Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769)

Edmond Hoyle collected instructions for playing games; he may have been the first technical writer on card games. His "Short Treatise on the Game of Whist" was published in 1742 and quickly became the model guide to the rules of the game. Hoyle's name became synonymous with the idea of "correct" play according to the rules -- the phrase "according to Hoyle" was first recorded in 1906.