Sid Sackson was the greatest game collector in the history of the world. His home was quite literally the True Home of All Games, with shelves stacked wall to wall in every room other than the kitchen, the domain of his charming other half Bernice. A quarter century ago, I had the privilege of visiting his collection, enjoying their hospitality, and giving him copies from my collection of a few of the rarest out of print items. At the time, his collection was around 20,000 titles, generally sorted by year, with rarities going back the the turn of the previous century.

Sid was also a game designer. If you play American family games, you have played one of his creations. The first non-military games to have substantial followings in the MITSGS--from which the American Wargaming Association arose--were numbered among his creations. Beyond all the titles that Americans purchased and loved, there were in his home an array of sketches for games, game parts, notes on rules, counters, pawns, and parts.

He will be missed. His new titles will be missed.

A Message from the Sackson Family

by Mary Ellen Waithe

Hello, I'm Sid's infamous daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen, daughter of the late Claude Soucie of (modest) LOA fame. The family is touched by the thoughtfulness of so many of you, your "obits" your websites, your kind messages, etc. Although not a gamer myself, I've joined this list (probably only for a short time) because there seems to be a lot of discussion and confusion about Sid, his collection and its sale. In a few posts I will address the questions of Sid's personal papers, the "Museum Dream," and the Auction itself. So here goes...

1) SID'S PERSONAL PAPERS:

Do NOT return anything to Bernice or to us. We don't want it. For 50 years their home has been a living shrine to Sid's games and to his skills as a spielmeister. He didn't believe in funerals, eulogies or memorials. In keeping with that, we'd like to sweep.

Initially, when the auction ball got rolling, the family decided that it would be irreverent to let go of any of Sid's personal papers, prototypes, etc. while he was still alive. We felt that it would be treating him as though he were already dead and as though we were disposing of his estate. But (IMHO) the auctioneers did such a sloppy job of collecting stuff that there was no opportunity to supervise what was being removed. In the midst of all this, Sid died unexpectedly and by doing so settled the question of whether or not the auction was an estate sale or not. It was.

Many of you got some personal papers fair and square -- the same way Sid got his collection. He lucked out at bazaars, estate sales, thrift shops, etc. for decades, and now you've lucked out. That's exactly how he would have wanted it. So keep the stuff if you want to, sell it if you're so moved, scan and post it on your websites if there's interest. BTW: Bernice says that the handwritten corrections to the Gamut of Games mss are her handwriting. She also typed the mss. She's tickled pink that there's so much excitement over Sid's stuff.

2) The Game Museum Dream:

Many of you found correspondence mentioning Sid's Game Museum. For decades he tried to convince universities, game companies and others to create a board game museum. His dream was to have it housed at a university and for him to have an adjunct appointment to teach game theory. Decades of effort never yielded so much as an exhibit, though he gladly allowed visitors to tour the collection. You must understand the organizing principles upon which this collection was stored. The earliest stuff was stored in his study, with the boxes discarded to save room (yep!). When that room filled, and when he realized the value of keeping original boxes, he filled the basement. Then a spare bedroom. Then the kids' bedrooms (they moved.) Then three other rooms of their 2-family house. Then his bedroom, then the garage. Although he kept a diary of every purchase, (many games have masking tape stickers with .25 written on them) there was never an inventory, never any other organizing principle such as manufacturer, type of game, etc. The sole principle, if you can call it that was that what he considered junk was stored in the garage (once he was no longer able to drive).

Game museum?? Well, with all due respect, folks, if YOU want one, YOU are going to have to create one. Sid tried for decades.

3) The Auction:

Two things motivated the decision to sell the collection. First and foremost, Sid was no longer able to enjoy it. His deteriorating health and repeated hospitalizations, and ultimately the inability to continue caring for him at home even with help, meant that there no longer was a reason for the collection to be kept privately.

Second, despite Sid's deteriorating mental health, once he was living in the neighborhood nursing home, he stopped having constant falls, intracranial bleeds, etc. His physical health stabilized in the sense that he had no major diseases. He was simply declining. The decades he had devoted to game inventing and collecting were years in which he was self-employed and without medical insurance. The astronomical bills meant that within the next two years we would have to sell the collection. No collectors we approached could buy it, neither Sotheby's or other auction houses were willing to handle the sale.

Then I found [BoardGameGeek]. My husband Dana and I were willing to give up 2 summers that would be needed to inventory the collection. Bernice like the idea of auctioning individual games to people who, like Sid, loved the things. There was a mix-up with one sibling not knowing what the other was doing and Bernice thinking we were both referring to the same party. I went to Barcelona (not in Italy as reported) to give a paper and returned to find that Bernice had signed a contract with the Jersey auctioneer. At that point Sid was still alive, declining but certainly not dying. To try to intervene at that point in order to have the auction proceed through BGG would have been disruptive and burdensome for Bernice.

After the games were removed, but prior to the auction, Sid suddenly died. I feel badly because Scott Alden had been so helpful. (I had even listed part of the collection on BoardGameGeeks: and those are just the games A-D that I recognized from the collection.) The family thought that there were 6,000 - 10,000 games, unaware that Sid himself had told someone that he thought there were 15,000. In fact we were all low for the count. The second half of the games will be auctioned next spring. I believe the auctioneer wants to schedule it so that those who are going to the Connecticut (??) meeting can add it to their schedule.

So, no, there is no discord within the family over the games; we merely tripped all over ourselves and jumped at an opportunity we had been seeking for years. While I lament the lack of organization of the auctioneer, many of you seem to have been in hog heaven. So maybe it's not so bad after all.

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