George H. D. Gossip

George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was a minor AmericanEnglish chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the worlds leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him the King of Wooden Spoonists because he usually finished last in strong tournaments. Gossip was also a noted writer. His treatise The ChessPlayers ManualA Complete Guide to Chess, a 900page tome published in 1874 after several years of work, was harshly received by the critics, largely because he had included a number of informal skittles games that he had won against stronger players. As a result, Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. However, his 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion, wrote that the 1888 edition of The ChessPlayers Manual was one of the best available books on the game. Thanks in

Gossip was born in New York City on December 6, 1841, to George Hatfeild Gossip, an Englishman, and his wife Mary Ellen Dingley Gossip, of New York. When he was sixteen months old, his mother died about two years later, he and his father moved to England. His aunt, Mrs. Reaston Rodes, raised him, apparently with little involvement by his father. Gossip grew up at Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire and at Hatfield, in Yorkshire. Both the Gossip and Rodes families are listed in Burkes Landed Gentry. He was educated at Windermere College, Westmorland, and won a scholarship to Oxford University, but was unable to attend as his father, uncle, and aunts lost a lawsuit that ruined them financially. As a result, Gossip had to support himself through his own labors.

Source: Wikipedia