The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in
Salon called “a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.” “Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat,” wrote David Maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in
The Big Con, one of the most colorful, well-researched, and entertaining works of criminology ever written. A professor of linguistics who specialized in underworld argot, Maurer won the trust of hundreds of swindlers, who let him in on not simply their language but their folkways and the astonishingly complex and elaborate schemes whereby unsuspecting marks, hooked by their own greed and dishonesty, were “taken off” – i.e. cheated—of thousands upon thousands of dollars.
The Big Con is a treasure trove of American lingo (
the write, the rag, the payoff, ropers, shills, the cold poke, the convincer, to put on the send) and indelible characters (Yellow Kid Weil, Barney the Patch, the Seldom Seen Kid, Limehouse Chappie, Larry the Lug). It served as the source for the Oscar-winning film
The Sting.
David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big . The high and elegant style of the big con described in this book as decline, perhaps disappeared, due to changing technology
David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff). From putting the mark up to putting in the fix, Maurer guides readers through the fleecing-pretty soon you'll be forgetting the book's scientific value and reading for sheer entertainment. A cackle-bladder, by the way, is a fake murder used to scare the victim off after his money's been taken. The high and elegant style of the big con described in this book as decline, perhaps disappeared, due to changing technology.
David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big . This is the book that inspired the movie The Sting. It outlines the history of American con artistry from the mid-19th century to the 1940s.
David Maurer spent years talking to con men about their profession, learning about each and every step of the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff). It was written for general audiences - it's not a sociology or criminology text.
3 See David W. Maurer, The Big Con: the Story of the Confidence Man (New York: Random House, 1999), introduction by Luc Sante. The book was originally published as The Big Con: the story of the confidence man and the confidence game (Indianapolis, New York: Bobbs Merrill, 1940. It was reissued as The American Confidence Man (Springfield, Il. Thomas, 1974)
The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called a bonanza of wild but credible .
The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.
It has an introduction by Low Life maestro Luc Sante. David Maurer was a linguistics professor in Kentucky whose study of the lingo of con men led him to learn more about the con man lifestyle. If you love reading about crime, read this. Jul 22, 2011 Eric Smith rated it it was amazing. At its best, this book describes some of the classic cons of its time (the book was first published in 1940) and I now want to rewatch some David Mamet movies to see how that correlate to the text.
Written by Professor David Maurer (a professor of linguistics at the University of Louisville from 1937-1972) "The Big Con" was his magnum opus which served as the source of that great Oscar-winning con movie "The Sting"
Museum of the Missing: A History of Art Theft.
I like to recommend David Maurer's 1940 classic, THE BIG CON, for the picture it paints of the US being, from one point of view, a vast, well-oiled swindling machine.
This kind of book has a long history. I like to recommend David Maurer's 1940 classic, THE BIG CON, for the picture it paints of the US being, from one point of view, a vast, well-oiled swindling machine. Every metropolis used to have its network of gyp joints, variously tarted up as saloons, nightclubs, gambling casinos, et. preying on a steady stream of green hicks dazzled by the bright lights of the big city, while not by any means neglecting to fleece the more urbane sort of marks as well.
Description The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante inSalon called a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of Mark Twain.
The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that Luc Sante in Salon called a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with .