"Looking for correspondence with key wargamers" Topic

Stating the obvious, in years gone by, wargamers spent a lot of time writing to each other.

I am seeking copies of any old correspondence people might have had with influential early wargamers. As part of the History of Wargaming Project, I have received various correspondence of Donald Featherstone, Paddy Griffith, Charles Grant etc.. This is being digitized and sorted, so it is available for study for the future.

I am aware that this is probably the last chance to capture more those early letters which say so much about the development of modern wargaming.

If you can help, please contact me.

John

john.curry@wargaming.co

This rather suggests that "key Wargamers" are dead or very elderly, which in turn suggests that the best of the hobby is behind us. How are you dealing with the current crop of key Wargamers, whoever they may be?

Good question. There is some marvellous stuff happening in wargaming today, and there are many outlets that are recording some background of the people who are making the hobby happen today. Interviews, pod casts, blogs etc…

I am currently trying to capture what I can of the correspondence of some of the key people who helped launch modern wargaming.

John's opening post did specifically say 'influential early,' so I'm not sure it suggests anything about the best being behind us, more how did we get to where we are now?

Some sort of web archiving might be of use though, going forward. Working out who was more influential is often better at a distance and I suspect there'll be less written stuff to refer to by then. You might also have to set up a 'History of the Games Workshop Hobby Project' too… ;)

John:
Unfortunately, I haven't kept a lot of the letters and correspondence I have had with significant wargamers.

Does Paddy Griffith count? If so, I have some letters from him about ACW games and his book on the ACW. What exactly are you looking for? I and my cronies have records of games we played with Paddy as GM twenty years ago.

I am interested in letters from Paddy Griffith. I am also curious about the games. One day I hope to publish more posthumous books by Paddy, Paddy's Counter Insurgency Wargames was the first one. Sorry for the delay, I have been working on the new Lionel Tarr Wargame book.