It is impossible to be involved in the literature of card and board games without running across the name Thierry Depaulis. He is the author of two books which are prominent on my reference shelf:
This is the definitive bibliography of books in French on playing cards. Because of its exhaustive listing of the various editions of Academie des Jeux, it is a great resource for trictrac and other table games, chess, checkers, etc.
This is absolutely the best of the many books which purport to tell the history of bridge.