Editing The Hustler (novel) (section)

== Background ==
Tevis grew up in Kentucky, and became good friends with a youth whose father bought him a pool table to keep him out of trouble. He was introduced to gambling when he was in the Navy, and a writer for ''[[Kentucky Monthly]]'' observed in 2019 that "The combination of pool and gambling started the clock ticking toward what was to come."<ref>{{Cite web |last=West |first=Gary P. |date=October 1, 2019 |title=The Real Hustler |url=http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/api/content/7ee6605a-e451-11e9-91cd-12f1225286c6/ |access-date=August 29, 2023 |website=KentuckyMonthly.com |archive-date=October 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009092531/http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/culture/people/the-real-hustler/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He called himself as a "B-minus" pool player who could not play professionals with any hope of winning.<ref name=":0" />

The pool rooms described in the book were fictionalized by Tevis, and he insisted that despite claims by [[Rudolf Wanderone]]<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Sports Illustrated]] |title=Victimized by a Kids' Game |date=October 14, 1968 |first=Pat |last=Putnam |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1968/10/14/victimized-by-a-kids-game |page=82 |volume=29 |issue=16}}</ref> to be the model of the character, Minnesota Fats was entirely fictional. He told an interviewer in 1981: "A lot of people ask me, 'When did you first meet Minnesota Fats?' And I feel like [[Walt Disney]] being asked, 'When did you meet [[Donald Duck]]?' Come on, I made him up. One of my contributions to American folklore." Tevis has described Fast Eddie's hometown of Oakland as a "disguised autobiographical reference" to San Francisco, where Tevis was born.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Wolinsky |first=Richard |last2=Davidson |first2=Lawrence G. |last3=Lupoff |first3=Richard A. |date=August 1, 2019 |title=An Interview with Walter Tevis |url=https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-walter-tevis/ |access-date=August 29, 2023 |website=Brick |archive-date=November 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129082851/https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-walter-tevis/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

A pool player named [[Eddie Parker (pool player)|Eddie Parker]] asserted that he was the basis for the Fast Eddie character. But Tevis maintained that Fast Eddie was fictitious, and he resented assertions to the contrary, that he had "created such memorable characters out of mere reportage". After his death in 1984, his widow debunked claims for years that the Fast Eddie character was based on a real person.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Shawn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMc7Zcxrf3MC |via=Google Books |title=Paul Newman: A Life |date=2009 |publisher=Crown |isbn=9780307353764 |pages=169 |access-date=August 29, 2023 |archive-date=August 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829233036/https://books.google.com/books?id=OMc7Zcxrf3MC |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, a researcher examined the novel's original manuscript and found that Tevis had changed the character name from "New York Fats" to "Minnesota Fats," lending credence to the claim of Rudolf Wanderone, who called himself "New York Fats," that he was the inspiration for the character.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dyer |first1=R. A. |title=Myth vs Reality: When Minnesota Fats and Walter Tevis' imagination collided |work=Billiards Digest |url=https://www.billiardsdigest.com/new_current_issue/nov_19/bb_index.php |access-date=30 August 2023 |date=November 2019 |archive-date=22 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422113215/https://www.billiardsdigest.com/new_current_issue/nov_19/bb_index.php |url-status=live }}</ref>