Solitaire games, also known as Patience in Britain, are card games for a single player. Solitaire most likely preceded traditional multiplayer card games

Solitaire History (Patience in Britain)

Solitaire games, also known as Patience in Britain, are card games for a single player. Does not exist a precise history of solitaires, but it is probable that they were first played with tarot cards, which would indicate that solitaire most likely preceded traditional multiplayer card games.

In its early days, solitaire was most prevalent in Europe. Playing cards were first introduced in Italy in the 1300s. During that time they also became popular in Northern Europe. The first known solitaire game rules were recorded during the Napoleonic era. The very word 'solitaire' is of a French origin, and it means 'patience'.

Napoleon, deported to the island lost in the ocean, knew what confinement felt like fully; he also knew how cards could solace one sentenced to solitude.

The end of the sixteenth century was an active period for the invention of various card games. This was when the ace first appeared as high instead of low in the rankings of the cards. Several new card games were invented during this time and new variations were added, so this is likely a time when solitaire games were invented and named as well.

Publications about solitaire began to appear in the late nineteenth century. Lady Adelaide Cadogan is believed to have written the first book on the rules of solitaire and patience games just after the Civil War, but is still reprinted occasionally even today. Other non English compilations on solitaire may have been written before that, however. In England 'Cadogan' is a household word for solitaire in the same manner that 'Hoyle' is for card games.

Several other authors wrote books on solitaire around the same time.

Some solitaire games were invented in unexpected places. A notable inventor of solitaire games was Bill Beers. He was in a mental asylum when he invented a variation of Cribbage Solitaire. Prisoners had plenty of time to play solitaire, but were unable to use traditional cards because they could be used as an edged weapon.

Several solitaire games have gained fame through literature and other avenues. A very popular solitaire game, spider solitaire, was played by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Spider solitaire is also mentioned in 'The Gentleman in the Parlour', by Somerset Maugham.

Charles Dickens 'Great Expectations' mentions solitaire in its story. In 'The brothers Karamazov', by Dostoevsky, a character in the story plays a solitaire game called 'Fools', a Russian equivalent of 'Idiot's Delight'. A famous casino is responsible for the invention of a very popular solitaire game. Mr. Canfield, who  owned a casino in Saratoga, invented a game where one would purchase a deck of cards for $50 and obtain $5 for every card played to the foundations. He gained an average of $20 per game. The actual name of this popular game was Klondike, but Canfield has 'stuck' and is almost as commonly used as the word 'patience'.

Today most people refer to Klondike as simply 'Solitaire'. Due to its difficulty to win, the time needed to play and the lack of choices along the way, Klondike has lost some popularity to other popular solitaire games. Even some movies have sported bouts with solitaire. In the movie 'The Manchurian Candidate', a character under a queen's spell asks for a deck of cards at a local pub and proceeds to play solitaire.

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