Similar to the game Authors, each card features 5 quotations from a single author. Quotations are read until someone guesses the author correctly. From the New-York Times of August 22, 1863: "Mr. John H. Tingley, of No. 152 Fulton-street, advertises a new game for the social circle, called the "Game of Familiar Quotations." It affords a very pleasant way of becoming acquainted with the beauties of Shakespeare, Cowper, Colley Cibber, Young, Coleridge and others, whose writings add beauty to the English classics."