FRED REINFELD (1910-1964)

Who was the most prolific author in numismatics? That may depend on how you count. One possibility was Fred Reinfeld. He is credited with writing more than 260 books with most of those about chess. I do not have an example in my library.

My father played chess, read chess books and owned a few chess books. I never paid attention to the author of those books. My father may have had a larger collection of Reinfeld books than I do.

Reinfeld was born in New York City on January 27, 1910, and lived within the boroughs for the rest of his life. His father was a carpenter, Barnett Reinfeld (1883-1959). His mother was the former Rose Pograzelsky (1886-1949). At one time, the family owned a candy store. Barnett remarried in 1950 after the death of Rose.

Fred Reinfeld learned to play chess at age 9 and played on his high school team. With no chess books available, he studied at the library and copied the moves for more than a thousand past games. In 1926, he became active with the Marshall Chess Club.

He studied accounting at New York University and City College of New York. While at NYU, he won the National Chess Federation intercollegiate championship in 1929. He won the New York State chess championship in 1931 and 1933. He was highly ranked within the United States but never played out of the country.

He married Beatrice Levine in the Bronx on December 10, 1932. They had a son and a daughter. The couple operated Black Knight Press, publishing books on chess and a series called Modern Chess Library. Reinfeld stopped playing in competition when his son was born in 1942.

 

He began work as copy editor for Dial Press. His income was supplemented by his writing of chess books. Reinfeld began writing for Chess Review in 1933 and by 1947 he was their senior editor.

He wrote his first chess book in 1932. Commentary offered a ‘play-by-play' account of important past games. His books helped to popularize chess for beginners. He found that books intended for advanced players did not sell as well as those targeted for novices.

Reinfeld taught chess through community education classes at NYU and Columbia. Later in life he was on staff in the School of General Education at New York University.

His first non-chess book was an abridged version of Oliver Twist in 1948. When he died in 1964, he was credited with 260 books in 32 years or an average of more that eight per year. His peak production was 13 books in one year.

Chess was not a professional sport. He wrote, I played and wrote seriously - and got nothing for it. When I pour out mass-produced trash, the royalties come rolling in.

Reinfeld had a great memory for anything he read and could make himself an expert on any topic. He wrote additional books on the topics of astronomy, checkers, geology, history, jurisprudence, medicine, philately, physics and political science.

His first numismatic book was published in 1952 by Sterling Books, then owned by David Boehm. Boehm contributed under the pen name of Robert V. Masters. Reinfeld was secretary-treasurer for Sterling with Burton Hobson as sales manager.

He wrote nineteen books on numismatics between 1952 and his death in 1964. They were lavishly illustrated with photos. Some titles were published after his death. A list compiled by Len Augsburger was published in Rare Coin Review in December 2000.

Reinfeld joined the American Numismatic Association in 1953 as member 20858. His numismatic books were promoted and marketed through ads in The Numismatist. The extent of his numismatic collection, if any, is unknown.

He died at Meadowbrook Hospital in East Meadow, New York, on May 29, 1964. His library of more than a thousand volumes was donated to NYU in 1965. In 1996 he was inducted into the U. S. Chess Hall of Fame.

A 2019 biography by Alex Dunne is titled Fred Reinfeld: The Man who Taught America Chess. It relies heavily on quotes from Reinfeld books and Reinfeld annotations of chess matches.

 

This is the Augsburger list of his numismatic titles.

• Coinometry by Robert V. Masters and Fred Reinfeld (1952, 1953, 1958, 1963, 1965)
• Treasury of the World's Coins (1953, 1955)
• Coin Collector's Handbook (15 editions 1954-1976)
• A Catalogue of the World's Most Popular Coins by Reinfeld and Burton Hobson (14 editions 1956-1986)
• Cash for Your Coins (1956, 1957, 1966)
• The Story of Paper Money (1957-1960)
• How to Build a Coin Collection (7 editions 1958-1977)
• The Story of Civil War Money (1959)
• A Simplified Guide to Collecting American Paper Money (1960)
• Coin Collecting by Robert V. Masters & Reinfeld (1960, 1964, 1974)
• Coin Dictionary and Guide by C. C. Chamberlin and Reinfeld (1960, 1961)
• A Treasury of American Coins (1961)
• Pictorial Guide of Coin Conditions (1962, 1968)
• Picture Book of Ancient Coins (1963)
• Manual for Coin Collectors and Investors (1963, 1965)
• A Catalogue of European Coins (1964)
• U. S. Commemorative Coins and Their Values (1964)
• New Treasury of the World's Coins by Reinfeld and Burton Hobson (1967)
• Coin Collecting for Beginners (1970, 1980)

Smarty Pants challenge of the week: What novel uses Reinfeld quotes to introduce several chapters?

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web