Good history of chess in the US

Hey-

I'm noodling around with a project on c. 19 views of chess in the US.  Off the top of your heads, is there a standard history of US chess I should consult as a starting point?  I'm planning on pulling *The Oxford Companion to Chess* and Shenk's *The Immortal Game* when I hit the library this week. 

Best-

CMI

Thanks.  Just requested Soltis, Andy, and Gene H. McCormick.  The United States Chess Championship, 1845-1996.  2nd ed. McFarland, 1997.  Looks like exactly what I was looking for.

Any other recommendations would be welcome.

There are several interesting books on US History. John Hilbert wrote a book on Walter Shipley that covers lots of chess history (mostly Philadelphia) also published by MacFarland. The book John wrote on the 1936 US Championship has a nice (and much better) history of the US Championship. Contact me about this if it is in the area that interests you. The Soltis/McCormick book is OK and a fun read but not extensively researched.

Thanks aansel -- my main interest is the nineteenth century.  The Hilbert books are at the far end of my period -- but, if they're more scholarly, I'm guessing the notes might be really useful.

i didn't know america had a history.

For 18th Century items look for Hilbert's  book on Hodges. The Soltis book is weak on pre 1936 US Championship--the history chapter in the 1936 book is much better as it deals with the uncertainty of who was the Champion. Hibert's book on Leonard gives great coverage of Civil War era chess in NY and there is a book on Frere (written by a distant relative) which is good for that perido as well.

For free you can download Edges book on Morphy which has no games but covers his trip to Europe. Also Bird's book is in the public domain (Chess History and Reminiscences ) covers lots of good stuff but is European slanted

Reichhelm's Chess in Philadelphia was reprinted and also gives some good history of that City

You can do some research on Morphy and early US chess by looking for books on Google’s chess book collection. These are old books you can download and are not copyright protected so they’re legal. Just as one example you can download the American Chess Magazine collection from 1847 plus a lot of other stuff before 1900. For some reason though I cannot get the link to post.

I would contact Chess.com member's Batgirl and Bill Wall, both of whom are chess historians and I'm guessing (but not promising!) would be willing to steer you in the direction of good resources for your project. Batgirl's primary interest is, I believe, 19th century American chess! I can't think of a better person to contact... but I don't know how jealously she guards her demesne.

Thanks for the flood of resources.  One of the problems so far has been the tremendous amount of resources available -- many of which are more interested in game histories.  I'll shoot Batgirl a message for sure.

CMI

search bobby fischer, most of u s chess history centered around him and that era

 Geo. Washington fought Cornwallis with his left hand as he played 22 moves deep into the Colonial Stonewall Defense, Appalachian variation--all very difficult and impressive on a row boat, in the winter, on the ice-filled Potomac, while sipping a brandy, and singing 'She was only the Banker's Daughter, but she couldn't draw any Interest.'   

John McCrary wrote a series of articles concerning US chess history for Chess Life a few years ago, and may still be writing more (it seems that I've seen a new one this winter). Many or most (perhaps all) these articles are available on the World Chess Hall of Fame website.

LMFAO.

Thanks Zirab.  I'll follow that link tomorrow.  Been using Zotero to organize some of these titles.  Lots of entries for Batgirls blog.

Good one!!  Sometimes those snaggle-toothed brits need a reminding who is the pappa (us) and who is the mamma (them).

who's the papa? surely you mean who are the grandparents( literally, you are spawned from us) and who are the spoilt grandchildren?

I won't lie, our country doesn't mean shit anymore, you run the world now. I'm not just a knee-jerk anti-American.

still, though, 500 or so years hardly counts as history. More, a couple of stories. All I seem to remember is that you owe us a massive cup of tea, then you tried to kill each other, now you are trying to kill everyone else, then some russians beat you( and us, granted) at chess. No, I don't think that's an oversimplification.....