Jerry Slocum (born July 5, 1931) is an American historian, collector and author specializing on the field of

mechanical puzzle A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces in which the solution is to manipulate the whole object or parts of it. While puzzles of this type have been in use by humanity as early as the 3rd century BC ...

s. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft prior to retiring and dedicating his life to

puzzle A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are differe ...

s. His personal puzzle collection, numbering over 40,000 mechanical puzzles and 4,500 books, is believed to be the world's largest. In 2006, the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors awarded Slocum with the Sam Loyd Award. In 2006, Slocum donated over 30,000 puzzles to the

Lilly Library The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library contained a collection of 20,000 bo ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

: marking the first time a major collection of puzzles was made available in an academic setting. Slocum's first book, ''Puzzles Old and New'', published in 1986, was the first comprehensive book to include all types of mechanical puzzles with hundreds of color illustrations of antique puzzles. In the introduction

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...

predicted that the book would "remain a classic for decades." Slocum has appeared on ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...

'', ''

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), ...

'', and eight other nationwide TV shows.

Slocum Puzzle Foundation

In 1993, Slocum founded the Slocum Puzzle Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on puzzles through puzzle collecting, exhibitions, publications, and communications.

International Puzzle Party

Slocum also founded the International Puzzle Party in 1978. The first eight International Puzzle Parties (an event dedicated to discussing, showing, and trading mechanical puzzles) were held in Slocum's

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

living room and evolved into an annual by-invitation-only event rotating between North America, Europe, and Asia.

Works

Slocum has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books on the topic of puzzles. * ''Puzzles Old and New'', with Jack Botermans (1986) * ''The Puzzle Arcade'' (1996) * ''The Tangram Book'', with Dieter Gebhardt, Jack Botermans, Monica Ma, Xiaohe Ma 2003 Sterling Publishing Company (Comprehensive, illustrated history, 1,756 problem figures) beautiful photos of historic Tangrams from Asia, Europe and America * ''The 15 Puzzle'', with Dic Sonneveld, 2006 Slocum Puzzle Foundation. * ''The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle'', with

David Singmaster David Breyer Singmaster (14 December 1938 – 13 February 2023) was an American-British mathematician who was emeritus professor of mathematics at London South Bank University, England. He had a huge personal collection of mechanical puzzles and ...

, Wei-Hwa Huang, Dieter Gebhardt, Geert Hellings, and an introduction by Ernő Rubik, 2006 , Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. Covers the history of the Rubik's Cube, with solutions to the 2x2 and 3x3 puzzles.

References

Sources

Appearance on Martha Stewart Living

External links