Card game:Improved Authors the Queens of Literature with Portraits & Autographs

The card game Authors originated in Salem, Massachusetts in 1861, first published by G. M. Whipple and A.A. Smith. Parker Brothers published a version in 1897. The simple matching type game encourages players to learn which author wrote specific titles. The player with the most matched sets of titles by each author at the end of the game wins. Authors was a perennial family favorite game from its beginning and versions are still produced today. Over the years the game has broadened to include women authors, composers, explorers, inventors, and sports figures.

McLoughlin Brothers game manufacturer in New York may have been the first maker of Authors games to create a version dedicated only to female authors. The playing cards include not only titles and illustration portraits, but also the signatures of each author, their "autographs."