Up For Sale Today is

Sucker's Progress
An Informal History of Gambling in America
From the Colonies to Canfield

by

Herbert Asbury

Hardcover. 8vo. Dodd, Mead & Company. 1938. 493 pgs. Illustrated with Black and White Plates. First Edition/First Printing. 

DJ has light chipping, shelf-wear and rubbing present to the DJ especially around the extremities. Bound in cloth boards. Boards have light discoloration present to the edges of the boards. No ownership marks present. Foxing Present. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid.

Sucker’s Progress is a complete look at old-time gamesmanship in America. From Midwestern riverboats to East Coast racetracks, Asbury explores the legal, and illegal, history of gambling in pre–World War I America. With a keen eye and acerbic voice, Asbury defines the world of gambling as one of “sharpers” and “suckers”: those who excel at the games by cheating, and their victims. From notorious gambling havens like Chicago and New Orleans to lesser-known outposts in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Asbury examines the gambling houses, big and small, which peppered the American landscape. Also included are photographs and details of the lives of some of America’s most famous gamblers, including Mike McDonald, John Morrissey, and Richard Canfield, as well as their infamous counterparts like “Canada Bill” and “Charley Black Eyes,” who made their names as grifters and con men. Asbury also details the games these men played, describing the rules and origins of a number of dice and card games. From one-dollar lottery tickets to thousand-dollar poker antes, America’s love of gambling thrives today, but it was during Asbury’s era that gambling was established as an American passion.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Herbert Asbury was an American journalist and writer who is best known for his books detailing crime during the 19th and early 20th century such as Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld, The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld and The Gangs of New York. The Gangs of New York was later adapted for film as Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002). 

Asbury achieved first notoriety with a story that H. L. Mencken published in his magazine, The American Mercury in 1926. The story profiled a prostitute from Asbury's hometown of Farmington, Missouri. The prostitute took her Protestant customers to the Catholic cemetery to conduct business, and took her Catholic customers to the Protestant cemetery; some in Farmington considered this woman beyond redemption.

The article caused a sensation: The Boston Watch and Ward Society had the magazine banned. Mencken then journeyed to Boston, sold a copy of his magazine on Boston Common, and was arrested. Sales of the recently founded Mercury boomed, and Asbury became a celebrity. Asbury then focused his attention on a series of articles debunking temperance crusader Carrie Nation.

Herbert continued working as a reporter for various newspapers including the Atlanta Georgian, the New York Sun, the New York Herald and the New York Tribune. In 1928, he decided to devote his time exclusively to writing. During this time, he wrote numerous books and magazine articles on true crime. He was also involved in screenwriting and wrote several plays which appeared on Broadway.