Like the origin of playing cards, the origin of solitaire is largely
unknown as there are no historical records to support it. There is much
conjecture and controversy about the history of Solitaire as to where it
actually began. However the first written documentation of solitaire
doesn't show up until the end of the 16th century and since then
Solitaire has had a long history and at one time had a less than stellar
reputation.
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Around the 12th century the game "Al-qirq" (the mill, in Arabic), which
later became the game of "Alquerque", was the most prevalent game until
around the end of the 12th century in Europe. Playing cards were first
introduced in Italy in the 1300s. During that time they also became
popular in Northern Europe. There is a card game called Tarok that was
invented around that time that is still played to this day. It is also
believed that solitaire games were first played with tarot cards, which
would indicate that solitaire most likely preceded traditional
multi-player card games.
The French engraving of Princess de Soubise showing her playing a card
game, dates from 1697. Legend says that Solitaire was invented by
Pelisson, a French mathematician, to entertain Louis XIV - known as "Roi
Soleil" (Sun King). Another legend says that a unfortunate French
nobleman, while imprisoned in the Bastille, devised the game using a Fox
& Geese Board (the Fox & Geese Board has been used for a
variety of board games in Northern Europe since the Vikings). There is
doubt about these legends, since Ovide wrote about the game and
described it in his book "Ars Amatoria".
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The end of the sixteenth century was an active period for the invention
of various card games. This was when the ace first appeared as high
instead of low in the rankings of the cards. Several new card games were
invented during this time and new variations were added, so this is
likely a time when solitaire games were invented and named as well.
The first known solitaire game rules were recorded during the Napoleonic
era. The author of War and Peace, Tolstoy, enjoyed playing solitaire
and mentioned it in a scene from his famous novel. Tolstoy sometimes
used cards to make decisions for him in a somewhat superstitious way.
Most early literature mentioning patience is of French origin. Even the
very word 'solitaire' is of a French origin, and it means 'patience'.
The names of most early solitaire games are French names as well, with
the most well known being La Belle Lucie. When Napoleon was exiled to
St. Helena in 1816 he used to play Patience to pass the time. Deported
to the island lost in the ocean, knew what confinement felt like fully;
he also knew how cards could solace one sentenced to solitude. During
his exile at St Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte played patience in his spare
time. Some solitaire games were named after him, such as Napoleon at St.
Helena, Napoleon's Square, etc. It is not known whether Napoleon
invented any of these solitaire games or someone else around that same
time period.
Publications about solitaire began to appear in the late nineteenth
century. Lady Adelaide Cadogan is believed to have written the first
book on the rules of solitaire and patience games called "Illustrated
Games of Patience" just after the Civil War (1870) containing 25 games.
It is still reprinted occasionally even today. Other non English
compilations on solitaire may have been written before that, however.
Before this, otherwise there was no literature about solitaire, not even
in such books as Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester (1674), Abbé
Bellecour's Academie des Jeux (1674), and Bohn's Handbook of Games
(1850), all of which are used as reference on card games.In England
"Cadogan" is a household word for solitaire in the same manner that
"Hoyle" is for card games.
Lady Cadogan's book spawned other collections by other writers such as
E.D.Chaney, Annie B. Henshaw, Dick and Fitzgerald, H. E. Jones (a.k.a.
Cavendish), Angelo Lewis (a.k.a. Professor Hoffman), Basil Dalton, and
Ernest Bergholt. E.D. Chaney wrote a book on solitaire games called
"Patience" and Annie B. Henshaw wrote a book with an interesting title
"Amusements for Invalids". Several years later Dick and Fitzgerald in
New York published "Dick's Games of Patience" in 1883, followed by a
second edition that was published in 1898. Author, Henry Jones, wrote a
fairly reliable book on solitaire called "Patience Games". Another
Jones, not related to Henry, Miss Mary Whitmore Jones wrote 5 volumes of
solitaire books over a twenty year period around the the 1890's.
Several other publishers of various game books also added solitaire to
their long lists of games in their titles. One of the most complete
solitaire books was written by Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith.
Their latest edition contains rules to over 225 solitaire games and was
used in this writing.
Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" mentions a scene that took place in 1808
where the characters were playing patience. Charles Dickens "Great
Expectations" mentions solitaire in its story. In Evelyn Waugh's "A
Handful of Dust", a character plays patience while waiting for news of a
death to reach London.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel [The Brothers Karamazov], the character
Grushenka played a solitaire game called "Fools", a Russian equivalent
of "Idiot's Delight", to get through times of crisis. A very popular
solitaire game, spider solitaire, was played by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Somerset Maugham's "The Gentleman in the Parlour" mentions Spider
solitaire and quotes playing solitaire as "a flippant disposition. In
John Steinbeck's novella Of [Mice and Men], protagonist George Milton
often plays Solitaire on the road and on the farm. In "Peter Duck", one
of the books in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series, Captain
Flint keeps himself occupied by playing Miss Milligan.
In the 1962 movie "The Manchurian Candidate", Raymond Shaw is compelled
to perform specific actions through a brainwashing trigger, which often
includes a game of traditional solitaire and finding the queen of
diamonds. In the Finnish TV-series "Hovimäki" Aunt Victoria is very fond
of playing solitaire.
Several solitaire games have gained fame through literature and other
avenues. Some solitaire games were invented in unexpected places. A
notable inventor of solitaire games was Bill Beers. He was in a mental
asylum when he invented a variation of Cribbage Solitaire. Prisoners had
plenty of time to play solitaire, but were unable to use traditional
cards because they could be used as an edged weapon. They were forced to
use thicker tiles for cards that were bulky and hard to handle.
A famous casino is responsible for the invention of a very popular
solitaire game. Mr. Canfield, who owned a casino in Saratoga, invented a
game where one would purchase a deck of cards for $52 and obtain $5 for
every card played to the foundations. He gained an average of $25 per
game, however, each game required a dealer of sorts to watch the player,
so the profit was not as high as one might think. The actual name of
this popular game was Klondike, but the name Canfield has stuck and is
almost as commonly used as the word patience. Due to its difficulty to
win, the time needed to play and the lack of choices along the way,
Klondike has lost some popularity to other popular solitaire games.
Today most people refer to Klondike as simply Solitaire.
Both solitaires and reasons why people enjoy playing with these
patchworks of cards have, of course, changed since the old times the
solitaires appeared. In the contemporary world, we sometimes need a
break from an everyday hustle and tedious treadmill. Solving solitaires
is not only a way of time-killing distraction; it is also a sure way to
relax after work. Long winter nights, it helped Jack London's characters
to amuse their leisure. A great musician, Nicolo Paganini was also in
favor of solving solitaires; his best-liked solitaire was later called
after his name.
A good solitaire not only helps you relax and kill time; it is a great
mental gymnastic as well. This is why solitaires were appealing to
mathematicians like Martin Gardner and Donald Knut. As his
contemporaries witnessed, Prince Metternich, an eminent 19-century
diplomat, used to sit and ponder over knotty solitaires before starting
most difficult negotiations.
Today most people refer to Klondike as simply 'Solitaire'. Due to its
difficulty to win, the time needed to play and the lack of choices along
the way, Klondike has lost some popularity to other popular solitaire
games.
