Edwin C. Howell

Little is known about Howell's personal life. He seems to have been an enigmatic figure. Born on 21 April 1860 in Nantucket, Massachusetts, he was the son of a clergyman in a home that looked askance on playing cards!.Butler pp 205–206 His parents were George Howell and Frances Sarah Howell (née Cull), and he had three siblings.[https://www.geni.com/people/Edwin-Howell/6000000044398961834 Geni Website]

Howell was schooled at the Charlier Institute in New York City preparatory to entering Harvard in 1877. Howell learned to play cards, poker first, at Harvard College where he also excelled at chess and was playing championship standard whist by 1881. He left Harvard in 1881 before completing his degree and taught in a private school in Asbury Park New Jersey.The Summer North American Bridge Championships were held in Asbury Park each year from 1930 to 1941 He returned to Harvard in 1883, graduating with honors in mathematics for his AB (Bachelor of Arts) degree.

Moving to Baltimore, he taught mathematics at Johns Hopkins University (1884–85) and in two private schools, also becoming the amateur chess champion of that city. In 1887, he became a journalist and joined the staff of The Daily News in Baltimore. By 1889, he was on the Boston Herald where he worked for the next 14 years. In July 1903, he became assistant in the National Almanac Office of the U.S. Navy in Washington DC, a position he held until his death in 1907.[http://www.infobridge.it/Campioni_HowellE.htm Infobridge Italian Website]

A suggestion that he became a professor of mathematics at MIT was investigated by a PhD student but no evidence to that effect emerged.[https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0471531413 Contemporary Design Theory: A Collection of Surveys] Jeffrey H. Dinitz, Douglas R. Stinson – 1992 – Mathematics

Partnering L M Bouvé at the Fourth Annual Congress of the American Whist League in 1894, he won the straight whist match (in a field of 124) for his Boston club, the American Whist Club of Boston.Butler page 31

Howell contributed greatly to The Whist Reference BookButler page ix of 1898 and is quoted as one of the authorities on the short suit game.Butler page xii He was an early user of the terminology {{not a typo|North-South}} and {{not a typo|East-West}} (NS and EW)Butler page 1 to designate the opposing partnership positions at table, rather than the then more popular methods, a method now in common usage in duplicate bridge clubs. He was also much involved in discussions to determine best systems of play and the laws of whist at the Fifth Annual Congress of the American Whist League.Butler page 34

In duplicate bridge, there are two principal schemes for rotating the position of the players and the boards:

• The ‘Mitchell Movement’ named after John T. Mitchell, who published it in 1891 in Duplicate Whist[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Duplicate-Whist-Description-Scientific-Equalizes/dp/144464338X McClurg of Chicago (1891)] by McClurg of Chicago. Mitchell wrote several books on whist.[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Duplicate-Whist-John-T-Mitchell/dp/1112318992/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1531574565&sr=1-10 Books by Mitchell on whist]
• The ‘Howell Movement’ named after Edwin C. Howell, who worked it out for all numbers of teams from 6 through 46cited by E. H. Moore in a memoir in the American Journal of Mathematics in 1896, volume 18, pages 290- 303.” (Volume 18 No 3 July 1896) probably using the mathematical device which later became known as Room Square. Howell Movement plans are readily available on the internete.g. [http://www.bridgeguys.com/pdf/Movements/H/H6T27B.pdf Howell Six Table Movement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417180512/http://www.bridgeguys.com/pdf/Movements/H/H6T27B.pdf |date=2018-04-17 }} or as printed cards from bridge supply shops. Howell's was pronounced by far the best system ever used in a tournament for fours (i.e. teams of four) in 1895Butler page 153 and an improvement on Mitchell's earlier movement method. During the summer of 1897 Howell published his "Method of Duplicate Whist for Pairs" consisting of indicating cards with instructions. Other prominent whist players of the time had contributed to discussions on methods, but Howell was the chief proponent.Butler page 206

At least four books by Howell are available, three republished in recent years:[https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Edwin+C+Howell Amazon][https://www.sapnaonline.com/shop/Author/edwin-cull-howell Sapna]

• The Howell Method of Duplicate Whist for Pairs: With the Latest Approved Methods of Scoring Under the Multiple and Improved Match Systems (Classic Reprint, as republished by Forgotten Books")
• Whist Openings: A Systematic Treatment of the Short-Suit Game (Classic Reprint, as republished by Forgotten Books") originally published before 1896
• The Minor Tactics of Chess (1894) by Franklin Knowles and Edwin C. Howell
• The Minor Tactics Of Chess: A Treatise On The Deployment Of The Forces In Obedience To Strategic Principle by Franklin Knowles Young and Edwin C. Howell. republished by Leopold Classic Library. This book was originally published prior to 1923.

{{Reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whist-Reference-Book-Information-Concerning/dp/1333449569 The Whist Reference Book]: Wherein Information Is Presented Concerning the Noble Game, in All Its Aspects, After the Manner of a Cyclopedia, Dictionary, and Digest All Combined in One (1898?) by William Mill Butler republished Hansebooks 2017 and Forgotten Books 2015 (Hardback) and 2018 (Paperback)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Edwin C.}}

Category:American contract bridge players

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:People from Nantucket, Massachusetts

Category:1860 births

Category:1907 deaths