The Family Book of Games by Richard Kraus 1960

Good condition.

This is not one of the many reprints issued later.  This is the actual book from 1960!

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Richard G. Kraus, a New York native who so loved square dancing that he christened himself Texas Dick and became a leading square dance caller and then transformed himself into a much-published authority on recreation, died on March 28 at his home in Lower Gwynedd Township, Pa. He was 78.

Mr. Kraus, who wrote all or part of 40 books on recreation and dance, helped establish recreation studies as an academic discipline. He was a founding member of the Academy of Leisure Sciences.

He was born in Manhattan on Oct. 21, 1923, and became active in what was known as the cooperative movement, which established cooperatives in housing and many other areas. As part of his activities in the movement during the 1940's, he led "play parties" for children, introducing rudimentary square dancing and folk music.

But it was in Texas, while working in government intelligence during World War II, that he had the chance to delve more deeply into square dancing. When he returned to New York, he outfitted himself in cowboy boots and a wide-brimmed hat and called dances all around the city.

He recorded 10 albums of square dance music for RCA Victor and was a guest on television shows like "Today" and "The Mitch Miller Show."

Mr. Kraus graduated from the City College of New York before the war, and after his discharge earned a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. He taught there for 20 years and founded the dance department.

He later became chairman of the recreation department of Lehman College, part of the City University of New York. For the decade before his retirement in 1987, he was chairman of Temple University's department of recreation and leisure studies.

His book "The Family Book of Games” is a standard college text for recreation studies.

In addition to his daughter, who lives in Blue Bell, Pa., he is survived by his son, Andrew, of Northport, N.Y., and three grandchildren.

His daughter said his prolific work on play left him little time for personal recreation. He got up each day at 4 a.m. to write, and when asked how much he slept, he replied, "Not a whole lot."