The book that wrote it down
History
The Handbook of Texas says forty-two was passed along out loud, generation to generation, and that the rules, the strategy, and the history were not published in a book until the 1990s. The book it names is Winning 42: Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas, by Dennis Roberson.
The Handbook's bibliography gives the imprint: Lubbock, Texas Tech University Press, 1997, and a fourth revised edition in 2009. The Internet Archive has a 1997 copy under that title, publisher Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock. Texas Tech University Press now lists a later edition, sales date April 2025, paperback ISBN 9781682832660.
The Handbook says that book also has a chapter on famous Texans, from all walks of life, who grew up playing 42. I am not going to hang names on that sentence. The Handbook does not list them in the entry, and I have not opened the chapter.
Roberson is the same person the Handbook entry is by. The National 42 Players Association bylaws, on n42pa.org, list him among the appointed founding board, as treasurer, from Fort Worth. That is a separate fact from the book. The book is 1997. The bylaws' own note puts the association's first formal meeting in 2005.
What the kitchen table had, before any of that paper, was somebody's uncle talking you through a hand. The Handbook is clear that the written version came late. If your people play a mark, a bid, or a double a little differently from the book, that does not mean somebody invented it last week. A lot of that difference is older than the book. Which differences, exactly, the Handbook entry does not itemize. Treat the ones you cannot find in a cited source as oral. We will do that in Friday's note, and we will say so in the open.
Sources:
- Dennis Roberson, "Forty-Two (Domino Game)," Handbook of Texas Online, including the bibliography line for Winning 42. tshaonline.org
- Internet Archive record of the 1997 edition. archive.org
- Texas Tech University Press, current catalog page for Winning 42 (2025 edition). ttupress.org
- National 42 Players Association Constitution and By-Laws, founding-board list. PDF