This book was printed privately in three units in 1934 and 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, USA by William Ewart Napier and Edward J. Napier.Each Unit contains exactly one hundred chess games. Each game is proceeded by a comment about the game or the players of the game. Napier is known for his witty remarks such as saying the best game he had ever played in his life was a game he lost to Emanuel Lasker. This is quoted by Irving Chernev in "Wonders and Curiosities of Chess" and in "Curious Chess Facts" ISBN 4871875717.Some of these games may seem unbelievable but they are legitimate. All of the games can seem to be found online in chessgames dot com.Napier had a relatively short playing career. He has only 131 games on chessgames dot com which are probably all his known games. His rating according to Professor Elo's Book "The Rating of Chess Players Past and Present" ISBN 0923891277 was 2500. However, it seems he was a bit better than that. He was ranked at one point as the 11th strongest player in the world based on the few tournaments in which he played. He died on 6 September 1952 in Washington, D.C.Five years later, this book was reorganized by I. A. Horowitz and published as Paul Morphy and the Golden Age of Chess. ISBN 4871871711. It came out in 1957, with additional material on Morphy and his games by Fred Reinfeld.That book is in a more attractive and professional format. However, it lacks one important feature. That book has no index. Here, in Napier's Amenities and background of chess-play you can find a complete index at the end based on the game number of each game. Games are indexed by the names of the players, the opening they played or by the tournament of event they were played in.