An Annotated Bibliography of English Cartomancy Books and their Sources 1889 – 1971

Emma Donovan 01/04/2019

The following is a bibliography of English playing card cartomancy books from 1889 to
1971. It is as complete as possible, though inevitably there will be omissions. Publication
dates are taken from the British Library cataloguing system, though these are also sometimes
best estimates if the book is undated.
None of the books below was found to have original content as regards the card meanings.
I have found there to be six core texts from which the card meanings are drawn, most of
which are from the 18th century heyday of fortune-telling publishing. It is important to bear
in mind that the core texts are themselves possibly plagiarised from earlier texts. The date
and titles of these six sources are not to be considered definitive indications of the first
appearance of a set of card meanings - a great number of fortune-telling texts was published
and the majority of them were printed as flimsy and ephemeral chapbooks which have not
survived.
Where it has been possible to find a copy of the book I have given an indication of the source
of its card meanings and/or other content. I have used a key as given below which is based
on the texts explored in previous chapters of this book:

KEY: 1750 = Partridge and Flamsted’s New and Well Experienced Fortune Book
Etteilla = Etteilla (a general designation to cover the content from various books)
1784 = Breslaw’s Last Legacy
1790 = The Universal Fortune Teller; Or Mrs Bridget The Norwood Gypsy
1791 = Every Lady’s Own Fortune Teller
1861 = The Fortune-Teller or Peeps into Futurity by Louisa Lawford

1889 A Handbook of Cartomancy, Fortune-Telling and Occult Divination. Grand Orient.

London: George Redway, 1889 (rep. 1909 as ‘A Manual of Cartomancy’, London:
W. Rider & Son 1909, 1912).
SOURCE:
1896 What the Cards Tell (What the Cards Told. A Fact). ‘Minetta’. London: Downey &
Co. 1896 (rep. 1920)
SOURCE:
1897 Fortune-Telling Cards and How to Use Them. ‘Minetta’. London: George Redway,
1897.
SOURCE:
1897 Ye Book of Ye Cards. ‘Zurestra’(Ida B. Prangley). Westminster: Roxburghe Press,
1897.
SOURCE:
1899 Fortune-Telling by Cards. Ida B. Prangley. London: L. U. Gill, 1899 (rep. 1975).
SOURCE:
1900 The Square of Sevens: an Authoritative System of Cartomancy with a Prefatory
Notice by E. I. Stevenson. Robert Antrobus. London: George Redway, 1900.
SOURCE:
1903 Fortune-Telling by Cards. P. R. S. Foli. London: Pearson, 1903.
SOURCE:
1907 Indian Card Reading. The Art of Fortune Telling by Means of Ordinary Playing
Cards, Explained By an Adept. Caxton Hall. Blackpool: Ellis Family, 1907.(rep.
1916, 1924).
SOURCE:
1910 A Manual of Occultism. ‘Sepharial’. London: W. Rider & Son, 1910 (Rep. 1914)
[Chap. III ‘Cartomancy’].
SOURCE:
1913 Card Reading: A Practical Guide. ‘Minetta’. London: W. Rider & Son, 1913.
SOURCE:
1916 Card Fortune-Telling. A Comparative Study of the Best Ancient and Modern
Methods. C. Thorpe. London: Robert Hayes, 1916.
SOURCE:
1917 The Book of the Cards. A Compendium of Fortune-Telling by Cards. ‘Sepharial’.
London: Foulsham, 1917 (rep. 1926, 1953, 1958).
SOURCE:
1919 Fortune-Telling with an Ordinary Pack of Cards. London: International Card Co.,
1919.
SOURCE:
1919 Fortune-Telling by Cards. Louisa Lawford. London: George Routledge & Sons,
1919.
SOURCE:
1920 Cards of Fortune. Lilius. London: William Rider & Sons, 1920.
SOURCE:
1920 Card Fortune-Telling. Platt. London: Foulsham, 1920 (rep. 1923)
SOURCE:
1921 Telling Fortunes by Cards. Cecily/Cicely Kent. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1921.
SOURCE:
1923 Foulsham’s Fortune-Telling by Cards. London: W. Foulsham & Co., 1923.
SOURCE:
1923 Your Fate and the Cards. Ivan Forbes. London: Hutchins & Co., 1923.
SOURCE:
1928 Fortune-Telling by Cards. As Told by a Gipsey Queen. London: R. Gough, 1928.
SOURCE:
1930 Astrology and the Cards. E. H. Bailey. London: W. Foulsham & Co., 1930.
SOURCE:
1931 Fortune-Telling with Cards. How to Read the Future by the Aid of Playing Cards.
London: A. Rogers & Co., 1931.
SOURCE:
1937 Thirty Different Ways of Card Fortune-Telling. ‘Zodiaster’. London: Universal
Publications, 1927.
SOURCE:
1939 Fortune-Telling by Cards. James Leigh [pseud. James Cumberbirch, editor of
‘Prediction’ and contemporary commentator on the trial of Helen Duncan, ‘Britain’s
Last Witch’]. London: Link House Publications, 1939 (rep. 1941).
SOURCE:
1946 How to Read the Cards. London: Vawler & Wiles, 1946.
SOURCE:
1947 It’s on the Cards. The Art of ‘Telling Fortunes’. Vera Bingham. London: Background
Books, 1947.
SOURCE:
1954 Secrets of the Cards. A Simple Guide to Fortune-Telling. Annalice Robinson.
London: Herbert Jenkins, 1954 (rep. 1970).
SOURCE:
1963 How To Tell Fortunes with Cards. Wenzell Brown. London: Oak Tree Press, 1963.
 SOURCE:

1971 Telling Fortunes With Cards. Kevin Martin. London: Collier-Macmillan, 1971.
SOURCE: