Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

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John Upham
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Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by John Upham » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:57 am

One of the great innovators of problem composition starting at a very early age.

Edith's family was very significant in the life of chess in Devon.

Her two books are two of the most collectable chess books.

Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924) :D

(There is doubt over her DoB as primary sources are not helpful).


BairdEdith-2.jpg
Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)
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Tim Harding
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Re: Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by Tim Harding » Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:48 pm

In this series of yours, I can maybe see the point of quoting from various sources even if they are wrong/dubious but this article seems to me over-dependent on a piece by a random American blogger "Tartajubow." You seem to have lifted huge chunks of his/her own article, which may not be that accurate. If you have checked facts, why not put them your own words?

In particular, there is a statement in a passage you extract from "Tartajubow" that Edith Elina Baird composed a chess problem at the age of 8, even implying it was published then. That would be about 1867 since I agree her exact birth date may not be certain. Gaige's "Chess Personalia" (which would have been better to quote than the notorious Wikipedia) indeed gives that date but the wrong place of birth.

She cannot have had a problem published in 1867 in the Western Magazine and Portfolio since that publication only ran from July 1888 to December 1892. Edith's brother E. J. W-W was chess editor. These are both facts that "Tartajubow" probably wasn't aware of but you could have found them in Appendix I of my book "British Chess Literature to 1914."
My notes show that the piece about Mrs Baird was in volume 2, pages 248-249 (October 1889 number) but unfortunately I didn't photograph those pages so I cannot provide further information except that there was a poem about her and a small picture. I cannot say whether the first problem she composed was included.

Actually I think it's not true that she started composing at age 8.

Your article could be much improved if you went back to the article about her in F. R. Gittins's classic book "The Chess Bouquet" where she was the first subject in the collection and her daughter Lillian the second, and attribute to Gittins rather than the blogger anything he got from that source.

Gittins, by the way, stated her year of birth as 1859 (no exact date or place stated) and says she only started composing problems eight years after her marriage (which was in 1880), so actually she started around 1888 when, Gittins said, she won third prize in a composing tourney in the Sheffield Independent.

I have enjoyed several of your other articles but this one is in need of a major rewrite,
Tim Harding
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Re: Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by John Upham » Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:03 pm

Many thanks for the feedback Tim : much appreciated.

I'm hoping that once I can access physical sites I can consult more primary sources rather than relying on online.

I will take your comments on board.
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Re: Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by Tim Harding » Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:17 pm

The Gittins book used to be available to download in Google Books but has (like so many others in recent years) fallen foul of some reprint house paying Google after which they withdraw it.
I wonder how much Google charge for that, and do they share the money with the libraries from which they scanned the originals?
I will email you a PDF of Gittins.
Tim Harding
Historian and FIDE Arbiter

Author of 'Steinitz in London,' British Chess Literature to 1914', 'Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography', and 'Eminent Victorian Chess Players'
http://www.chessmail.com

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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by Gerard Killoran » Tue Feb 02, 2021 10:52 am

The free download of The Chess Bouquet is still available in Google Books if you use a VPN/Proxy which gives you a US IP address. I suggest CyberGhost, whose free version is perfectly adequate.

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John Upham
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Re: Remembering Edith Baird (née Winter-Wood) (22-ii-1859 01-ii-1924)

Post by John Upham » Thu Feb 04, 2021 12:43 pm

Thanks to the good offices of TDH and Richard James the Edith Baird article has been revised, corrected and added to by Richard. :D

https://britishchessnews.com/2021/02/01 ... 1-ii-1924/

Thanks!
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