A Wall Street Journal reporter recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble "RM" players while exploring the game's strange power. Copyright #169; Libri GmbH. All rights reserved. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

It takes a special kind of person to be able to rattle off all the words that start with the letter q but don't require a u or to immediately recognize that the same letters used for the word "troutmania" can also spell "maturation" and "natatorium." These talented individuals are the subject of Fatsis's tell-all on the professional Scrabble realm's inner sanctum. The Wall Street Journal sports reporter (and author of Wild and Outside) began simply as a curious journalist but was soon obsessed, befriending dozens of experts in his passage from "living room player" to the continent's 180th (or so) best player. The book entertainingly and admiringly portrays the irreverent crowd that lives, eats and breathes Scrabble, interspersing mini-profiles with updates on Fatsis's progress and historical facts about the game. Among the cast of characters familiar with words like "eloiners" and "loxodrome" are "G.I." Joel Sherman, who directs the Manhattan Scrabble Club despite his dental problems, asthma attacks and lactose intolerance; Matt Graham, a stand-up comedian who let Scrabble fill the void when he got fired from his gig at Saturday Night Live; and Steve Williams, a Harvard grad with psychiatric problems, also the winner of the 1977 New York City championship. Fatsis gives an in-depth Scrabble history, too from portraying Alfred Butts, the game's meticulous Depression-era inventor, to explaining how Hasbro manages to sell over one million sets a year with minimal advertising. Journalistic, expressive prose helps transform this potentially dry account of some word-obsessed oddballs into a funny, albeit vertical, glimpse at one of America's quirkiest special-interest groups. (July 10)Forecast: Are there 25,000 hardcore Scrabble fans out there? Hard to say, but Houghton Mifflin is counting on it, and in order to reach them, the house is taking an NPR sponsorship (Fatsis is an NPR contributor) and sending the author on a six-city tour. He is booked on the Today Show. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In 1997, when Wall Street Journal reporter Fatsis was casting about for a story, he decided to challenge the head of the National Scrabble Association to a game--and won. Now he's a top-ranked Scrabble player. Here's the story of how he got there.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Stefan Fatsis is a sports reporter for The Wall Street Journal, a regular guest on National Public Radio's He lives in Brooklyn, New York Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Author's Note	vi
1. The Park	1
2. The Best	10
3. Unrated	20
4. 1005	36
5. Edley	58
6. 1191	75
7. Alfred	89
8. G.I. Joel	109
9. 1291	127
10. The Words	141
11. Matt	154
12. The Owners	165
13. 1461	180
14. Lester	201
15. The Club	214
16. The World	230
17. The Worlds	247
18. 1416	264
19. 1501	285
20. 1574	306
21. 1601	322
22. 1697	340
Epilogue	363
Appendix	367
Sources	368
Acknowledgments	371

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.