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The Tangram Book, 2003

Description:

The first truly authoritative, lavishly photographed history of Tangrams – with more than 2,000 puzzles – reveals the beauty of this ancient Chinese art. The in-depth historical information comes from a Tangram museum owner and his research team, and they discovered many treasures, such as the Tangram sets used by Chinese mathematicians 2,200 years ago to test the Pythagorean theorem. You’ll see the Tangrams that Napoleon played with during his exile and find out how to arrange Tangram-shaped dinner tables for numerous themes.

Martin Gardner wrote in the Foreword: “Nobody, but nobody, knows more about mechanical puzzles than Jerry Slocum. Jerry’s indefatigable search for an authentic history of Tangrams took him around the world to explore libraries, museums, private collections and other archives. The little-known facts are all here, for the first time, in a wonderfully readable and richly illustrated volume. Also included are thousands of Tangram figures for you to solve. It will surely be the classic reference on the topic for many decades to come.”

Reviews

Puzzles Old and New, 1986

Description:

Martin Gardner wrote in the Introduction: “Now for the first time in history, we have in this book by Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans a comprehensive survey of mechanical puzzles. Most of the puzzles shown in this book are from Jerry’s collection. He has also done a massive amount of research on the puzzles and some of the results are included in this book. Unlike all previous books, this one aims to be complete by covering as many kinds of puzzles as possible within each category. It is a good bet that this elegant volume will go through many new editions and remain a classic reference for decades.”

Awards & Reviews

Ingenious & Diabolical Puzzles, 1994

Description:

Will Shortz, Puzzle Editor of the New York Times and Puzzlemaster of National Public Radio, wrote in the Introduction: “As in the authors’ previous books, Puzzles Old and New, and New Book of Puzzles, they have collected hundreds of hands-on brainteasers, both antique and modern, photographed them in beautiful color, and entertainingly described them, historically and otherwise. Much of the material has never appeared in print before. Whether you are a doer or merely an admirer, you’ll find a lot in this book to engage your mind.”

Reviews

New Book of Puzzles, 1992

Description: Attention puzzle lovers: The creators of the best-selling Puzzles Old and New are back with another dazzling collection for puzzle fans of all ages. Here are 101 of the most tantalizing, ingenious, beautiful puzzles ever designed, all reproduced in magnificent color and each complete with east-to-follow instructions that let you create and solve them yourself.

 

Donald Knuth wrote in the Introduction: “The closing paragraph in Martin Gardner’s introduction to Jerry Slocum and Jack Boterman’s previous book, Puzzles Old and New, observed that ‘New mechanical puzzles are being invented every year and it will not be long before this elegant volume will be in need of updating.’ The present book, a worthy successor to the first fulfills that prediction while giving us and even better window on historical developments.”

Reviews

Puzzle Arcade, 1996

Description: The Puzzle Arcade is the most overjammed, overstuffed, over-the-top collection of mechanical mysteries and puzzling perplexities that has ever been published in the history of puzzledom. In, on, under, around and through The Puzzle Arcade you will find scads of mechanical puzzles, riddles, mazes, mysteries, thought-provoking problems and at least two flat-out impossibilities. Naturally, this being a Klutz book, we’ve included reams of hints and an easy-reference answer page. (We’re not entirely heartless.) Our printer hates this book. It is a manufacturing nightmare. But we love it. We’ve never had more fun stuffing more crazy things into one book than we have with this one.

Awards & Reviews

Swipe This Pencil, 2003

Description: You can take this pencil off this book and you can put it back on – without scrunching, crunching, tearing or screaming at either. If you know the secret.  Of course you have to buy it first. And incidentally, once you’ve solved the pencil puzzle, there are 22 more inside.

Tricky Optical Illusion Puzzles, 2001

Description: The longer you look, the more you get fooled. That’s the excitement of optical illusion puzzles – especially when they are as colorful as these. Coins rearrange themselves. Pictures disappear and reappear. Your eyes are deceived, and you must figure out how; fortunately, your mind is as sharper than your gaze. Start looking, get smart, and have fun. Eighty-two puzzles in all.

Puzzles from Catel’s Cabinet & Bestelmeier’s Magazine 1785 to 1823, 1997

David Singmaster wrote in the Introduction: “The catalogue of Bestelmeier was well known to puzzle historians as the earliest extant sales catalogue including puzzles. In 1994 when I made a visit to The Deutsches Museum library and found that they had a copy of Catel, I immediately realized that it was the predecessor of Bestelmeier. Slocum and Gebhardt have now produced this English translation of the puzzle material and parts of the Introductions, etc., of both catalogues in order to make this material accessible to the modern world. I think you will be as delighted with it as we have been.”

Directory of Puzzle Collectors & Puzzle Sellers 5th Edition, 2003

The 180-page Directory contains 483 collectors of mechanical puzzles from 40 countries, 204 retail stores in 24 countries that sell puzzles and 135 mail order and wholesale puzzle sellers as well as Internet Puzzle Sites and Puzzle Periodicals.

Checkerboard Compendium 3rd Edition, 1997

The Compendium contains 376 Checkerboard puzzles, with from five to twenty-six pieces, and their solutions in 270 pages. The dates that many of the puzzles were first produced are included, along with patent and trademark information. A list of references and indices of the puzzles, inventors, manufacturers and distributors are also included.