A short life of the author
David W. Maurer (20 March 1906 – 11 June 1981) was an American linguist and professor of English at the University of Louisville whose study of criminal slang and underworld subcultures produced one of the most entertaining and illuminating works of American non-fiction: The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man (1940). The book is a detailed, sympathetic, and linguistically precise account of the world of the professional confidence artist — the “big con” operators who ran elaborate long-form swindles (the wire, the rag, the pay-off) in the first half of the twentieth century. It is also the uncredited source for the plot of The Sting (1973), the film starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, a connection that led Maurer to sue the filmmakers and settle out of court. The Big Con is that rare scholarly work that reads like a novel and has remained continuously fascinating to general readers for over eighty years.
Life and Career
Maurer was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, and studied English and linguistics at Ohio State University, where he developed his interest in American dialects and criminal argot. He joined the faculty of the University of Louisville in 1933 and remained there for most of his career, teaching English and conducting field research into the specialised languages of American criminal subcultures.
Maurer’s method was anthropological: he gained the trust of criminals — con men, pickpockets, moonshiners, drug addicts — and recorded their language, their techniques, and their social organisation with the same rigor that a linguist would bring to the study of any occupational dialect. He was not a journalist looking for sensational stories; he was a scholar interested in how language functions within closed communities and how criminal argots encode specialised knowledge.
The Big Con (1940)
The book describes the world of the “big con” — the elaborate swindles that required teams of skilled operators, rented storefronts (“the big store”), and months of preparation to separate a wealthy victim (“the mark”) from large sums of money. Maurer identifies three classic big-con games: the wire (a fake horse-racing bet), the rag (a fake stock market operation), and the pay-off (a variant involving fixed horse races).
What makes the book extraordinary is Maurer’s access to his subjects. He interviewed dozens of active and retired con men, who spoke to him with remarkable candour — partly because they trusted him not to identify them, partly because they were proud of their skill, and partly because Maurer approached them with genuine respect and intellectual curiosity. The result is a portrait of the confidence world that is vivid, detailed, and surprisingly sympathetic: Maurer presents con men as highly skilled professionals who operate within a complex social hierarchy with its own ethics, its own vocabulary, and its own sense of craftsmanship.
The book’s language is one of its great pleasures. Maurer records and explains the specialised vocabulary of the con world — “roper,” “insideman,” “the blow-off,” “the cackle-bladder,” “putting on the send” — and the effect is like entering a foreign country with its own language and customs.
Luc Sante’s introduction to the 1999 reissue called it “a wonder and a joy” and “one of the great American books.” The book has influenced writers from William S. Burroughs (who acknowledged Maurer’s influence on his use of argot) to David Mamet.
The Sting Affair
When The Sting was released in 1973, Maurer recognised the film’s plot as a dramatisation of material from The Big Con. The filmmakers had used the book’s descriptions of the wire game, its terminology, and its character types without credit or permission. Maurer sued Universal Pictures; the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Other Work
Maurer published several other studies of criminal language: Whiz Mob: A Correlation of the Technical Argot of Pickpockets with Their Behavior Pattern (1955) applies the same linguistic method to the world of professional pickpockets. Kentucky Moonshine (1974) documents the language and culture of illegal whiskey distilling in Appalachia. Narcotics and Narcotic Addiction (1954, with Victor H. Vogel) is a study of drug culture and its language.
Collecting Maurer
The Big Con (1940, Bobbs-Merrill) in first edition with dust jacket is a significant rarity — fine copies bring $500–$1,500. The book was published in a small print run and was not widely preserved. The 1999 Anchor Books reissue (with Luc Sante’s introduction) is readily available. Whiz Mob (1955, College and University Press) brings $50–$150. Signed copies of any title are scarce.