Letterati: An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It [Paperback]

Paul McCarthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

This guide charts the development of competitive Scrabble in North America and the control of the game exerted by Hasbro, Inc., the holder of the game's trademark. Through more than a hundred interviews, the evolution of Scrabble from the hustler-populated game rooms of New York City in the 1960s, before the organized game even existed, to the 2004 National Championship, where more than 800 players vied for $89,000 in prize money is detailed. Examining its origins, strategies, changes, and the business behind it all, this is a comprehensive look behind the game of Scrabble.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Who knew the world of competitive Scrabble was so cutthroat, so compelling, so organized? . . . Letterati will surely appeal to those who are ardent fans of the game, but even a casual player will find something flabbergasting in McCarthy's doggedly ethnographic examination."  —The Bloomsbury Review

"McCarthy, who is ranked in the top 10 percent of Scrabble players in the country, pulls back the curtain on other obsessive letterati."  —The St. Petersburg Times

"Exhaustively researched. . . . An interesting history, commentary on strategy, wordplay, rule evolution, and numerous character sketches will appeal to those with an above-average interest in the game."  —Scene Magazine

About the Author

Paul McCarthy is a freelance magazine writer who has appeared in American Health, Equinox, Omni, Oncology Today, Psychology Today, The Scientist, and others. He has been a club and tournament Scrabble player for 11 years and is ranked in the top 10 percent of players in North America. He lives in Littleton, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550228285
• ISBN-13: 978-1550228281
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #936,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My View of Letterati, August 7, 2008

By 

James M. Cassidy (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Letterati: An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It (Paperback)

I read Letterati from the viewpoint of someone whose hobby is Scrabble. It is a wonderful history of how Scrabble developed from a family game to tournament play and the players who caused that to happen.

Scrabble is a relatively recent game dating from the 1930's. It became popular after WWII when it is believed that the owner of a major New York City department store saw the game and began to sell it in the store. Then some of the people that frequented the NYC game clubs -particularly one by Times Square-began to play the game competitively. They developed strategies for the game and word lists to study. Today we have books on strategy and written and electronic study tools. There are Scrabble clubs throughout the US and tournaments almost every weekend, and the game can be played online.

The author is himself a tournament Scrabble player and he knows the players that he describes. He weaves into his chronicle the history of the various companies that have owned the Scrabble brand and their different relations to it. He talks about the difficulties that tournament players have with the current owner Hasbro and its reluctance to fully support them and to overprotect its brand, as seen in the recent removal of the Scrabble lookalike Scrabulous from Facebook.

Letterati and Stefan Fatsis' "Word Freak" are two recent books on competitive Scrabble. I recommend them both.

Then go to a local club and play the game in its purest form. You can find a list of clubs on the website of the National Scrabble Association.

James Cassidy
Washington, D.C.
squire on the Internet Scrabble Club

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For serioous followers of tournament Scrabble, January 24, 2009

By 

Markian Gooley (Hawthorne, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Letterati: An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It (Paperback)

Well-written and thorough history of tournament Scrabble in the US from a long-time player. One really has to care about the subject, though, and those who don't play tournament Scrabble or want to learn about what it's like and how it's evolved over time probably won't care enough. It's much nearer complete than the account given in Fatsis' book Word Freak. Good chapter on how players of Ping Pong freed it from needlessly stifling corporate control by altering it slightly and creating table tennis -- the parallels between Scrabble and Ping Pong are multitudinous and sometimes uncanny -- and how Scrabble might be similarly freed (although changing the game sufficiently to make this possible might itself not be possible without ruining the near-perfection created by Mr. Butts, its inventor).