Edmond Hoyle
British writer and whist authority (1672–1769)
Edmond Hoyle (1672 – 29 August 1769) was an English writer best known for his works on the rules and play of card games. The phrase "according to Hoyle" (meaning "strictly according to the rules") came into the language as a reflection of his broadly perceived authority on the subject; use of the phrase has since expanded to any appeal to a putative authority.
Life
Little is known about Hoyle's early life prior to publication of his books. Much of what is written about him is untrue or exaggerated. The suggestion that he trained at the bar is not known to be true, but some things say otherwise.
Hoyle died at the age of 97 on 29 August 1769 on Wellbank Street (today Welbeck Street), Cavendish Square, London.
Treatise on Whist
By 1741, Hoyle began to tutor members of high society at the game of whist, selling his students a copy of his manuscript notes. Hoyle expanded the manuscript and published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742, selling it for the high price of one guinea. When the book quickly sold out, rather than publish a new edition, Hoyle sold the rights to it to bookseller Francis Cogan for 100 guineas, an enormous sum for a small pamphlet. Before Cogan was able to publish a second edition, two printers pirated the work, giving the author as "A Gentleman" rather than Hoyle.
The public source identifies “Edmond Hoyle” as british writer and whist authority (1672–1769). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Edmond, Hoyle and British.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Edmond Hoyle”, the useful work is to connect “british writer and whist authority (1672–1769)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1285643. VIAF identifies the subject as 27288696. The Library of Congress control number is n50058626. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1672, 1769, 1741 and 1742.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edmond Hoyle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.