Books
- Thread starter Klink
- Start date
Hustler Days
by
R.A. Dyer
Here is his website -
http://www.poolhistory.com/
This is some great stuff to read!
by
R.A. Dyer
Here is his website -
http://www.poolhistory.com/
This is some great stuff to read!
There are a bunch out there, this has been discussed before.
I would recommend doing a search on this forum, and finding some older threads, if you don't get a lot of responses here.
To get you started, some essentials include: Playing Off the Rail, Hustler Days, Banking with the Beard, and The GosPool.
I would recommend doing a search on this forum, and finding some older threads, if you don't get a lot of responses here.
To get you started, some essentials include: Playing Off the Rail, Hustler Days, Banking with the Beard, and The GosPool.
The best history book is Victor Stein's newest version of The Billiard Encyclopedia. It costs $150, but is well worth it, with several hundred pages of history and pictures.
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Sam Waltz said:
This is, by far, one of the best, though somewhat hard to come by at present, by John Grissim. May have been reprinted only once and last I knew, copies on Ebay were expensive. McGoorty: The Story of a Billiard Bum by Robert Byrne should also be at the top of any list. The Bank Shot and Other Great Robberies by Minnesota Fats and Tom Fox. The Lions and the Lambs by Thomas Fensch. Willie's Game by Willie Mosconi. Buddy Hall: Rags to Rifleman, Then What? by W. W. Woody. Running the Table by L. Jon Wertheim and Kid Delicious. Hustler Days and The Hustler and the Champ by R. A. Dyer. Robert Byrne's Great Book of Pool Stories. Thirty Years of Billiards by Willie Hoppe.
This is a good start.
I'll add one others haven't mentioned: Hustlers Beats and Others by Ned Polsky.
It's written by a college professor of sociology who was also a good pastime player, mainly of billiards. It's a book on the sociology of deviance, and its main study is that of pool hustlers. It was written in the 60's and gives a good history of pool, and gambling on pool, up to that time. In a later edition the author updates his study 30 years later. Look for the edition with Irving Crane on the cover. He delved pretty deep into the hustler life and got to know many of them well. I found it fascinating.
One of my favorite books of all time - on any subject - is McGoorty by Robert Byrne. It's a man's life story told in his own words while he suffered from terminal cancer. McGoorty was a pool and billiard hustler who lived a very colorful life and had a gift for expressing himself in a memorable way. He was brutally honest about his life and his failings. He knew all the old time greats - by old time, I mean guys like Greenleaf and Hoppe - and you get to know them pretty well too. It's really a great book - about billiards, but also about life and regret.
It's written by a college professor of sociology who was also a good pastime player, mainly of billiards. It's a book on the sociology of deviance, and its main study is that of pool hustlers. It was written in the 60's and gives a good history of pool, and gambling on pool, up to that time. In a later edition the author updates his study 30 years later. Look for the edition with Irving Crane on the cover. He delved pretty deep into the hustler life and got to know many of them well. I found it fascinating.
One of my favorite books of all time - on any subject - is McGoorty by Robert Byrne. It's a man's life story told in his own words while he suffered from terminal cancer. McGoorty was a pool and billiard hustler who lived a very colorful life and had a gift for expressing himself in a memorable way. He was brutally honest about his life and his failings. He knew all the old time greats - by old time, I mean guys like Greenleaf and Hoppe - and you get to know them pretty well too. It's really a great book - about billiards, but also about life and regret.
Here is a previous thread about this:Klink said:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=117178
In case that link doesn't work, use the search tool for:
byrne grissim fensch dyer
