Milton Cooper Work (September 15, 1864 – June 27, 1934) was an American authority on

whist Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play. History Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...

bridge whist Bridge whist or straight bridge is a card game popular in the early 20th century. It was derived from whist with the additional rules that the players would take turns as dummy and that the trump suit would be deliberately chosen (including the ...

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

and

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

. At least during the 19th century he was a cricket player, writer, and official. Work,

Sidney Lenz Sidney Samuel Lenz (1873 – 1960) was an American contract bridge player and writer. He is a member of the American Contract Bridge League Hall of Fame, being inducted in the second (1965) class. Career Lenz was born July 12, 1873 in a suburb of ...

, and

Oswald Jacoby Oswald "Ozzie", "Jake" Jacoby (December 8, 1902 – June 27, 1984) was an American contract bridge player and author, considered one of the greatest bridge players of all time and a key innovator in the game, having helped popularize widely used bi ...

were named to its bridge hall of fame by ''

The Bridge World ''The Bridge World'' (TBW), the oldest continuously published magazine about contract bridge, was founded in 1929 by Ely Culbertson. It has since been regarded as the game's principal journal, publicizing technical advances in bidding and the pla ...

'' monthly magazine in 1965, which brought the number of members to six. They were all made founding members of the

ACBL Hall of Fame This list is a compilation of contract bridge players, writers, administrators and personalities who have been recognized for their skills, achievements or contributions to the game as identified by various specific sources. People recognized by ...

in 1995."Induction by Year"
''Hall of Fame''. ACBL. Retrieved 2014-12-29.

Life

Work was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and practiced law from 1887 to 1917. He and Wilbur C. Whitehead toured the country in 1917 "organizing bridge competitions and lecturing on bridge, to promote the sale of

Liberty bonds A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...

". The tour was successful enough that he made bridge a full-time occupation rather than return to law.

Other sporting activities

Work was the manager of the

Philadelphian cricket team The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, t ...

that toured England in 1897. He had earlier played for

Belmont Cricket Club The Belmont Cricket Club was one of four chief cricket (sport), cricket clubs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that played from its 1874 founding in West Philadelphia until its disbanding in 1914. Bart King, arguably America's greatest cricketer du ...

between at least 1880 and 1887. He also played cricket, tennis and baseball for the

in 1887. He edited the ''American Cricketer'' magazine. In 1897 he was a representative of the Belmont Golf Association at a meeting which founded the Golf Association of Philadelphia.

Work Point Count system

In his writings on bridge during the last seven years of his life, Work adopted Bryant McCampbell's 1915 suggestion for evaluating balanced hands using a point count method: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1. Although Work had strongly opposed point count methods for 25 years (1902-1927), beginning about 1927 he became a strong advocate of the 4-3-2-1-½ point count—so much so that it became known as the Work Point Count. Subsequently, his employee and disciple

Charles Goren Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s – or 1940s and 1950s, as " ...

adapted it to value all hands. It is still used by players today. In 1927 Work was named American Bridge League (ABL) Honorary Member of the Year.

Selected works

* ''Whist of Today: in two parts'', 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Dreka, 1895), 182 pp. : "Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site." * ''Auction of To-day'', 5th ed. ( Houghton-Mifflin Co., 1913), 299 pp. * ''Auction Under the Laws of 1915'' (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1915), 104 pp. * ''Auction Declarations'' (Winston, 1917), 288 pp. * ''Auction Methods Up-to-Date including the new laws of 1920'' (Winston, 1920), 332 pp. * ''Auction for Two or Three, with a new code of laws for these games'' (Winston, 1921), 222 pp. – with "appendix giving improved methods for two-handed Canfield and

Russian Bank Russian Bank, Crapette or Tunj, historically also called Wrangle, is a card game for two players from the patience family. It is played with two decks of 52 standard playing cards. The U.S. Playing Card Company, who first published its rules, cal ...

" * ''Par Auction, analysis of play'' (

Milton Bradley Company Milton Bradley Company or simply Milton Bradley (MB) was an American board game manufacturer established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the ...

, 1921), 59 pp. * ''Auction Bridge in Twelve Lessons'' (Milton Bradley, 1922), 270 pp. * ''Auction Bridge of 1924'' (Winston, 1923), 507 pp. * ''Mah-jongg ... Up-to-Date'' (Winston, 1924), 177 pp. –

Mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

* ''Auction Bridge Complete'' (Winston, 1926), 500 pp. * ''Bridge Pointers and Tests'' (Winston, 1927), 192 pp. * ''Contract Bridge'' (Winston, 1927) 143 pp. – "including the official laws of contract bridge adopted by the Whist club, New York and by the Racquet and Tennis club, New York" * ''Auction Bridge for Beginners'' (Winston, 1928), 136 pp. * ''Contract Bridge For All'' (Winston, 1929), 243 pp. * ''Lesson hands for use of bridge teachers of the common sense system'' (Winston, 1930), 25 pp. * ''Common Sense Contract Bridge'' (Winston, 1931), 369 pp. * ''The Gist of Contract Bridge'' (Winston, 1931), 56 pp. * ''The official system of contract bridge in a nutshell'' (Winston, 1931), 58 pp. * ''Milton C. Work's short-cut to contract official system'' ( A. G. Spalding Bros., 1931), 183 pp. * ''The official summary of the new standardized official system of contract bridge'' (Winston, 1933), 83 pp. * ''One hundred and one celebrated hands in contract bridge, bid and played'', eds. Work and Olive Avery Peterson (Winston, 1933), 215 pp. * ''The Work–Peterson accurate valuation system of contract bridge'', Work and Peterson (Winston, 1934), 101 pp. ;Periodicals * ''Auction Bridge and Mah Jong Magazine'', eds. Work and Wilbur C. Whitehead (NY: John H. Smith Pub, 1924) * ''Auction Bridge Magazine'', Work and Whitehead (J. H. Smith, 1924–1929)

Notes

References

Sources

Cricket profile

External links

* * – linked variously as by Milton C.; Milton Cooper; Milton Cooper, 1864–1934; Milton Cooper, 1864– (including 19 "from old catalog") * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Work, Milton 1864 births 1934 deaths American contract bridge players Contract bridge writers Philadelphian cricketers University of Pennsylvania alumni American lawyers Cricketers from Philadelphia Place of death missing