| Players: Con Men, Hustlers, Gamblers, and Scam Artists Contributor(s): Zanetti, Geno (Editor), Hyde, Stephen (Editor) |
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ISBN: 1560253800 ISBN-13: 9781560253808 Publisher: Running Press Adult OUR PRICE: $23.74 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 2002 Annotation: Selected writings by A.J. Liebling, Jorge Luis Borges, Nelson Algren, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Tosches, Harlan Ellison, Roald Dahl, and many others are featured in this raffish tour through the world of gamblers. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - True Crime | Historical - True Crime | Organized Crime - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 795 |
| LCCN: 2002018149 |
| Physical Information: 1.11" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" (1.25 lbs) 352 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Once I hear the clatter of chips I almost go into convulsions," said Dostoyevsky, while Anatole France wrote, "The gambler is driven by the fascination of danger at the bottom of all great passions." The characters the reader meets in Players-chess grand masters, poolroom hustlers, or street-hardened practitioners of the short con-are all alike propelled by the ecstasy of risk. "The stake is money," France wrote, "in other words, immediate, infinite possibilities." In fact, as the reader hooks up with David Mamet in the poker room and meets Damon Runyon's Bookie Bob, Saul Bellow's immortal Yellow Kid, and learns from Herbert Asbury about the antics of Izzy and Moe, and from David Maurer about the discreet charm of the confidence man, Walter Tevis on Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats on the seductions of nineteenth-century gambling dens, high lives and low will merge and the world of gambler and con-artist will blur. Selected writings by Jorge Luis Borges, Hunter S. Thompson, Nick Tosches, and many others are featured. |