Outlining Magic Circles

Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium, first published in 1909, has been called "the most comprehensive and scholarly book on games." It contains rules and variations of hundreds of games for schools, summer camps, parties, etc., as well as Jessie H. Bancroft's insightful and lengthy introduction exploring the purposes, materials, uses, and even the ritual origins of games. This volume reprints the entirety of the 1912 edition and adds a new introductory essay examining the anthropological study of the relationship of ritual and gaming since the book was published