Easley Blackwood Sr.

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Easley Rutland Blackwood (June 25, 1903 – March 27, 1992) was an American contract bridge player and writer, best known for the Blackwood convention used in bridge bidding.

Biography[edit]

Blackwood was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but lived most of his life in Indianapolis, Indiana. From 1968 to 1971 he was executive secretary of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL).[1] He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1995.[2]

His son was Easley Blackwood Jr. (1933–2023), a noted composer of music.

Publications[edit]

Books[3][4]
  • Bridge Humanics: How to Play People as well as the Cards (Indianapolis: Droke House, 1949); UK title, 1951, The Human Element in Bridge [same subtitle]
  • Blackwood on Bidding: Dynamic Point Count (Bobbs-Merrill, 1956)
  • Blackwood on Slams (Prentice-Hall, 1970); later title, Bidding Slams with Blackwood
  • Spite & Malice: The Complete Rules and Strategy (Cornerstone Library, 1970)
  • Contract Bridge Complete by Ernest W. Rovere (Simon & Schuster Fireside Books, 1975) – contributor[4]
  • How You Can Play Winning Bridge, with Blackwood (Los Angeles: Pinnacle Books, 1977)
  • Play of the Hand with Blackwood (Los Angeles: Corwin Books, 1978)
  • Winning Bridge with Blackwood, Blackwood and Derek Rimington (London: Robert Hale, 1983) – revised, British edition of How You Can Play ..., 1977
  • The Complete Book of Opening Leads (Devyn, 1983)
  • Card Play Fundamentals, Blackwood and Keith Hanson (Devyn, 1987)
Pamphlets[3]
  • The Blackwood Convention (Louisville, KY: Devyn Press, 1981) – Championship bridge series, no. 2
  • Introduction to Declarer Play (Devyn, 1989) – Future champions' bridge series, no. 8

Bridge accomplishments[edit]

Awards and honors[edit]

  • International Bridge Press Association Personality of the Year, 1984
  • ACBL Hall of Fame, 1995[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Blackwood, Easley". Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  2. ^ a b "Induction by Year" Archived 2014-12-05 at the Wayback Machine. Hall of Fame. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-11-10.
  3. ^ a b "Blackwood, Easley 1903–1992". WorldCat. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
      Warning: includes works by Easley Blackwood Jr.
  4. ^ a b "Easley Blackwood Bridge Books". Pattaya Bridge Club. Pattaya, Thailand. Retrieved 2014-05-20. With linked short reviews of most books.

External links[edit]

  • Citation at the ACBL Hall of Fame (archived)
  • "International record for Easley Blackwood". World Bridge Federation. Edit this at Wikidata
  • Interview on YouTube on Championship Bridge with Charles Goren, 1959–1964 (audio-video)
  • Easley Blackwood at Library of Congress, with 5 library catalog records
WARNING: WorldCat includes works by the musician Easley Blackwood Jr.