The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge

The first edition set the ground work for the goals and scope of the Encyclopedia. In its forward, Editor-in-Chief Richard L. Frey observed that:

The only previous Encyclopedia of Bridge was edited by Ely Culbertson and published in 1935 ... The ambitious goal set for this Official Encyclopedia of Bridge was simple to state: "To provide an official and authoritative answer to any question a reader might ask about the game of contract bridge and its leading players."[1]

On its dust jacket, the first edition states:

This encyclopedia is the most complete and authoritative book of information, guidance, and instruction for bridge players, ever published. It covers every aspect of bridge in all bridge-playing countries of the world; it contains complete and lucid definitions of every term; it describes and illustrates every standard bid, every recognized convention, and every type of play.[2]

The first edition is divided into two main parts:

1. Main listings: The Introduction [3] indicates that the entries in the main listings fall into five main categories (technical, historical, procedural, biographical and geographical, and terminological) and are presented alphabetically over 683 pages with entries frequently ending with cross-references to other entries on related category topics. Over 50 bridge-playing countries are listed and brief biographies of over 1,500 American and over 400 other players are recorded.[3]
2. Bibliography: The main listings are followed by an eight-page bibliography.

The Harvard University online catalog[4] entry for the first edition includes a note that "A great majority of the unsigned technical entries are by Alan Truscott."

Richard Frey writes[6] that since the first edition of 1964,

... bridge has attracted new adherents throughout the world, systems and conventions have been more and more influenced by "science" and "artificiality" ...

The second edition is divided into four main parts:[7]

1. Main listings: technical bidding and play, historical, procedural (tournament organization, laws, etc.), geographical, and terminological. As in the first edition, entries frequently end with cross-references to other entries on related topics.
2. Biographies of leading personalities: The biographies include over 2,000 Americans and over 500 players from elsewhere.
3. Tournament results: American Bridge Association National Championships, All-American Regional Championships, and European, Far East and South American Championships. World Championships and USBA Grand Nationals are in the main listings
4. Bibliography: listed according to subject matter.

Richard Frey comments on several themes in the foreword to the third edition:

We have seen rapid and radical developments in bidding systems; explosions of new cheating scandals and employment of devices to prevent them; the creation of techniques for warning opponents about bids that have unusual meanings ...

... the newly uncovered evidence that bridge was known and played before the earliest previous accreditation (to Russia) of its origin and its name.[8]

The third edition is organized into the same four parts as the second. There are again over 2,500 biographies but newer and stricter criteria were applied and many previous entries have been superseded by new ones; successes in competitions remain in the appropriate event listings.[9]

The fourth edition contains 922 pages — the most of any edition. Again, the pace of change in bridge is great as Richard Frey, now Editor Emeritus having been succeeded as Editor-in-Chief by Henry Francis, notes in the Foreword,

... a quantum leap in the technical material ... many new and intriguing methods and ideas have made their appearance in the past seven years, and some have been widely adopted.[10]

The organization of the fourth edition follows that of the third and second.

In the Foreword, Alan Truscott notes,

The changes in the technical section have been far greater than in any of the earlier editions, reflecting the many theoretical advances in the past decade.[11]

The four part organization of the book follows the format of its immediate predecessors. More than 2,800 bridge personalities[12] are listed in the biographies, largely updated by Dorthy Fancis;[11] Truscott prepared most of the technical and foreign material with Frank Stewart contributing significantly to the technical;[11] the expanded 21 page bibliography was prepared by William Sachen.[11] Previous editions were published by Crown Publishers Inc. of New York; the 5th edition was published by the American Contract Bridge League.

The 6th Edition cover

The front inside panel of the dust jacket states:

"This work is the most complete and authoritative book of information, guidance and instruction ever published for bridge players."

The Foreword states,

This edition has been prepared primarily by Henry Francis, with major contributions and help from Alan Truscott and Barry Rigal. Once again Dorthy Francis has updated American biographies and world-wide tournament results. Tim Bourke, who owns one of the world's most complete bridge libraries and who assembled the Morehead Library at ACBL Headquarters, prepared the bibliography.[13]

The four part organization of the book follows the format of its immediate predecessors. More than 3,000 bridge personalities[14] are listed in the biographies; the 60 page bibliography doubled that of the previous edition.

The 7th edition had its beginning about 2006, when decisions were made about the format, the contents and the people who would be involved in putting it together. It departs from previous editions in several ways. Foremost is the medium: two CD-ROM volumes with one book whose contents match the first CD. All previous editions were one-volume books.[15]

This edition introduces photographs and has many of them. It comes with an index instead of a cross-reference table. In the print volume, both pages and font are bigger. The four-part organization introduced in 1971, with a very large alphabetical part one, has been replaced by about 40 chapters and appendices. The printed book and the first CD both comprise chapters 1 to 26. The second volume, CD only, comprises eight chapters of biographical entries and three appendices on Masterpoints, achievements, and tournament results.[15]

• Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor (1964). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. p. 691. LCCN 64023817. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Cohen, Ben, International Edition Editor; Barrow, Rhoda, International Edition Editor (1967). The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia. London: Paul Hamlyn. p. 674. OCLC 560654187. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Smith, Thomas M., Managing Editor (1971). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (2nd ed.). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. p. 793. LCCN 73108084. OCLC 250404789. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Kearse, Amalya L., Editor, Third Edition (1976). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (3rd ed.). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. p. 858. ISBN 0-517-52724-3. LCCN 76017053. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Frey, Richard L., Editor Emeritus; Hayward, Diane, Editor, Fourth Edition (1984). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (4th ed.). New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 922. ISBN 0-517-55272-8. LCCN 84001791. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor, Fifth Edition (1994). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (5th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. pp. 827 (plus 38 page Bibliography). ISBN 0-943855-48-9. LCCN 96188639. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor, Sixth Edition (2001). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (6th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. pp. 826 (plus 60 page Bibliography). ISBN 0-943855-44-6. OCLC 49606900. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Manley, Brent, Editor; Horton, Mark, Co-Editor; Greenberg-Yarbro, Tracey, Co-Editor; Rigal, Barry, Co-Editor (2011). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (7th ed.). 6575 Windchase Blvd., Horn Lake MS 38637-1523: American Contract Bridge League. pp. 634 (plus additional 399 pages in CD format) totalling 1033 pages. ISBN 978-0-939460-99-1. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Encyclopedic bibliographies on bridge