The Gardner-Smith Correspondence by Martin Gardner & Marshall D. Smith

Reviewed by Jamy Ian Swiss (originally published in Genii January, 2000)

Two excellent talks were presented on the origins of the 1 man who might have been Erdnase. Although neither speaker probably won many converts to his newly proposed personage, they both certainly (and appropriately) contributed to knocking down confidence in the Milton Franklin Andrews theory.

For anyone interested in exploring that theory, however—and it is certainly an interesting one, regardless of its veracity—H&R Magic Books have published a wonderful monograph consisting of all the correspondence between Martin Gardner—who has had a great deal to do with promulgating the M.F. Andrews theory—and Marshall D. Smith, the illustrator of The Expert at the Card Table, and the only known witness to the man who wrote that extraordinary book.