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Charles Goren
Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s and widely known as "Mr. Bridge".
Goren was born in what is now Khotyn, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, to a Jewish family. His parents were Jacob and Rebecca Goron, a writer and a homemaker. His father emigrated in 1903 with the family possibly coming later. He earned a law degree at McGill University in Montreal in 1923. While he was attending McGill, a girlfriend (or "a young hostess") laughed at his ineptness at the game of bridge, thus motivating him to immerse himself in a study of existing bridge materials.
After graduation, he practiced law for 13 years in Philadelphia. The growing fame of contract bridge player Ely Culbertson, however, prompted Goren to abandon his original career choice to pursue bridge competitions, where he attracted the attention of Milton Work, an American authority on many card games including contract bridge. Work was impressed by Goren's knowledge of the game and hired Goren to help him write his bridge articles and columns.
Work was one of many strong bridge players based in Philadelphia around the 1920s. By 1928 he had popularized the 4–3–2–1 point count system for evaluating balanced hands (now sometimes called the Work count). His chief assistant Olive Peterson and young Goren established a partnership as players.
After the publication of Winning Bridge Made Easy in 1936, Goren gave up on practicing law. As a player, Goren's "breakthrough" was the 1937 Board-a-Match Teams championship (now called The Reisinger National Bridge Championship) which he won with three other Philadelphia players: John Crawford, Charles Solomon, and Sally Young.
Goren dominated the competitive bridge circuit. In 1950, he became world champion at the Bermuda Bowl. By 1958, he had earned 5,791 master points, was earning about $150,000 per year, and was profiled in a Time magazine cover story. He would place runner-up in 1956 and 1957. He won the Spingold knock-out teams championship in 1947 and 1960, the Vanderbilt in 1944 and 1945, and won other national victories, and national runner-up on 21 occasions. He remained a competitive player until about 1962 after which he focused on writing and teaching bridge.
After Milton Work died in 1934, Goren began his own bridge writing career and published the first of his many books on playing bridge, Winning Bridge Made Easy, in 1936. Drawing on his experience with Work's system, Goren quickly became popular as an instructor and lecturer.
Goren's books have sold millions of copies (especially Winning Bridge Made Easy and Contract Bridge Complete); by 1958 his daily bridge column was appearing in 194 American newspapers. He also had a monthly column in McCall's and a weekly column in Sports Illustrated.
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Charles Goren
Charles Henry Goren (March 4, 1901 – April 3, 1991) was an American bridge player and writer who significantly developed and popularized the game. He was the leading American bridge personality in the 1950s and 1960s and widely known as "Mr. Bridge".
Goren was born in what is now Khotyn, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, to a Jewish family. His parents were Jacob and Rebecca Goron, a writer and a homemaker. His father emigrated in 1903 with the family possibly coming later. He earned a law degree at McGill University in Montreal in 1923. While he was attending McGill, a girlfriend (or "a young hostess") laughed at his ineptness at the game of bridge, thus motivating him to immerse himself in a study of existing bridge materials.
After graduation, he practiced law for 13 years in Philadelphia. The growing fame of contract bridge player Ely Culbertson, however, prompted Goren to abandon his original career choice to pursue bridge competitions, where he attracted the attention of Milton Work, an American authority on many card games including contract bridge. Work was impressed by Goren's knowledge of the game and hired Goren to help him write his bridge articles and columns.
Work was one of many strong bridge players based in Philadelphia around the 1920s. By 1928 he had popularized the 4–3–2–1 point count system for evaluating balanced hands (now sometimes called the Work count). His chief assistant Olive Peterson and young Goren established a partnership as players.
After the publication of Winning Bridge Made Easy in 1936, Goren gave up on practicing law. As a player, Goren's "breakthrough" was the 1937 Board-a-Match Teams championship (now called The Reisinger National Bridge Championship) which he won with three other Philadelphia players: John Crawford, Charles Solomon, and Sally Young.
Goren dominated the competitive bridge circuit. In 1950, he became world champion at the Bermuda Bowl. By 1958, he had earned 5,791 master points, was earning about $150,000 per year, and was profiled in a Time magazine cover story. He would place runner-up in 1956 and 1957. He won the Spingold knock-out teams championship in 1947 and 1960, the Vanderbilt in 1944 and 1945, and won other national victories, and national runner-up on 21 occasions. He remained a competitive player until about 1962 after which he focused on writing and teaching bridge.
After Milton Work died in 1934, Goren began his own bridge writing career and published the first of his many books on playing bridge, Winning Bridge Made Easy, in 1936. Drawing on his experience with Work's system, Goren quickly became popular as an instructor and lecturer.
Goren's books have sold millions of copies (especially Winning Bridge Made Easy and Contract Bridge Complete); by 1958 his daily bridge column was appearing in 194 American newspapers. He also had a monthly column in McCall's and a weekly column in Sports Illustrated.