Martin Gardiner spent a great deal of time and effort to try and find the true identity of S W Erdnase, the author of "Expert at the Card Table". He feels that Erdnase was probably a gambler named Milton Franklin Andrews, A card cheat who murdered his girlfriend and then killed himself in 1905. One problem with this theory has been the fact that existing physical descriptions of M F Andrews do not square with the recollections of Marshall D Smith, the artist who illustrated the card classic. I recently read an article which proposed an alternate theory regarding Erdnase's identity. The author of this article believed that the real Erdnase was a con man named E S Andrews (A better fit with the S W Erdnase anagram) who ran a stock swindle in several cities throughout the Midwest and West.
My problem? I can't find the article. Does anyone else recall reading this, and if so, can you tell me where to find it?

That is a candidate proposed by Todd Karr and his very interesting article on that topic can be found online here:
http://www.illusionata.com/mpt/view.php?......articles
There are articles on this topic in MAGIC December 1999 and GENII January 2000.
Todd Karr's candidate is the most recent of several proposed to counter the prevailing Milton Franklin Andrews theory.

Richard,
Thank you, that's the article I read, I thought I had seen it in a magazine (paging Mister Lorayne...)
You are a collector and Erdnase historian, are you not? I have seen your name mentioned in a few discussions I have seen on line.
I found this article intrigueing. I have the highest admiration for Martin Gardner, and appreciate the tremendous effort he has made to track down the real Erdnase, but I can't get really enthusiastic about M F Andrews as a candidate.

Anyone know where that article is now -www.illusionata.com doesn't seem to exist anymore...

http://www.miraclefactory.net/mpt/view.p......articles