SCRABBLE - The Last Word Newsletter

A N N S A N F E D E L EYork City Championship. Her participation in thattournament got her on a hot list, and she was invited tojoin Manhattan Club 17, run then by the late MiltWertheimer. By the late 70’s she became a regular atThe Game Room as well.Ann Sanfedele’s collection of SCRABBLE®photographs documents the roots of tournamentplay. This photograph is from the 1979 New YorkCity Scrabble Tournament at the Brooklyn WarMemorial. Front to back: Steve Tier, Steve Pfeiffer,Paul Avrin. Copyright © 1979 Ann Sanfedele.“In those days every Sunday for several weeks therewould be games, with the top players from each weekmaking it into quarter-finals, semis, and finals.” Ann madethe quarter-finals regularly, the semis twice, and the finalsonce. “If I didn’t get to the next level I would be at thegames photographing. I probably have more picturesthan anyone else from that era.” Some of them appearedin the documentary “Word Wars,” as well as in books andother publications. John Houle, and later, John Williams,liked Ann’s photographs and used many of them inSCRABBLE® News. She was the official photographer forthe 1983 National SCRABBLE® Championship.Ann became a serious SCRABBLE® competitor. Back inthe 70’s she was ranked in the top 10 percent, and in1991 she reached her peak rating to date of 1888. Shehas been a regular for many years at Club 56 inManhattan, where she is always a formidable opponent.What is less known about Ann in the SCRABBLE® community is that she is a published poet. In1972, the year she graduated from Hunter College, Ann won the Hotchiner Poetry Prize. The judgewas the Pultzer Prize-winning poet James Wright. His admiration for Ann’s poetry ultimatelyresulted in her friendship with him and his wife (now widow), Anne.Ann’s poems have appeared in a number of publications, including The American Poetry Review.The poem “Richard Leaving,” about Richard Gilston, Ann’s partner for thirteen years until his deathin 1993, appeared in the 2001 anthology The Cancer Poetry Project.“I met Richard at the Game Room in 1980. He had been one of the players at the old ‘FleaHouse’ [Chess and Checker Club of New York], where he convinced the others to use the Funk &Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary for rulings.” That dictionary was the one used for the firstNorth American Championship in 1978. “Although he refused to play in tournaments, Richard wouldindulge me at home.”In 2008 The Part of Fortune, a collection of Ann’s poems and black and white photographs, waspublished (http://stores.lulu.com/annsan), and new readers are discovering her amazing voice.A few months ago Ann got a request from the theatre department of the Shawnee Mission School inOverland, Kansas for permission to include “Richard Leaving" in a presentation of poetry from TheCancer Poetry Project. It is being performed there as we go to press.Readers will enjoy the following poem from The Part of Fortune, reprinted here with permission:38