Authors or, The Game of Authors is a card game for three to five players. The first Game of Authors was published by G. M. Whipple & A. A. Smith of Salem, Massachusetts in 1861. In 1897 it was also published by Parker Brothers, which also was in Salem, Massachusetts at the time.
Contents
Overview
The deck of cards consists of eleven sets of four cards each representing the works of eleven famous authors. The object of the game is to form complete sets of the four cards comprising the works of a particular author. The winner is the player with the most sets.
The game is the creation of Anne Abbott, a Beverly, Massachusetts clergyman's daughter and editor of a young people's literary journal. Abbott also designed the hugely popular mid-19th century card game, Dr. Busby.
Later decks included additional authors, but the authors represented in most decks are:
Derivative games
Similar playing card games have been developed with decks having similar rules and set building mechanics. Some of these are: