Buried Cities, is devoted to a word game where sentences conceal the names of geographical locations, but the first 35 pages describe four games (taken from French sources), including an illustrative deal of Napoleon at St. Helena (40 Thieves).

Horr, Norton T. -- A Bibliography of Card-Games and of the History of Playing-Cards, 1892, [Cleveland, OH] Charles Orr, 79pp.
Skimpy bibliography with only a handful of items on patience games.   [Republished along with Jessel (see below) in 1972 as the Patterson Smith reprint series in criminology, law enforcement, and social problems.  Publication no. 132.]

Jacoby, Oswald, and James Jacoby -- Jacoby on Card Games, 1986, Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster), 252 pp., ISBN 0-671-66883-8
Contains chapters on Solitare With One Deck (pp. 195-228; 38 games) and Solitaire With Two Decks (pp. 229-247; 15 games).  Many unnecessary alternate names: Mother's Klondike (the in-suit-packing version of Yukon usually called Russian Solitaire); Beleaguered Castle Plus (everywhere else called Streets and Alleys); Under Siege (Citadel); Fortress Plus (Chessboard); Prince Albert (closed version of King Albert); Patience (Auld Lang Syne).

Jessel, Frederic -- A Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming, 1905, Longmans, Green & Co., 312pp. excluding advertising.
Available at archive.org, it contains 1733 numbered bibliographic entries, alphabetized by author.  About 25 entries are for books or articles about patience games.

Johnstone, Michael --  Card Games (Family Matters), 1988, 96pp., paperback, ISBN 0-7063-6635-2
The opening chapter Games of Patience (pp. 9-33) describes 14 solitaire games, only three of which are included in his 1989 follow-up Card Games For One (see above).

Kansil, Joli Quentin, and Tom Braunlich -- Official Rules of Card Games, 338pp., paperback, ISBN 1-889752-06-1, $7.99 (also printed as Bicycle: 100 Years of Timeless Card Games, 1-889752-33-9, $13.00)
88th edition of the U.S. Playing Card Company's guide to card games rules (first published in 1887).   This edition has a very small section on solitaire games (pp. 302-315), covering only 15 games including Double Solitaire. Strangely, it includes Seahaven Towers, but not FreeCell (despite the latter being wildly popular by that time).   The Bicycle: 100 Years edition is printed in a sans serif which is harder to read to my eye.

Klarner, David A., The Mathematical Gardner, pp. 16-24; Wadsworth Int'l., 1981, (Van Nostrand Reinhold), ISBN 0-442-25336-2
   de Bruijn, N. G. -- "Pretzel Solitaire as a Pastime for the Lonely Mathematician", discussion of Montana (Gaps) solitaire, particularly a 4x4 minivariant (see the Montana article on this site).

Klutz Press -- The Klutz Book of Card Games (For Sharks and Others), 1990, Klutz Press, 124pp., paperback, ISBN 0-932592-69-4
Pages 82-103 describe four solitaire games in reasonable detail: Klondike (which they dislike but include because of its popularity), Yukon, Bristol Fans (a pointless renaming of Morehead and Mott-Smith's excellent Bristol), and Grandfather's Clock (already too easy a game, they allow the foundations to be packed regardless of suit).

Leeming, Joseph -- Tricks and Stunts with Playing Cards, 1949 (reprinted as Games and Fun with Playing Cards, 1980, Dover, 184pp.[P], ISBN 0-486-23977-2)
The first section (pp. 8-38) describes 20 solitaire games, covering many of the same games as Sheinwold's similar book.  Oddly, it includes Streets & Alleys, but not Beleaguered Castle.  The description of Auld Lang Syne specifies building the foundations in suit.

Markey, Kay, and Jim Roginski -- Neal-Schuman Index to Card Games, 1989, Neal-Schuman, 125pp., hardback, ISBN 1-55570-052-7, $29.95
An excellent idea, very poorly executed.  (Nowadays, of course, it would be better as a computer database).  This book, designed for librarians, is a listing of over 2000 names of card games (alphabetically, and again by category), with references to 35 books indicating which books include each game.  A handful of the books are compendia of card games, but for others it is hard to understand why they were chosen (such a book on games for babies and children which seems to contain a description of one or two card games).  The selection is heavy on books about gambling, and woefully weak on solitaire (the only book included which is devoted to solitaire is Dick's Games of Patience, published in 1884).  The problem of alternate names is not addressed; there are probably only several hundred different games included; on the other hand, some listings under a single name (e.g. Clock, Pyramid) are actually different games in different sources.   Despite the weakness of the solitaire coverage, it still lists 232 names for solitaire games.  There are many errors (Royal Couple for Royal Marriage), misreadings (Four of a Kind and Hidden Cards is not the name of a game, it is two separate variant names for the self-working version of Clock), misspellings (Accordian), etc.   Two games (Napoleon's Wish, Zombie) listed as being in Dick's Games of Patience (and not found elsewhere) are simply not there!

Maugham, W. Somerset -- The Gentleman in the Parlour, 1930
A collection of stories describing a trip the author took through Southeast Asia.  Notable for a few passages (Chapter 15, pp. 78-79; Chapter 25, pp. 130-131) about playing patience (solitaire).  The following brilliant short excerpt mentions both Spider (it's unclear whether this is the modern version) and Canfield (obviously Klondike) by name:

... But I knew seventeen varieties of patience. I tried the Spider and never by any chance got it out; I tried the patience they play at the Florence Club (and you should hear the shout of triumph which goes up when some Florentine of noble family, Pazzi or Strozzi, accomplishes it) and I tried a patience, the most incredibly difficult of all, that was taught me by a Dutch gentleman from Philadelphia. Of course the perfect patience has never been invented. This should take a long time to do; it should be complicated, calling forth all the ingenuity you have; it should require profound thought and demand from you solid reasoning, the exercise of logic and the weighing of chances; it should be full of hairbreadth escapes so that your heart palpitates as you see what disaster might have befallen you had you put down the wrong card; it should poise you dizzy on the topmost peak of suspense when you consider that your fate hangs on the next card you turn up; it should wring your withers with apprehension; it should have desperate perils that you must avoid and incredible difficulties that only a reckless courage can surmount; and at the end, if you have made no mistake, if you have seized opportunity by the forelock and wrung unstable fortune by the neck, victory should always crown your efforts.  But since such a patience does not exist, in the long run I generally returned to that which has immortalised the name of Canfield. Though it is of course very difficult to get out, you are at least sure of some result, and when all seems lost the turning of a sudden happy card may grant you a respite. I have heard that this estimable gentleman was a gambler in New York and he sold you the pack for fifty dollars and gave you five dollars for every card you got out. The establishment was palatial...  and as I set out the seven cards, and then the six, ...

Maverick, Bret (pseudonym) -- Poker According to Maverick, 1962, Warner Brothers (revised 1994 by Tuttle as Maverick's Guide to Poker), 169pp. paperback, ISBN 0-8048-3032-0, $5.95
The form of poker solitaire known as Maverick is mentioned on pp. 131-132, quoting accurate odds of 49-1 in favor, although their version does not allow four of a kind.

McClure Company (publisher) -- Hoyle's Games, Autograph Edition, 1907, [New York] The McClure Company, 412pp.
Early 20th century compendium with only a few pages on solitaire.  Demon is described as a gambling game, under the name Klondike, on pp. 248-251.  Klondike is described as a variant, under the name Seven-Card Klondike, on pp. 251-252.   After several pages of other games, the author spends two pages on Patience Games or Solitaire, describing (under the heading With One Pack) a version of Sir Tommy, but with foundations built in suit, and (under With Two Packs) Forty Thieves.  This may the earliest source where Klondike is described by name.

Mohr, Merilyn Simonds -- The New Games Treasury, 1993 (reprinted 1997), Houghton Mifflin, 432 pp., paperback, ISBN 1-57630-058-7, $23.00
Large and attractive games compendium, covering solitaire in Chapter 8, Beating The Devil: Card Games for One (pp. 180-200), with large illustrations in black and red.   A worthwhile survey, with historical notes (e.g. denying the legend that Napoleon ever played solitaire), covering 13 games and many variations, including uncommon ones.  Idiot's Delight describes a variant of Aces Up in which pairs are also discarded, the object being to end up with only four cards on the tableau; while Aces Up describes a pair-discarding variant where aces are not discarded, the object being to finish with four aces only (she describes winning this version as "an almost unprecedented feat".   Describes both Klondike and Fascination (Demon) as gambling patiences, claiming Richard A. Canfield renamed the latter after himself.  Describes Forty Thieves under the name St. Helena, which ordinarily is attached to a completely different game [although Forty Thieves, confusingly, is often called Napoleon at St. Helena.]

Morehead, Albert H., Richard L. Frey, and Geoffrey Mott-Smith -- The New Complete Hoyle Revised, 1991, Doubleday, 692 pp., hardback, ISBN 0-385-24962-4, $24.95
Although as a whole this is the best Hoyle on the market, the coverage of solitaire is unremarkable.  20 solitaire games are covered on pages 463-479 (plus a few two-handed games).   Nothing you won't find elsewhere, particularly the definitive work by Morehead and Mott-Smith (see above).   This book includes their improvements to La Nivernaise (Tournament) and Royal Parade (Virginia Reel), but regrettably not the multiple deal Par Pyramid.  I also have the 1964 edition which has identical coverage (pp. 480-499).  I have not seen older editions from 1947 and 1956.

Ostrow, Albert A. -- The Complete Card Player, 1945, Whittlesey House (McGraw-Hill), 771pp., hardback
Solitaire games are described on pages 649-696.  He credits Whitehead to the noted bridge player and author Wilbur C. Whitehead, and specifies that the first card dealt after the face-up tableau is the foundation base (as in Demon and Penguin).  Relatively few sources include Whitehead, and most get it wrong, building foundations from aces as they turn up in play.

Parlett, David -- A Dictionary of Card Games, 1992, Oxford University Press, 360pp., paperback, ISBN 0-19-869173-4, $11.95
Alphabetical dictionary of card game rules.   Most of the solitaire games (except Cribbage and Poker, and multiplayer games based on solitaire) are in the section Patience (pp. 181-191), describing the usual suspects along with a few lesser-known games: Accordion, Auld Lang Syne (a waste of space in such a small section), Cromwell (Charles Jewell's two-deck adaptation of La Belle Lucie), Demon, Golf, Klondike, Miss Milligan, Quadrille, Strategy, and Terrace.

Parlett, David -- The Oxford Guide to Card Games, 1990, Oxford University Press, 361 pages, hardback, ISBN 0-19-214165-1, $29.95 (full color illustrations on glossy pages)
(reprinted as "A History of Card Games", 1991, Oxford University Press, 361 pages, paperback, ISBN 0-19-282905-X, L7.99 (no illustrations))
Excellent account of the development of various families of card games.  Chapter 13, The Patient Pursuit (pp. 153-162), includes probably the most accurate account of the history of solitaire.  An interesting point therein is that the date of the first edition of Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Patience is unknown (the last existing copy was destroyed during WW2); this is significant because she is widely credited with writing the first English-language book on patience games, but Ednah Dow Cheney's book, published in the U.S., has a copyright date of 1869.  Parlett also wrote an excellent collection of his own card games (Original Card Games, 1977, Batsford), which does not contain any solitaires.

Parlett, David -- The Family Book of Games, 1983, [London] Michael Joseph (Sceptre Books), 208 pp., hardback, ISBN 0-7181-2356-5
Beautifully illustrated book with a surprisingly skimpy section on Patience Games (pp. 141-145), covering only Flower Garden, Clock, Klondike, Parade (a one-deal version of Montana with the aces placed in fixed order SHDC in the four rows, and sequences built in descending order from king down to two), and Miss Milligan.

Phillips, Hubert -- The Pan Book of Card Games, 1953, H. F. and G. Witherby Ltd., 335pp., (1960 reprint ISBN 0-330-20175-1)
Another book cited as a source by Parlett: the last chapter, Patience Games (pp. 302-335) describes 28 games, with illustrations.  It's a very out-of-date selection of games; this must be one of the few books in the last 75 years not to include Klondike under any name.  His version of Demon is a two-deck game with eight tableau columns and a 40-card storehouse.  He includes Golf under its original title One Foundation, describing it as very little known.

Quinn, Vernon -- 50 Card Games for children: with an easy lesson in contract bridge and complete layouts for playing, 1946, U.S. Playing Card Company (Whitman), 128pp., paperback
Twelve Games of Solitaire (pp. 39-65) covers much of the same territory as Leeming and Sheinwold (Beehive appears here as Honey-Bee).  Under Idiot's Delight, he says that the version "according to Hoyle" (which is usually called King Albert) has a win rate of 1 in 50 or 60.  He describes what he says is an easier tableau, but his description doesn't emphasize the fact that you need empty columns to transfer sequences.  The same is true of Spread Eagle, a game I haven't found anywhere else: it is probably a one-deck simplification of a game found in Cavendish.  Contains a game, Down The Stairs, which I find in no other sources.  It is a long-winded and tedious, but always winnable game based on the Tower of Hanoi.   He has Demon and Klondike completely confused.  From the section on Canfield (Klondike): "When this popular game of solitaire first was played, its name was Klondike, but everyone now calls it Canfield.  At least, they know it by that name, but many of them call it merely "Solitaire" -- as if it were the only game of solitaire ever played!"   From the section on Klondike (Demon): "Many years ago the name of this game was Canfield, and a quite different game of Solitaire was called Klondike.  But somehow the names of the two games became confused; so this one now is Klondike and the other one Canfield."  [Well, not any more.]

Rigal, Barry --  Card Games For Dummies, 1997, IDG Books, 345pp., paperback, ISBN 0-7645-5050-0, $16.99
Chapter 21, Solitaire (pp. 287-306), describes Accordion, Calculation, Canfield (Demon), Klondike, La Belle Lucie, and Poker Patience.

Roberts, Charles -- New Card Games For You To Play, 1986, Foulsham, 160pp., paperback, ISBN 0-572-01381-7, L3.99
Despite the title, these are all well-known card games.  Part 2, Patience Games (pp. 135-160), covers 18 solitaire games of older vintage.

Sackson, Sid -- A Gamut of Games, 1969, Random House, 210pp., hardback
Perhaps the best collection of original games ever published.  Sid Sackson was a notable game inventor (Acquire), collector, and historian.   22 of the 38 games included are Sackson's own inventions; among the others are Claude Soucie's board game Lines of Action and Robert Abbott's Crossings (later modified to produce Epaminondas).  The only card solitaire in this collection is Sackson's Bowling Solitaire (pp. 95-99), which uses a 20-card deck to produce a simulation of bowling.  Possibly Sackson's multiplayer card game Suit Yourself may have inspired David Parlett's solitaire of the same name.

Sackson, Sid -- Card Games Around The World, 1994, Dover, 146pp., paperback, ISBN 0-486-28100-0 (reprint of 1981 original by Prentice-Hall)
63 card games, mostly traditional games collected from the U.S., Latin America, Europe, and Asia, mixing familiar and unfamiliar games.  The last four games are invented by Sackson and two of his colleagues.  Chapter 4, More Games From Europe, describes (pp. 69-78) five solitaires: Klondike (plus Klondike For 2), Clock (the self-working version), La Belle Lucie, Accordion, and Calculation.  He mentions that he and his father devised a Klondike variation they played thousands of times with a win rate about even: the stock is dealt three at a time, but only the top can be played, and the two or three cards remaining are returned to the bottom of the deck (presumably the last few cards can be played singly).   Empty tableau columns can be filled with any card or sequence.

Sapsford, Donald -- Card Tricks and Patience, 1970, [Walton on Thames] Starfish Books Ltd, 144pp., paperback, ISBN 0900708549, 20 pence.
Most of the book describes 30 simple card tricks (one which contains a racial slur in its title).   The section on solitare gives rules for 11 games, mostly with undescriptive titles, compiled from memory by the author (according to the publishers, Phyllis and John Harding).   Not recommended except to avid collectors.

Sheinwold, Alfred -- 101 Best Family Card Games, 1992, Sterling, 128pp., paperback, ISBN 0-8069-8635-2, $4.95
Chapter 10, Solitaire (Patience) Games (pp.102-123) describes 16 games plus the two-handed Russian Bank and multiplayer Pounce.   Notable games not found in many sources are Beehive (a rank-packing variant of Storehouse), and Pirate Gold (a self-working pair-discarding game for children).

Stein, Lincoln David -- Family Games, 1979, Macmillan, 287pp., hardback, ISBN 0-02-613750-X
General games collection, included as a source in Kay Markey's Neal-Schuman Index to Card Games.  Solitaire is covered on pages 180-187.  He includes Klondike, Canfield (Demon), Four Seasons (Vanishing Cross), Idiot's Delight (King Albert), Scorpion, and No Name (Baker's Game).   I assumed No Name (mis-cited in Neal-Schuman as No Name Patience) was probably a well-known game which the author didn't know the proper name for, but it is actually the game Martin Gardner described in his book (see above), which was later named Baker's Game (and in computer form as Brain Jam).

The U.S. Playing Card Company, The Official Rules of Card Games, 28th Edition, 1924, 240 pages, paperback
Rules for 14 games in 7 pages.   Klondike is described with the player playing 52 counters to play, and receiving 5 counters for each card played to the foundation, dealing the stock one by one with no redeal.  Canfield is now used as the name for Demon.
Includes a correct description of Whitehead, suggesting the game was well-established by then.  Patience Poker is described as a multiplayer game, played in duplicate style (each card after the first has to be played adjacent to a previously played card, and finish with a 5x5 array filled in).
 
The U.S. Playing Card Company, The Official Rules of Card Games, 37th Edition, 1939, 253 pages, paperback
Rules for 16 solitaire games (pp. 218-226, except for Poker and Cribbage Solitaire, which appear in the corresponding sections), plus Multiple Solitaire.  Solitaire Poker (p. 101) now refers to Maverick.  Oddly, my copy says Fifty-Second Edition on the cover, but 1939 would have been much too early for the 52nd.
Wall, Amy -- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Family Games, 2002, Alpha Books, 329pp., paperback, ISBN 0-02-864008-X
This book contains one short and bizarre chapter on solitaire (Chapter 13, Fun For One: Games of Solitaire (pp. 141-150)).  It describes Clocks (a two-deck game, not the self-working one-deck game), Golf (the author claims you cannot change direction during a series of discards: the game absolutely does not work that way), Forty Thieves (she seems confused as to what a multicard move is, referring to moving a group of cards to the foundation), Pyramid (including Par Pyramid; this section seems fine), Calculation (she wrongly claims the odds of winning are slim, and suggests building the waste piles with kings on the bottom, which doesn't work -- normally you reserve one pile for kings and inverted sequences), Russian (what she calls standard solitaire, that is, Klondike; I have never seen Klondike called Russian Solitaire elsewhere; the latter usually refers to a version of Yukon with in-suit packing), and Double Solitaire (apparently based on Klondike, though I confess I didn't understand the description).

Wood, Clement, and Gloria Goddard -- The Complete Book of Games, 1938, Blue Ribbon  Books, (1949, Doubleday), 894 pp., hardback
Covers several of the usual multiplayer patiences, before launching into Individual Patience (pp. 255-271).  Briefly describes about 25 games, many of them under titles no longer common (Sham Battle for Beleaguered Castle; Alexander The Great for La Belle Lucie).  Describes Whitehead correctly; includes a few rarities like Five-Deal Klondike, The Masked Twelve, and Upside-Down Pyramid (all variants of Klondike).   Describes Financier (usually known as Royal Parade) as a favorite game of J.P. Morgan, Sr., and his grandson Junius, and says: "It ranks among the greatest games of the group ever invented."   Explicitly states that Richard A. Canfield invented Canfield (Demon).


Rarities

This is a list of books I have never seen: details are extracted from various bibliographies, library catalogs, lists from bookdealers, and auction sites such as eBay.

Bent, Mabel V.A. -- A Patience Pocket Book, 1903, [Bristol] J.W. Arrowsmith, 186pp.

Cady, A. Howard -- Games of Patience (Spalding's Home Library, New York, 1896)
Alice Howard Cady was a prolific writer on games in the late 19th century, including board games (backgammon, checkers), dice and domino games, and numerous card games.  Archive.org, Google Books, and the Library of Congress contain many of her books, but no one lists the title above, which comes from a brief bibliography from the article on Patience in the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica (which is now in the public domain).   Cady's book Drawing Room Games (1897) contains an advertisement for a whole series of Spalding's Home Library books (which sold for 10 cents); Games of Patience is number 18 in the series of 25.

Call, William Timothy, Scientific solitaire, [Hawthorne, NJ] C.M. Potterdon, 1910, 27 p., illustrated   
This is the top of my most-wanted list.   Apparently a description of an original solitaire game invented by the author.  Call (1856-1917) was a prolific writer on checkers, who also wrote on other subjects including kboo (a mancala game), shorthand, and calculation techniques.  A number of his books can be found at archive.org, though unfortunately not this one.   Worldcat, a database of library catalogs from all over the world, identifies the Library of Congress (McManus-Young Collection, https://lccn.loc.gov/93145289, GV1261.C33 1910) and Oxford University as the only libraries with copies.   A classified ad in the New York Tribune (June 18, 1910) says: "Presenting what is believed to be a new game, based on exact calculation and eliminating memorizing. It is played with a pack of cards."

Dawson, Lawrence Hawkins -- Selected Patience Games For Play With One or Two Packs, 1933, [Bristol, London] W.D. & H.O. Wills, 63pp.
A miniature book containing 26 versions of patience. Illustrated with colour diagrams throughout. All edges gilt.

Diehl, Charles Vidal -- Poker Patience and Progressive Poker Patience, c.1910, Goodall and Son Ltd., London and Birmingham, 25pp.
Another miniature book.   I do not know the rules for Progressive Poker Patience, which does not seem to appear in any compendia.

Gilbert, Spencer -- Games of Patience and Other Popular Card Games, 1925, [London] Robert South, paperback

Guise, F. -- Have Patience, 1887, [Bristol] J.W. Arrowsmith, 119pp.
Guise, F. -- Vol. 2, Have More Patience, c1888, [London] Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, 121pp.
Guise, F. -- Vol. 3, Have Still More Patience, 1889, [London] Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, 119pp.
Guise, J.F. -- Have Still More Patience, Simpkin et al., c.1900, 94 pp., paperback

Jackpot -- Poker Patience, c.1910, The International Card Co., London
Still another miniature.

Moon, Adelbert Lyman -- Crescent rules for games of solitaire, 1918, [New Orleans] the author, 43 pp.
This turns up only in the Library of Congress catalog.   Unclear whether the games are new, or a compilation of existing games.  Web searches are confused by the fact that there is a solitaire called Crescent (also one called Waning Moon).

Perseverance (William Henry Cremer), Patience, [London] E.C. Spurin, 1860., 28pp. plus 29 colored plates
Another translation of Le Livre des Patiences by Madame de Fortia.   This was apparently the first published book on solitaire in English, a decade before Mrs. Cheney and Lady Cadogan.

Wilstach, Paul, Fifty games of solitaire with cards, [Indianapolis] Carlon & Hollenbeck, Printers, 1891., 139 pp.

Wood, Walter -- The Book of Patience, Or Cards For a Single Player, 1887, [London] W H Allen & co., 80 pp.

n.a. -- Twelve Good Games Of Patience Using One Or Two Packs, Benno Partners & Products, London, 1930, paperback


Foreign Language Books

French
Berloquin, Pierre -- 100 Grandes Réussites, 1974, [Paris] Flammarion, 220 p., hardback, 110FF (paperback edition, 1992, ISBN 978-2082001489)
Berloquin is a noted writer on everything from mathematical puzzles to tarot card games.  I had long hoped this would be translated, but finally broke down and ordered an inexpensive used hardback copy, which is in fine condition.   A bibliography is included, listing many of the English-language books published up to that time.   Illustrated with photos of French cards, mostly in monochrome, but a few in color.  A quick skim through the titles and photos shows a mix of familiar and unfamiliar games.
He gives sources for many of his games; seven are noted as unpublished, which probably means they are originals from Berloquin himself.   I did not spot anything which looked like Klondike, but the front cover shows a beautiful full-color photograph of King Albert.  Berloquin draws on Fitts' new Deal Solitaire as a major source, including 13 of his games, while only selecting a handful from Morehead and Mott-Smith.  Page numbering is a bit haywire, as some pages containing photos are skipped.

Blanccoeur, Comtesse de -- Le Livre illustre des patiences, 60 jeux de patience avec figures indiquant la place des cartes, c1860?, 1880, Paris, 114pp.
1880 edition available online from archive.org.   Translated from a German original published by Kern; Hoffman's English translation is of the same book.  Hathi Trust has a downloadable version of an undated French translation, published by Kern in Breslau, which appears to be Blanccouer's version.  Possibly Kern agreed after the fact to publish her French translation in Germany.

F***, Madame de (Fortia, Marquise de) -- Le livre des patiences, 13th edition, 1859, [Paris] Martinon, 106 pp.
G***, Madame -- Le livre des patiences, 24th edition, 1876, [Paris] Martinon, 108 pp.
13th edition is viewable at Google Books.  Covers 26 games, without illustrations.   First edition was in 1842 according to Peter Voke.   The 24th edition, downloadable at archive.org, has two additional games added by Mme. G***.

Bežanovska, Maria, and Paul Kitchevats -- Le Livre des Patiences, 1987, Les Editions de L'Homme, 178pp.
Viewable at archive.org.  Covers 30 games with variants and versions for multiple players.   Monochrome photographs.


German
Sosna, Heinz -- Neue Patiencen, 1995, Falken Taschenbuch, 125pp., paperback, ISBN 3-635-60132-2, DM 14.90
18 original games with example games played through, illustrated with color photographs of German cards.  So far I've translated one game, Bonjour Paris, which starts with a mistaken story about Leibniz playing solitaire in reverse (he was actually playing peg solitaire).  The game is a two-deck building game with a small tableau (two rows of seven) packed downward in suit (but, like Autumn Leaves, not necessarily consecutively).   Seven of the eight suit foundations are built normally upwards from ace to king; one club suit is built downwards from king, in a figure representing the Eiffel Tower, which splits after the nine of clubs.   Cited as a reference by BVS Solitaire.

Omasta, Vojtech -- Patience, Neue Und Alte Spiele, 1985, Ratgeber Fachbuch Kartenspiele, Dausien, Verlag Slovart, 208pp., hardback
Detailed descriptions of more than 60 games, illustrated in full color.

Spanish
Alonso, Adolfo M. -- Solitarios Con Cartas de Poker, 2003, [Buenos Aires, Argentina] Grulla, 94pp.,  ISBN 987-520-233-9 <Spanish>
My Spanish isn't good enough to be sure if any of these are original games; only a few of the layouts (illustrated with photographs) look familiar, and the Spanish titles are vague.   I am plowing through the book using a scanner with Google Translate.  The first game, Solitaire of the Five Cards, seems to be a version of Storehouse with cards dealt as in Demon.  But the second game in the collection is Pyramid, and is followed by Double Pyramid, which uses two 21-card pyramids (both allow the stock to be redealt once; the rules are vague about stock-waste matches).   Another game, Juego de las escaleras por palos (game of the stairs by suit), turns out to be Spider, with only 44 cards dealt intially.   The games are a mix of one- and two-deck games, with a few games for shortened decks.


Magazine articles

Dalton, W. -- My Favourite Patiences, The Strand Magazine, Volume 38, Number 228, December 1909, pp. 791-798
Describes Demon, Agnes, Flower Garden, Step Ladder (Klondike), Canfield (Klondike as a gambling game), Betrothal, Touch Patience (a version of Monte Carlo), and Miss Milligan.  Available online at archive.org.

Devonia -- (various patience games), The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household, Volume 44, January 2 to June 29, 1891
Most likely Devonia is a pseudonym for Mary Whitmore Jones, as all of these games appear in her Third Series of Games of Patience: Octave p.22, Brigade p. 148, Problem p. 258, Block Tan [sic] p. 271, The Queen and Her Lad p. 319, Colours p. 448, Missing-Link p. 459, Scotch p. 550, Burleigh p. 579, Demon p. 671, and Vanbrugh p. 873.   This may be the first appearance in print of Demon (April 27, 1891).  The whole volume is available online from Google Books.   Problem Patience is an 11-card version of the Fifteen Puzzle played in a 3x4 space, and the description is erroneous: when the game fails (half the time), no amount of maneuvering can finish it succesfully.

Dudeney, Henry Ernest -- Mr. Pankhurst's "Patience", The Strand Magazine, Volume 40, Number 240, December 1910, p. 823
Describes a solitaire (unhelpfully named The Triangle), which was later renamed King Albert (in Bergholt's Second Book of New Patience Games).  He gives a sample deal to be solved while playing only five cards to the foundations before the rest of the cards are in sequence.  His solution appears in Volume 41, Number 241, p. 117, with a comment that he had later solved a deal with no cards played to the foundations.   Bergholt includes the original problem and the solution in his book, quoting Dudeney to say that King Albert is "the only patience game worth playing."  Dudeney mentions King Albert and Bergholt in passing in his 1917 Amusements in Mathematics (problem 385, p. 116, The 'Strand' Patience, which is not really a solitaire, but a variation of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle).   None of these sources make it clear whether Dudeney actually invented King Albert.

Graham, Mary Louise -- The Game of Patience, Puritan Magazine, March 1901, Vol. 9, Num. 6, pp. 896-901
Nine games from the turn of the century, some described with illustrations and the author's win rate.  I found this listed in Jessel's 1905 bibliography, but his citation had the wrong magazine, Munsey's Magazine (Munsey also published The Puritan) and it took quite a while to find the correct reference (Google Books has the entire issue online).

Keller, Michael -- Big Deal, Games Magazine, June 1995, pp. 10-13
Possibly the first published article on FreeCell, also describing Baker's Game (Brain Jam), with three sample deals of each, and solutions (p. 40).   The agreed-on title was Alone At Least; Games changed it for publication.

Nowell, John -- M.J.'s Mountain, Games Magazine, June 1989
Very original solitaire, which only appeared (under the names Dimaryp and Pyramid Building) in a couple of computer implementations in the 1990's.

Pole, William -- Games At Cards For One Player, Macmillan's Magazine, January 1875, Vol. 31, p. 242-252
A very fine article from almost the dawn of solitaire, at least in England (full issue available from archive.org).  Pole, a noted writer on whist, begins by talking about what makes a good "Solitary Game" as he prefers to call them.  He prefers games with one deck (finding two decks or more cumbersome to shuffle and lay out), believing that "A little ingenuity and consideration will suffice to design games of a much simpler structure," and considers that a game with winning chances close to even is preferable.   He then describes nine Games of Chance and seven Games Combining Chance and Skill.   The games most familiar to modern players are Old Patience (Sir Tommy), which he suggests playing with five waste piles instead of four, and Flower Garden (he describes the variant where sequences can be moved from column to column, or to an empty space).  He does describe one two-deck game, Sultan, which he calls "a very pretty game that does not admit of adaptation to a single pack".

Robinson, Karen Deal, and three others -- Solitaires Extraordinaire, Games Magazine, June 1998, pp. 50-52
Five original solitaire games (and a sixth using chess pieces).  Wizard's Tower (Robinson) is a sort of Miss Milligan using a 78-card tarot deck.   Designer Solitaire (Anne Connolly) is a variant of Russian solitaire using a random mix of face-up and face-down cards (the designer part is that the player chooses the tableau size and how many cards to turn face down before shuffling the deck).

Ross, Professor Alan -- article on origins of Patience, Games & Puzzles Num. 40 (September, 1975)

Sackson, Sid -- Mini Golf, Games Magazine, June/July 1987, pp. 46-47
A new form of golf solitaire, which can also be played competitively.

Salamanca -- We Three Kings, Games & Puzzles 45, December 1975, pages 4-5
Salamanca -- Royal Marriage Patience, Games & Puzzles 51, August 1976, page 20
Salamanca --  At The Ball, Games & Puzzles 53, October 1976, page 18
Three pictorial solitaires by a well-known British crossword compiler (Mick Freeman).  I suspect that they all have extremely low win rates; at any rate, I never made much headway in any of them.

Games Digest

In the 1930's bridge expert Ely Culbertson edited Games Digest, devoted to a wide range of games and puzzles.   Regular features include trivia quizzes; descriptions of card, board, dice, and pencil-and-paper games; columns on bridge, chess, and checkers, including openings and endings; and a variety of puzzles.   Each issue described, in detail, one kind of solitaire, with sample play and strategy tips for many games.   The authors generally seem to prefer solitaire games with a win rate about 1 in 3 or 1 in 4, yet some of the games they describe have extremely low win rates.  My collection is limited to Volume 1, Numbers 2-10, and Volume 2, Number 3.  Morehead and Mott-Smith mention that their inventions Virginia Reel (September 1938, Vol. 2. Num.1, according to Google Books) and Tournament (obviously in an issue I do not have) also appeared in Games Digest in 1938.  I suspect that they were the authors of some of the uncredited articles listed below; they were both associate editors on the magazine.  The New York Public Library and Harvard University, among others, have full sets through December 1938 (Volume 2 Number 4).   The Brian Sutton-Smith Library (The Strong National Museum of Play) says that Games Digest was absorbed by Bridge World starting in February 1939, continuing under the title: The Bridge World and Games Digest.   Jeff Rubens, the editor of Bridge World, tells me that the solitaire feature did not continue in The Bridge World.

(unknown) -- "Calculation, a Scientific Solitaire Game", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.1, September 1937, pp.51?
    Not in my collection; details are from the index to volume 1.  A picture of the cover confirms its inclusion.
(author uncredited) -- "Golf Solitaire", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.2, October 1937, pp.37-39
    This is the inferior version with no wraparound and nothing played on kings, but a good scoring idea: if you clear the tableau, you can make a negative score for any cards left in the stock.
(author uncredited) -- "The Spider", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.3, November 1937, pp.42-43
    Slightly different from the modern version, with a 50-card tableau instead of 54, but possibly the first description of Spider in print.
(author uncredited) -- "The Four Seasons", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.4, December 1937, pp.47-48
Bernstein, Cyrus -- "The Accordion", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.5, January 1938, pp.28-29
Beers, Bill -- "Cribbage Solitaire", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.6, February 1938, pg.20
     Described by its inventor.
(author uncredited) -- "Pyramid Solitaire", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.7, March 1938, pg.30
Coffin, George -- "Poker Patience", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.8, April 1938, pp.24-26
    With an editorial note (pp.26-27): Varieties of Poker Patience, including two problems.
Godfrey, Vivian L. -- "Midnight Oil", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.9, May 1938, pp.27-28
    Describes the drawless version of La Belle Lucie.
(author uncredited) -- "Little Spider", Games Digest, Vol.1 Num.10, June 1938, pp.13-14
    Describes Spiderette, the one-deck variant based on the Klondike tableau.
(unknown) -- "The Virginia Reel" and "The Forty Thieves", Games Digest, September 1938, Vol. 2, Num. 1, pp. 29? and pp.40? respectively
    Also not in my collection; details are from Google Books.
(author uncredited) -- "Wheat and Chaff", Games Digest, Vol.2 Num.3, November 1938, pg.57
    Describes Aces Up; the author thinks it a very low skill game and nearly impossible to win.



Booklets from Commercial Card Packages and Computer Implementations

A few computer versions, and booklets included with decks of cards, include printed manuals as elaborate as the typical small book or section of a general book on card games.

According To Hoyle -- Solitaire, 25 Fun Games
   2 decks and rules leaflet with 25 games

Ace Playing Card Company -- Patience (Solitaire), 19 selected patience games, [Leinfelden]
Not a book, technically: 2 miniature decks come with rules for 19 games (including some two-player games) in individual folded leaflets.

Hartley, John -- Solitaire to go!, 2005, Peter Pauper Press, 80 pp., hardback, $7.95
Part of a boxed package which comes with a standard deck of cards.   Unremarkable selection of 27 games, with small illustrations in full color.  The description of Pyramid doesn't specify that top of stock and waste are both available.

Heines House -- The Skillful Play of Solitaire, 1975, [Minneapolis] Heines House, 24pp., paperback
I don't know if the booklet accompanied a set of cards; I bought it secondhand.  Covers 13 common games.   Despite the title, the strategic advice is skimpy.   Describes the open version of Accordion, but says: "Veteran players estimate that in only one game of a hundred or so do the combinations work out successfully."   Aces Up is "a good game to play when you want something that's easy to beat".

Hoffman, Professor (Angelo Lewis), Selected Patience Games, Charles Goodall, 1916, 1921, 63 p., paperback
n.a. -- Selected Patience Games, n.d. (1930's?), Thomas de la Rue, London, 64 pp., 18 red and black illus.  (22 games))

International Playthings -- 25 Ways To Play Solitaire, n.d., 36 pages (bilingual English and French), paperback
25 games, all of which appear in Douglas Brown's The Key To Solitaire (some slightly renamed).   Comes with a giant deck of cards (78 x 116mm, too big for solitaire) with original artwork by Terry Stout.

Interplay -- Solitaire Deluxe For Windows, 1995, 84 pp., paperback
Includes 24 games, mostly standard repertoire, but with Super Scorpion (a double-deck version of Scorpion) and Upside-Down Pyramid (a semi-open double-deck Klondike).  Their implementation of Accordion has room to deal out the whole deck at the start.

Jackson, Robin -- Solitaire, 2001, Barnes & Noble, 64pp., hardback, ISBN 0-7067-2782-1, $9.98
Comes with two decks of full-sized cards.  Illustrated in full color, but with tiny diagrams.   Unimpressive selection of games, including some lesser-known games and leaving out such standards as Pyramid and Calculation (and FreeCell, considering that the book came out in 2001).   Serious errors in the descriptions of Aces Up, Flower Garden, Maria, and Miss Milligan.

Liflander, Pamela, illustrated by Adam McCauley -- The Little Book of Solitaire: 40 Versions of the Classic Card Game, September 2002, Running Press, 112pp., hardback, ISBN: 0-7624-1381-6, $4.95
A tiny book which comes with a miniature deck of cards too small for practical use.    The selection of games is uninspired (nothing in the Eight Off/FreeCell family), and there are misleading comments on win rates (Idiot's Delight [Aces Up]) and name origins (Accordion), as well as incomplete rules (Anno Domini).  The description of Pirate's Gold ends with the baffling comment: "You lose, if when the deck is completely dealt, a pair is still showing."  (A successful deal always ends with five pairs showing.)

Quantum Quality Productions -- Solitaire's Journey, 1992, 63 pp., paperback
The first very large package (for DOS, later for Windows, with 105 games).   State of the art at the time, but superceded by superior graphics and interfaces of later packages.

Secobra -- Texas Solitaire, 1974
Leaflet of rules for a few popular solitaires (Klondike, Canfield (Demon), Accordion, Golf) using Secobra's six-suited Sextet card decks.   Rules are only sketched, assuming the player already knows the original games.

University Games -- Solitaire For Kids, ISBN 1-57528-040-X, $6.99
1 deck and rules leaflet.

U.S. Playing Card Company -- Bicycle Solitaire
Instruction book for 18 popular solitaire games, packed with two decks of cards.

Kindle

Ander, Tim -- How To Play Solitaire, January 13, 2018, independently published, 42pp., paperback, ISBN  978-1976885846
Subtitled A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Solitaire Games including Solitaire, Nestor, Pounce, Pyramid, Russian Bank, Golf, and Yukon.  Nothing you won't find elsewhere.

Dawson, Jimmy -- Solitaire: The Ultimate Guide to Mastering the Solitaire Card Game in 30 Minutes or Less!, March 18, 2015, CreateSpace, 24 pages, ISBN 978-1508914891
Describes 8 games.  No illustrations.

General books I have not seen

Clifford, Montrose -- Games to Play By Yourself, c1920, [London] Universal Publications, 90pp., paperback
Not clear from the bookseller's description whether all (or any) of the games are card solitaires.

Craze, Richard -- The Playing Card Kit, 1995, [East Roseville, New South Wales, Australia] Simon & Schuster, 144pp., ISBN 978-07318-0526-6?
Apparently published in Australia only, in a package with two decks of cards; the information I have comes from Worldcat (Libraries of NWS and Australia have it), a listing on eBay (with pictures), also from Australia, and a picture of the back cover on BoardGameGeek which shows the table of contents.  ISBN search does not turn up any information.  The author has written dozens of books on diverse subjects, but the usual sites like Amazon (even the Australian site) and Bookfinder fail to turn up this book.  Covers ten solitaires (pp. 133-142), all of which are cited on Wikipedia in the articles covering each game: Archway, Calculation, Clock (the two-deck version also called Big Ben), Demon, Flower Garden, Sultan, Windmill, Bisley, Miss Milligan, and Spider.   A strange book which covers Whist, but not Bridge.

Galt, David -- 101 great card games, 2000, [Lincolnwood, IL] Publications International

Pick, John Barclay -- 180 games for one player, 1954, [London] Phoenix House, 137 pp. (republished as The Phoenix Dictionary of Games Hardcover – January 1, 1961)
Subtitled How to play 180 games of all kinds: outdoor and indoor, on board, table or floor, with pencil and paper or in the head, from bounce ball and oneman fives to cat's cradle, cryptographs and carlton.
Pick, John Barclay -- 100 more games for one player, 1976, Armada, 120 pp.
I can't even find a table of contents; it's not clear if there are any card solitaires.

n.a. -- Patience, Twenty Games for one, two, or more Players, 1888, [Halifax] E. Mortimer, 26pp.

Foreign language books I have not seen
Many of these come from listings for the Library of Congress; others from listings for books still in print.  Translations of subtitles and blurbs are via Google Translate.

Danish
Carstensen, Svend -- Den store kabalebog, 1968, [Kobenhavn] Berlingske, 120 p.

Rona, Georg -- Den store kabalebog, 1949, [Copenhagen] C.A. Reitzels Forlag Axel sandal
Subtitled: 120 1 spils, 2 spils og selskaskabaler samlet og udgivet [120 1 games, 2 games and company cabals collected and published].

Rona, Georg -- Kabale Djævelen : 300 kabaler og varianter, [Kobenhavn] Politiken, 1954, 255 p., (Politikens handboger, nr. 55)
[The Solitaire Devil: 300 solitaires and variants].   Apparently reprinted many times (Library Thing shows four different covers, and a table of contents), but out of print now.  Possibly an expanded version of his 1949 book.

Dutch
A.C. Butselaar, Nu eens andere patiences, 3d ed., [Den Haag, Brussel] G.B. van Goor, 1969, 68 p.   {Dubbelpatience en kibbel-patience}

Filarski, H. W. -- Patience voor iedereen, 1966, [Den Haag] Krusemann, 59 pp.
Vier en twintig eenvoudige en moeilijke patiences, die door een of door meerdere personen gezamenlijk, kunnen worden gespeeld.
(Twenty-four simple and difficult solitaire games, which can be played jointly by one or more people.)

Hagenaar, J. -- patiences, geduldspelen met kaarten, eerste vijftigtal, 1910 (first printing), 16th printing [Den Haag] J.H.Scharff van goor zonen
[patiences, patience games with cards, first 50]
Teun Spaans sent a description: This booklet contains 50 solitaires. 7 with a piquet deck (8-A), 1 with bridge or piquet deck, 16 with a bridge deck, 25 with 2 bridge decksm and 1 with 2 players and 2 bridge decks.  There is a booklet with a second 50.

Wolter, Irmgard -- Patience {patiencen im Wort und Bild}, prisma pockets, 1975, [Wiesbaden] Falken Verlag Erich Sicker KG, ISBN 90-274-2045-9
Teun Spaans again: This paperback has 54 patiences: 12 simple ones, 43 less simple ones, and 7 2 player patiences.}



French
[Réussite in French usually means success, but it is also the most common term nowadays for patience or solitaire; patience is seen mostly in older books.]

Gil Baer, Marie Thérèse. -- Faites des patiences; 50 patiences bien expliquées, 1936, [Paris] Imprint Paris, Librairie Stock,  232 pp.,  illus. 18 cm.

Bezanovska, Maria, and Paul Kitchevats, Le livre des patiences, [Montréal] Éditions de l'Homme, c1987., 178 p., ISBN 2761906594
Ly, Maguy -- Le grand guide des patiences et réussites, 11 juillet 2013, Eyrolles, 1er édition, 216 pp., paperback, ISBN 978-2212556049
Massacrier, Jacques -- Les reussites par l'image, c1983, [Paris] : A. Michel,  33 p.,  ISBN 2226019545, 49.00 francs (color illustrations)
Petermann, Albert -- Patiences et reussites, 1950, [Moutier, Suisse] Impr. Robert, 213 pp.
Rabache, Andre -- Les Reussites Carte Par Carte, 1977, Hachette, 189pp., ISBN 2010037871

Raymond, Richard -- Règles des jeux de cartes et des patiences, [Saint-Laurent] Édition du club Québec loisirs, [1997?], 235 pp., ISBN 2894302789, [Outremont, Québec] Quebecor, c1997, 237 p., ISBN 289089990X
The title indicates it covers card games in general, including solitaires.

Sciuto, Giovanni -- Le guide des reussites, 1 janvier 1988, France Loisirs, paperback, ISBN-13 : 978-272423940
C. Tarpel, Toutes les reussites et jeux de patience, [Paris] G. Le Prat, 1969., 125 p.
n.a. -- Les réussites ou patiences, 22 août 1995, Bornemann, 50 pp., paperback, ISBN-13 : 978-2851825216


German
Brettschneider, Rudolf -- Die schonsten Patiencen, 12th edition, 1967, [Wien etc.] Pechan, 96 p.

Carriere, Ludwig -- Das Patience-Spiel, 1950, [Berlin] W. Hoffman, 94pp.   (reprinted 1963 by  F.W. Peters Verlag)
Neue Anleitung.  Denkaufgaben - Beispiele - Figuren.  (New instructions. Brain Teasers - Examples - Figures.)
I do not have a copy, but it appears plentiful from used book dealers.

Cato, Otto -- Patieneen gesammelt, 1921, [Leipzig], P. Reclam, 88 p.
Fuchs. Michael, and Rafael Luwisch -- Kartenspiele fur eine Person, Falken Taschenbuch, 1995?, ISBN 3-8068-1689-1, DM 16.90

Gudenus, Hugo Franz Xaver Freiherr von -- Zweihundert Napoleon Patiencen, [Breslau] J.U. Kern [189-?], 100 pp.  (2nd edition c.1915)
Third in a series of books published by Kern.  Written by an Austrian baron, this is devoted to a single variant, an ancestor of Fortress with one freecell (the game Prison described in Whitmore Jones' Third Series).  200 deals are played through.  Translated into French around 1880 (Berloquin lists the French translation as a source and gives the rules to Napoleon).

Haunstein, Ella von -- 20 Patiencen: zusammengestellt, 1907, [Frankfurt a. M.] B. Dondorf, 43 pp.
Reprinted many times in German (at least as late as 1977), and also translated into English (Twenty Patience Games, 1908, [London] Simpkin, Marshall & Co.), but I have not seen a copy of either.   Illustrated with color plates.   German copies are quite plentiful on the used book market, but expensive to ship.

Heinrich, Rudolf -- Die schönsten Patiencen, 2011, Perlen-Reihe 641, 35th edition. Vienna: Perlen-ReiheVerlag, ISBN 3-85223-095-0
Possibly a later edition of the book by Brettschneider.

Hermann, Willy, Das große Buch der Patiencen, Hugo Steinitz Verlag, Berlin, 1 Jan. 1926, 152pp., paperback
Subtitled: Unthaltend über 100 Parience-Spiele und einige leichtere Karten-Spiele. Mit Illustrationen.
A few monochrome illustrations
other editions 165pp. (1914?), 159pp. (1902?), 167pp. (1917?), 1930?

Höfer, Katrin, Patiencen. Für Anfänger und Fortgeschrittene. Neue Beispiele und Varianten, 25 Sept. 2018, Aufgaben und Lösungen (humboldt - Freizeit & Hobby), 160pp., paperback, ISBN 978-3869101798

Meister, Friedrich -- Leichte und schwierige Patiencen, 1930, [Leipzig] Verlag Hachmeister & Thal, 20 illustrations

Müller, Grete -- Das patiencenbuch; die schönsten patiencen aus-gewählt u. mitgeteilt Zeichnungen von Nelly Austerlitz, n.d., [Leipzig, Wien, Berlin] Steyrer-mühl verlag, 78 pp.
[The patience book; the most beautiful patiences selected and communicated Drawings by Nelly Austerlitz]
Published c. 1920-1930.

Sicard, Elisabeth von -- Das kleine Buch der Patiencen : für alle Patience-Liebhaber und die, die es werden wollen, [Leinfelden] ASS Verlag, 1970?, 94 p.

Sperling, Walter -- Rendezvous mit Patiencen; sechzig und eine Chance, das Gluck zu probieren, 1958, [Munchen] Ehrenwirth, 79 p.
[Rendezvous with patience; sixty and one chance to try luck]

Vanderheld, Christian -- Die Patiencen, Eine Anleitung zum Erlernen dieser beliebten Unterhaltungsspiele, Third edition, [Wien] Wenedikt, 1888, 64pp.
Subtitled: enthaltend 31 verschiedene Patiencen fur einen und zwei Spieler mit einem und zwei Spielen Karten. Nebst einer Anleitung zue grundlichen Erlernung des Dominopieles.
[The Patience, A Guide To Learning These Popular Entertainment Games, Contains 31 different games for one and two players with one and two decks of cards. In addition to instructions on how to learn the domino game thoroughly.]

Weiss Max -- Patience, c1915, [Ravensberg] Maier, o.J.
Anleitung zum Legen von Patiencen mit 60 meist leicht ausführbaren Karteneinsiedlerspielen.
[Instructions for placing patience with 60 mostly easy-to-use card hermit games.]

n.a. -- Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen, 1877, Breslau, J.U. Kern, 110 + 4 pp. (2nd edition 1878, 3rd 1879, 4th 1883, 5th 1884)
Early book republished many times and translated into French (by the Comtesse de Blanccouer), English (by Professor Hoffman), and Swedish (Illustrerad Patience-Bok, 1880).   Later editions can be found from bookdealers.  Sometimes spelled Illustriertes.
Eventually the German publishers published their own editions in French (1879, 1883, 1900).    Subtitled: Illustrirtes Buch der Patiencen. Erster Band. 60 Patiencen - Spiele mit Abbildungen zur Veranschaulichung der Lage der Karten.
[Illustrated book of patience. First volume. 60 Patience Games with illustrations to show the location of the cards.]


Italian
Dossena, Giampaolo Dossena -- Solitari con le carte e altri solitari, [Milano] A. Mondadori, 1976, 254 p., L1800

Norwegian
Amundsen, Engebret -- Kabalebogen: en samling udsogte kabaler, 1903, [Kristiania] Feilberg & Landmark, 57 pp.
[The Solitaire Book: a collection of exquisite solitaires]

Diesen, Einar -- Kabalboken, 3rd edition, 1952, [Oslo] Aschehoug, 111 pp.
75 gamle og nye kabaler fra mange land samt et kabalspill for flere personer
[75 old and new solitaires from many countries as well as a solitaire game for several people]

Russian
Andrianov -- Solitaire / Pasyans,  January 1, 2003, AST, Hardcover, ISBN 978-5170158164

Jakushenkov, B.I. -- Solitaires, Moscow,1976.   
Principal source of games for BVS solitaire.

Rozaliev, N. IU. -- Kartochnye igry Rossii : pasiansy, [Moskva] Deniks, 1993, 271 p.
Rozaliev, N. IU. -- Pasiansy, [Moskva] Cherniy Voron, 1998, 416 p. ISBN 5-88641-098-8
Boris Sandberg sent me information on this book.  The 1993 edition includes 142 games, divided into 15 categories.   The 1998 edition, an expanded version under a different title, includes 171 games.  Many of the rule descriptions are ambiguous.

V. Smit -- Pas'iansy, umienie raskladyvat' 33 interesnykh i zanimatel'nykh pas'iansov v odnu i dvie kolody kart, 1900 {Russian}
[The ability to lay out 33 interesting and entertaining solitaire games in one and two decks of cards]

n.a. -- Sobranie kartochnykh raskludok, izvestnykh pod nazvaniemn Grand-pasiansov, [Moscow] 1826
(A Collection of the Card Layouts Usually Known as Grand-Patience.)   Cited by Parlett as the first book devoted to solitaire.

n.a. -- Sobranie Kartochnyh Pasyansov [Collection Card Solitaire], 1873     selling for $399.00 plus $9.99 shipping
Probably a later edition of the 1826 book.





Swedish
Bo Bjorkstrom, Ny roligare patiens, [Goteborg] Zinderman [Solna, Seelig], 1969, 125 p.

Ormen Långe och andra patienser, Wahlströms mini pocket, ISBN 91-32-42915-0
Idioten och andra patienser, Wahlströms mini pocket, ISBN 91-32-42916-9
Kungliga och andra patienser, Wahlströms mini pocket, ISBN 91-32-42914-2
Att Lågga Patiens, Når?Var?Hur? Serien, ISBN 91-37-09666-4 [H] and 91-37-03049-3 [P]

Schenkmanis, Ulf -- Kortspel och patienser, ICA Bokförlag, ISBN 91-534-1178-1
The title, Card Games and Patiences, suggests only part of the book is on solitaire.

n.a. -- Illustrerad Patience-Bok, 1880, [Stockholm] Hugo Gebers, 1887 [Stockholm] Seligman
from Peter Voke's Library: Translation of Illustriertes Buch der Patiencen (q.v.) into Swedish, with additional Swedish games.

Unknown
Tung, Ch'u-jen -- Wan p'u k'o mo shu, 1977?, Orien China, 237pp.
This turned up in a book search, but I have no details.  Apparently in Romanized Chinese.

Books not about card solitaire (despite their titles)

This list was compiled to help anyone else plowing their way through bookdealers' lists.   Confirmation that some of these books are about peg solitaire comes from the bibliography in the definitive work on the subject, The Ins & Outs of Peg Solitaire, by John Beasley (1985, Oxford University Press, 275pp., hardback, ISBN 0-19-853203-2)

Andersson, Ivar, and George Coffin -- Sure Tricks: 273 Fascinating Card Puzzle Solitaires, 1948, [Fitzwilliam, NH] George Coffin, 256pp., Hard Cover.
Not a collection of games, but a set of bridge puzzles.  Apparently very good.

Baslini, Filippo -- Il solitaire (dama cinese), 200 problemi risolti, 1970 [Firenze] Il Campo, 174pp.
Peg solitaire (the subtitle means Chinese checkers).  In four languages (Italian, English, French, German).   Beasley has more details.

Bergholt, Ernest -- Complete handbook to the game of solitaire, 1921 [London] G. Routledge and Sons Ltd., [New York] E.P. Dutton and Co., 95pp.,
The full subtitle gives it away: Complete handbook to the game of solitaire on the English board of thirty-three holes: a systematic and wholly new analysis, by Ernest Bergholt, together with an exhaustive series of original problems and their solutions.  Illustrated by 176 diagrams in the text. (Solitaire in Great Britain usually refers to peg solitaire, as it does here.  Bergholt did write two books on patience (see above), as well as on auction bridge and other games.)

W.H. Peel (Berkeley), Dominoes and solitaire, 1890, [London] G. Bell, 56 p.
Peg solitaire again.

Roman, John -- Learn bridge at home playing solitary bridge with the new 44-FFF-F step system : (an analytical approach), (simplified & self-explanatory), 1981, [Louisville, KY]  Roman Industries, 76 p., illustrated

n.a. -- Draughts, backgammon, solitaire, & c. , London, J. & R. Maxwell [1884?]
Most likely peg solitaire, but it does not appear in Beasley's bibliography in The Ins & Outs of Peg Solitaire.



The majority of the books below are novels, presumably using solitaire metaphorically, but some of the titles are extremely misleading.  If anyone knows that any of these have interesting passages about actually playing solitaire, I would be interested in hearing about them:

Gaarder, Jostein -- Solitaire Mystery, 1996, Berkeley, 349pp, paperback, ISBN 0-42515999-X
English translation of the 1990 Norwegian novel Kabalmysteriet.   Kabal is the Norwegian word for solitaire.  The playing of actual solitaire games is only mentioned in passing.

Jordan, Cathleen (editor) -- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine - Volume 41, number 6 - June 1996, [New York] Dell Magazines, 160pp.
Includes a short story, "74 Games of Solitaire" by Ron Goulart.

Snodgrass, Melinda -- Wild Cards X: Double Solitaire, 1992, 2019, Tor Books, ISBN 978-0553294934
Part of a science-fiction series edited by George R. R. Martin.


Abbey, Edward -- Desert Solitaire
Abnett, Dan -- Playing Patience (Ravenor)    (SF/Fantasy?)
Alleyn, Susanne -- Game of Patience (Aristide Ravel Mysteries Book 3)
Anderson, Robert Woodruff -- Solitaire and Double Solitaire, 1972, 85pp., ISBN 9780394480367 (scripts to two plays by the author of Tea and Sympathy)
Antle, Nancy -- Playing Solitaire
Ashley, Bernard -- Solitaire
Barks, Herbert B. -- Words are no good if the game is solitaire, 1971, 96pp.
Beishir, Norma -- Solitaire
Carter, Ally -- Cheating at Solitaire, 264 pages, 0425205746, Berkley Publishing Group, November, 2005
Chance, Sara -- Double Solitaire (Silhouette Desire 388)
Collier, Margaret -- Border Collies     (a book about dogs which pops up constantly when searching for Margaret Collie's Games of Patience)
Corle, Edwin -- Solitaire
Craven, Sara -- 325 Solitaire
Davis, Scott C -- The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community Format: Hardcover U of Kentucky, 1988. hardback w/jacket; mint; ip ('99): $25.00; 222 pp.
Dick, Kay -- Solitaire
Dreher, Sarah -- Solitaire and Brahms
Eskridge, Kelley -- Solitaire: A Novel
Estes, Ben -- Illustrated Games of Patience, 2015, T.H.E. Song Cave,  paperback, ISBN 9780988464377    (poetry)
Fairchild, Elisabeth -- A Game of Patience: Signet Regency Romance (InterMix)
Flanders, Roy -- Nantucket Solitaire   (poetry)
Goldmine, R.L. -- Death Plays Solitaire
Green, Carmen -- The Perfect Solitaire
Gregory, Lisa -- Solitaire
Gyamfuaa-Fofie, Akosua -- The Game Is Patience, 1997, 116pp., ISBN  978-9964995386
Hall, Adam -- Quiller Solitaire
King, Francis Henry, A game of patience, 237 pp., Hutchinson, 1974, ISBN: 0091205808,  $23.41
Liu, Aimee -- Solitaire: A narrative
Lovesey, Peter -- Diamond Solitaire
Masterton, Graham -- Solitaire, 1982
Mizrahi, Joseph V. -- Solitaire, 1966   (WW2 novel)
Mohi, Madiha -- Games Of Patience
Mullarkey, Neil -- Solitaire for Two
Murray, Mike -- Navy Seals: Green Solitaire
Oseman, Alice -- Solitaire
Pegram, Lorna -- A Game of Patience: A Novel
Plourde, Josee, Solitaire a L'Infini, Josee Plourde, Paperback: 160 pages, Publisher: La Courte Echelle (April, 1998), Language: French, ISBN: 2890213293
Randall, Belle: 101 Different Ways of Playing Solitaire and Other Poems (Pitt Poetry Series - 78) Trade Paperback. / / University of Pittsburgh Press: 1973
Rossi, Cristina Peri Rossi -- Solitaire of Love
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques -- Les reveries du promeneur solitaire
Sherman, Jason -- Patience, 113pp.  (script to a play)
Shorr, Kenneth, 100 Games of Solitaire. N.p., n.d. (42)pp., $30.00
      Circulated xerox of typescript text of stories, with color cover reproducing the cover of Coops' paperback book of the same title.
Thynne, Jane -- Solitaire


Most recently edited on August 25, 2024.   This article is copyright ©2022 by Michael Keller.  All rights reserved.