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SUCKER BET
by James Swain
A hardened ex-cop with great instincts, a sharp eye, and a short fuse,
Tony Valentine still catches crooks, but a very special breed of them.
He nabs hustlers who rob casinos, and finds the fatal flaw that allowed
the place to get ripped off in the first place. Sometimes that means
biting the hand that feeds him, but Valentine isnÕt paid to sugarcoat
the cold, hard truth. Along flashy strips and in seedy dives, if thereÕs
a game to be fixed, Valentine knows how to spot the tricks, the scams,
the sleight of hand. And with his new case, thereÕs definitely more on
the table than meets the eye.
FUNNY MONEY
by James Swain
"I can sense when things aren't right on a casino floor and I just take
it from there," says Tony Valentine, the cop turned casino consultant
who--all boasting aside--finds himself stumped more often than not in
Funny Money. James Swain's smartly plotted, often humorous sequel to
Grift Sense sends the 62-year-old Valentine back to his hometown,
Atlantic City, where his former police partner, Doyle Flanagan, has been
blown up in his car at a McDonald's. Like his debut novel, Funny Money
is distinguished by Swain's knowledge of gambling scams from card
counting to the judicious application of a "monkey's paw" on a slot
machine. Less even is this book's character development. Valentine is
expertly drawn, and the relationship between him and his late-blooming
son is both convincing and heartwarming.
GRIFT SENSE
by James Swain
The novel is about card cheaters and the scams they use to fleece their
marks. Although the book is not about magic, one magician, Herb Zarrow
is identified in the book. Other subtle magic references include
characters who are named after magicians. "Valentine [main character] is
a sixtysomething, Florida-living, misanthropic former cop, whose hobby
and lucrative pension-stretcher is exposing cheats, frauds and
con-persons."
CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL
by Glen David Gold
In 'Carter Beats the Devil,' Glen David Gold subjects the past to the same
wondrous transformations as the rabbit in a skilled illusionist's hat.
Gold's debut novel opens with real-life magician Charles Carter
executing a particularly grisly trick, using President Warren G. Harding
as a volunteer. Shortly afterwards, Harding dies mysteriously in his San
Francisco hotel room, and Carter is forced to flee the country. Or does
he? It's only the first of many misdirections in a magical performance
by Gold. In the course of subsequent pages, Carter finds himself pursued
by the most hapless of FBI agents; falls in love with a beautiful,
outspoken blind woman; and confronts an old nemesis bent on destroying
him. Throw in countless stunning (and historically accurate) illusions,
some beautifully rendered period detail, and historical figures like
young inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and self-made millionaire Francis
"Borax" Smith, and you have old-fashioned entertainment executed with a
decidedly modern sensibility.
THE PRESTIGE
by Christopher Priest
The Washington Post called this "a dizzying magic show of a novel,
chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction:
seances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook,
wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor
machinery, a mausoleum, and ghoulish horrors; a misunderstood scientist,
impossible disappearances; the sins of the fathers visited upon their
descendants." Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award, The Prestige is
even better than that, because unlike many Victorians, Priest writes
crisp, unencumbered prose. And anyone who's ever thrilled to the arcing
electricity in the "It's alive!" scene in Frankenstein will relish the
"special effects" by none other than Nikola Tesla. In 1878, two young
stage magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent
seance. From that moment on, they vie to outwit and destroy one another.
Published in hardcover to international acclaim, The Prestige won the
World Fantasy Award and Britain's James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Now
it finally appears in softcover--sophisticated, breathtaking
entertainment.
THE VANISHING ACT
by Jack Douglas
Professional magician Harold "The Great" Botkin has spent the better
part of his 70 years exposing phony psychics and conmen. Just as he is
about to blow the lid off one of the most audacious paranormal scams
ever, the esteemed charlatan he has been following mysteriously
disappears. Now, without the luxuries of time, an abundance of money, or
assistance from the authorities, Botkin must discover who or what is
behind the would-be messiah's disappearance, and--dead or alive--find a
way to expose him for what he is. What follows is a roller-coaster ride
to hell and back, as the magician uncovers secrets he'd never dared
imagine.
THE SPIRIT CABINET
by Paul Quarrington
Harry Houdini's vast estate of magic books and props is on the auction
block, and the top magicians from Las Vegas and beyond hope to win it
for themselves. Legend has it that Houdini went beyond the illusion and
stagecraft of magic performance, that he possessed a phenomenal
power--the secret to which may lie within a giant box known mysteriously
as "the spirit cabinet." Meanwhile, Quarrington introduces us to a
motley cast of characters. At the heart of the story are animal
trainer^-magicians Jurgen and Rudolpho, apparently modeled on the
real-life Siegfried and Roy. Quarrington delves into their strange,
neurotic relationship. Their surreal world includes Samson, a lugubrious
albino panther, the pair's star performer who has grown weary of show
business and spends much of his time watching TV; and Miranda, their
voluptuous assistant who dreams of starting a star career of her own.
VOID MOON
by Michael Connelly
Void Moon traces the path of Cassie Black, a gifted thief who struggles
with the temptation of "outlaw juice" (the burning desire to live the
fast life of crime and payoffs) even while she regularly attends her
probation meetings. It's not that hawking Porsches to newly flush young
Hollywood males isn't satisfying, but... well, it isn't. After years
away, she returns to her old striking grounds in Las Vegas for one last
big mark hoping to pave her way into a new life. But Cassie discovers
that her old Las Vegas is a new town with a new skyline and new (and
more deadly) bad guys; it is also a place haunted by the ghost of her
lover-partner Max. When her take proves to be 10 times larger than she
imagined, her road to freedom runs afoul of the Mob while a morally
questionable--and openly vicious--PI sniffs her trail. The villan in the
book is the son of a "famous Las Vegas Magician" and performs various
sleights throughout the book.
THE SHELL GAME
by Carol O'Connell
There has always been a touch of magic, a whiff of deception and
illusion about Mallory, the New York homicide detective who never lets
anyone call her Kathy. In highly praised books such as Killing Critics,
Mallory's Oracle, and The Man Who Cast Two Shadows, Carol O'Connell has
wrapped her fascinating, frustrating character in a cloak of myth. So
it's no surprise that in her fifth adventure, Mallory is literally
surrounded by magic and magicians, trying to find out why an old
illusionist was killed while re-creating a famous trick involving four
crossbows. All of the suspects are magicians themselves, connected to
the past and each other by events in Paris during World War II.
AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY
by Michael Chabon
Like the comic books that animate and inspire it, The Amazing Adventures
of Kavalier & Clay is both larger than life and of it too. Complete with
golems and magic and miraculous escapes and evil nemeses and even
hand-to-hand Antarctic battle, it pursues the most important questions
of love and war, dreams and art, across pages brimming with longing and
hope. Samuel Klayman--self-described little man, city boy, and
Jew--first meets Josef Kavalier when his mother shoves him aside in his
own bed, telling him to make room for their cousin, a refugee from
Nazi-occupied Prague. It's the beginning, however unlikely, of a
beautiful friendship. In short order, Sam's talent for pulp plotting
meets Joe's faultless, academy-trained line, and a comic-book superhero
is born. A sort of lantern-jawed equalizer clad in dark blue long
underwear, the Escapist "roams the globe, performing amazing feats and
coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains!" Before
they know it, Kavalier and Clay (as Sam Klayman has come to be known)
find themselves at the epicenter of comics' golden age.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE EGYPTIAN HALL ADVENTURE
by Val Andrews
The author has a vast knowledge of conjuring and of Sherlockiana and in
this exciting mystery he is able to combine both of his lifelong
interests. The Egyptian Hall, Maskelyne's theatre of mystery, forms the
perfect backdrop for this the most exciting and unusual adventure ever
embarked upon by the famous sleuth and his faithful Boswell, Dr. Watson.
The loss of an article of great value - the property of a titled lady -
by a conjurer during the course of a stage trick is but the prelude to
intrigue, mystery and murder most foul. But hush we can say no
more...the game is afoot! Be sure that you are fully prepared for
adventure before jumping into a hansom and returning to an age when the
old Queen was still upon her throne and the fogs swirled through Baker
Street. Here is a real scorpion of a story with a sting in its tail to
confound all concerned save Sherlock Holmes! Should you wish to receive
details of other Sherlock Holmes books in advance of publication please
contact the publishers at the address below.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THEATER OF DEATH
by Val Andrews
On the evening of 9th May 1911 a fire broke out backstage at the Empire
Theatre, Edinburgh. The Great Lafayette, a spectacular illusionist and
eight of his performers were consumed by the flames and as death
shrouded the theatre, so a pall of mystery also surrounded the horrible
events. Sherlock Holmes was called in to investigate what soon turns out
to be yet another baffling mystery. Who and what had started the fire?
This is one of Holmes's most riveting mysteries and the reader will be
transported to a magical world in which Holmes not only reveals all the
true facts concerning the death of Lafayette but discovers what almost
seems to be another world frozen in time. Yet another well constructed
Sherlock Holmes mystery.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE HOUDINI BIRTHRIGHT
by Val Andrews
Here's another Sherlock Holmes pastiche from the fertile pen of Val
Andrews. Again two areas of mystery are linked: the exploits of Sherlock
Holmes and the secrets of master escapologist, Harry Houdini. Doctor
Watson's collaborator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, finds himself drawn into
the world of the fake psychics and Houdini is anxious for Holmes to
unmask the perpetrators who prey on the innocent believers. Once he has
been torn away from his bee-keeping activities, Holmes's investigations
lead him to some surprising locations including a Ruritanian castle.
Sherlockians, historians and magic buffs will all be intrigued and
delighted with this classic detective story which links fact and a
little fiction to suggest what may have happened to Houdini after his
death. Again .... the game is afoot.
THE HOUDINI GIRL
by John Le Carre
Fletcher Brandon, known onstage as Peter Prestige the Prodigious
Prestidigitator (and offstage simply as Red), has never met anyone as
alive as Rosa Kelly. Yet a year after their mutual seduction one night
in an Oxford pub, this beautiful, foul-mouthed, flinty Irishwoman is
dead--either a suicide or a murder victim. The magician, summoned from a
show in the north of England, finds himself hoping that she has
perpetrated an elaborate ruse: "I would've given anything for the
coroner's officer to whisk away the sheet with a theatrical flourish to
reveal a bare table and for Rosa, in a sequined costume, to emerge,
stage left, with beaming radiance."
SINGLE AND SINGLE
by John Le Carre
On a Turkish hillside, ex-Communist mobsters shatter the skull of a
corrupt English lawyer. In a sleepy English village, the authorities ask
a lonely children's magician how come £5,000,030 sterling just got
anonymously deposited in his baby daughter's bank account. With
machine-like logic and soulful literary magic, John le CarrÈ links these
two events in Single & Single, a stay-up-all-night thriller.
The magician is Oliver Single, the tormented son of Tiger Single, a
rogue banker the Financial Times calls "the knight errant of Gorbachev's
New East." In fact, Tiger is sinking his fangs into that crucial
one-tenth of world trade free of pesky regulations--illegal drugs--and
secretly selling donated disaster-relief blood. Mum's the word in
Tiger's mob: as the lawyer's executioner notes, "Is not convenient to
hear that American capitalists are bleeding poor nations literally."
NIGHT MAGIC
by Tom Tryon
In this rich cauldron of illusion and ambition, a Manhattan street mime
becomes entangled with a conjurer who cultivates the secret powers of
sorcery. Their encounter begins when Michael Hawke, in whiteface,
prances as a frog in front of the conjurer Max, who has just jolted the
art world by inducing a Rembrandt painting to shed tears. With a
sepulchral incantation, "Be a frog," the magician's next trick knocks
Mike out and into the Plaza fountain. Thereafter Mike is mesmerized by
the wizard's esoteric knowledge.
THE DIME MUSEUM MURDERS
A Harry Houdini Mystery
by Daniel Stashower
In 1897, New York City teems with hustlers and freshly made
millionaires, fine artists and con artists, criminals and immigrants.
Among them is a rabbi's son who calls himself Houdini. He is struggling
to make it in the brutal entertainment business when detectives call on
him to attempt the most amazing feat of his fledgling career: solve the
mystery of a toy tycoon murdered in his posh Fifth Avenue mansion.
THE FLOATING LADY MURDER
A Harry Houdini Mystery
by Daniel Stashower
It's difficult to gain the public's attention in turn-of-the-century New
York--even if you are the greatest escape artist the world has ever
seen. So the young performer who calls himself Harry Houdini must be
content, for the time being, working for the internationally renowned
Keller, the "Dean of American Magicians." But tragedy strikes at the
inaugural performance of the master's most astonishing illusion, the
Floating Lady, when Keller's levitating assistant plummets abruptly to
the ground, apparently to her death. Yet an investigation soon reveals
that it is drowning, and no fatal fall, that has killed the unfortunate
young lady. An intriguing impossibility to be sure. And it is the great,
albeit unsung, Houdini--with the aid of wife Bess and brother Dash--who
must solve the deadly conundrum, leading them all into a maze of twisted
schemes, grim deceptions, and bloodletting that is no mere stage fakery.
THE HOUDINI SPECTER
A Harry Houdini Mystery
by Daniel Stashower
In 1898, the Great Houdini's confidence in his own abilities is matched
only by the indifference of the paying public. Now the master escape
artist has the opportunity to make a name for himself -- by exposing the
tricks of the medium Lucius Craig, darling of New York's gullible
society set. Though he can easily re-create Craig's ghostly trickery,
Harry and his brother Dash can't explain how the medium manages to
conjure up a "spirit" while tied to a chair by Houdini himself -- or how
the apparition is able to stab a sÈance attendee to death and disappear
with seven other people in the room watching! Houdini's certain someone
is framing the infamous fraud for murder. But unraveling this tangled
web could prove a knotty problem indeed -- and it might release a ghost
or two that will not go away...
VERONICA
by Nicholas Christopher
As oddly familiar as deja vu and as intriguing as moments of
synchronicity, Veronica arrives with mystery, enticing and guiding us
into other realms. In Manhattan, Leo (named for his mother's zodiac
sign) accidentally meets Veronica fumbling for her keys at a
"dragon-point" intersection, where Waverly Place crosses Waverly Place.
From Tibetan restaurants to Neptune-theme apartments and clubs to
Elizabethan England and beyond, Veronica takes him on a multilayered
quest, mapped with signs and symbols like a treasure hunt, in an attempt
to bring back her father, a famous magician lost through a gap in time
when a trick is sabotaged by a rival.
MAGICIAN'S ASSISTANT
by Anne Pratchett
The Magician's Assistant sustains author Ann Patchett's proven penchant
for crafting colorful characters and marrying the ordinary with the
fantastic. When Parsifal, Sabine's husband of more than 20 years and the
magician of the title, suddenly dies, she begins to discover how she's
glimpsed him only through smoke and mirrors. He has managed to keep
hidden the existence of a family in Nebraska--his mother, two sisters,
and two nephews. Sabine approaches them hungrily, as if they are a
bridge to her beloved husband and a key to the mysteries he left behind.
THE MAGICIANS WIFE
by Brian Moore
Moore opens the novel with a bizarre detail. It is 1856 and Emmeline Lambert watches a
mechanical gatekeeper salute a departing dignitary. This nuts-and-bolts major-domo is the
creation of her autocratic husband, Henri, formerly France's greatest magician, retired
and hard at work on such minor contrivances. "Now he was an inventor, a scientist,"
Emmeline thinks. "But would a real scientist spend his days making mechanical marionettes?"
Her impatience with his compulsive tinkering is only one part of a troubled marriage, which
seems to consist largely of fossilized accommodations and painful discretion.
According to their visiting dignitary, however, the prestidigitator's country needs him.
Colonel Deniau, head of Arab affairs and in many ways the real magician of the tale--or the
magician's enchanter--has a mysterious project in mind. The plan is to flatter Henri into
creating a series of mind-blowing tricks. According to the colonel, an Algerian marabout,
or living saint, is "said to possess miraculous powers" and might call for a holy war. If
Henri outperforms the Algerian, he will seem the greater marabout" and convince them that
God is not on their side but France's."
THE MAGICIAN'S TALE
by David Hunt
Photographer Kay Farrow' befriends Tim, a young male hooker, who is
later found brutally murdered. Kay vows to find the killer. She's
completely color-blind and sees the world only in shades of gray.
Lorelei King's deep, seductive voice takes the listener back to Tim's
childhood, spent with a professional magician who taught him a
repertoire of sinister magic tricks.
THE CONFESSOR
by John E Gardner
In intelligence jargon, a "confessor" is a specialist in breaking down
suspected spies, informants, and defectors through relentless
interrogation. Gus Keene was one of the best of the confessors in the
business until terrorists blew up his car on a quiet rural road in the
middle of the night. Gus' old friend Herbie Kruger has been called back
from the alcoholic haze of his retirement to try to find out who killed
Gus and why. Meanwhile, teams of Iraqi terrorists are making life hell
in New York, Washington, London, and Paris. Using Gus' unfinished
memoirs, Herbie discovers a connection between the Iraqis and a tiny
splinter group of the IRA, a group Gus had nearly destroyed by using a
clever bit of legerdemain to cover up a botched police raid.
THE DEAD MAGICIAN
by Evelyn E Sullivan
A novel presented in the form of a literary biography that will
permanently color the way we read biographies. Charles Butler, a smug
and slightly comical Professor of English, sets out to write the life of
novelist Gregory Horace Bodamien: his poverty stricken childhood in
England, his formative years at a Southern university, his eventual
literary (and sexual) successes, and the grisly crime that brings his
career to a halt. While vividly unfolding this fascinating life, Butler
indulges in occasional autobiographical digressions, brief and apt at
first but gradually revealing a tormented soul whose "objective" account
of Bodamien's life must therefore be reconsidered by the reader. Yet
another account of that life is offered by the manuscript Gregory leaves
behind, "The Case of the Dead Magician". Begun as a parody of the
detective novel, the tantalizing fragment shows stylistic incongruities
that track the author's attempt to tell his own version of his troubled
end. In addition to exploring in his story his brother's murder and
reinventing the past, the novelist also makes outrageous use of his
biographer, with hilarious and disturbing consequences.
THE ILLUSIONIST
by Dinitia Smith
A New York Times Notable book nspired by an actual incident in Nebraska.
It's a chilly October night in quiet Sparta, New York, when Chrissie, a
local community-college student, first spots Dean Lily performing magic
tricks at the local bar. Though the regulars can't help but gather
around the magician's table, there's something about this slight,
bright-eyed stranger that makes them vaguely uncomfortable.
NO COFFIN FOR THE CORPSE
by Clayton Rawson
Merlini the Magician investigates a classic locked room mystery.
DEATH FROM A TOP HAT
by Clayton Rawson
When a magician is found dead inside his locked and thoroughly sealed
apartment, police call in Merlini to help explain the impossible.
HEADLESS LADY
by Clayton Rawson
Merlini the Magician investigates crime at a roving circus
with plenty of suspects all of which have motives
FOOTPRINTS ON THE CEILING
by Clayton Rawson
Merlini the Magician investigates a classic locked room mystery in which
the murderer has left footprints on the ceiling.
JAY'S JOURNAL OF ANOMOLIES
Conjurors, cheats hoaxters, hustlers, pranksters, jokesters, imposters, pretenders...
by Ricky Jay
The long awaited collection of the quarterly magazine published by Ricky
jay in the 1980's. The multitalented Ricky Jay (sleight-of-hand artist,
actor, author, and scholar of the unusual) wrote and published a unique
and beautifully designed quarterly called Jay's Journal of Anomalies.
Already coveted collector's items, the sixteen issues are now gathered
here in a complete set, with significant new material and illustrations.
A brilliant excursion into the history of bizarre entertainments, the
journal was described in The New York Times as "beautiful and elegant .
. . a combination of rigorous scholarship and personal rumination."
Ingesters of stones, stoats, and swords have long compelled my
attention. Signor Hervio Nano, the fantastic homunculus, defied
conventional taxonomy. The well-trained flea has shown sufficient
rationality to drive a chariot, impersonate Napoleon, or reenact the
siege of Antwerp. Note the enduring popularity of severing from the head
its most protuberant organ -- the nose. The Bonassus, advertised as
unique, was in 1821 the most numerous hoofed quadruped on the face of
the earth. In an era rich in examples of animal scholarship, Munito was
a star.
FINAL SEANCE
The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle
by Massimo Polidoro
This is the story of the unusual friendship between two of the most
intriguing individuals of the early twentieth century--the renowned
illustionist and escape artist Harry Houdini and the celebrated mystery
writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both men
were fascinated by the occult practice of Spiritualism, Houdini as an
ardent skeptic and Conan Doyle as a true believer who was convinced that
the dead could and did communicate with the living. While there are many
biographies of both men, this is the first book to detail the years of
their friendship and their battles over the veracity of Spiritualism.
Based on original correspondence, photographs, and his own extensive
research, noted science writer Massimo Polidoro reconstructs the
relationship between the believer and the skeptic, which weathered
mediums, seances, public debunkings, and hurt feelings. He also
discusses in detail the final seance that ended the friendship between
these two strong-willed men.
THE WAR MAGICIAN
by David Fisher
This is the unique story of the British Stage Magician, Jasper Maskelyne
who, when war broke out, offered his 'special skills' to the War Dept.
He promptly enlisted in the British Army and attempted to convince the
Generals that his skills as an illusionist could be put to use against
the Germans. At first, he was laughed at, "What could we possibly use a
magician for?" He was asked. "If I could fool an audience only twenty
feet away, I could certainly fool the enemy a mile away or more!" He
answered. He was put into Camouflage School, where he succeeded in
hiding a Machine-gun Bunker so completely that the Inspecting General
couldn't find it (even when he was standing right on top of it). Jasper
had made his point! He was sent to North Africa, where he put together a
hand-picked team of men. His first job was to hide Alexandria Harbour
from the Luftwaffe's nightly bombing raids. With the Magician's ability
of 'mis-direction', he and his team created a phony harbour some miles
away, which looked so like the original, that the invading bombers
dropped their cargo on that instead of the correct target.
MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A STAGE MAGICIAN
by Donald Brandon
How does a magician make a jet airplane disappear? Or a human being
float and fly around the stage? A snowstorm actually fall inside a
theater? Let The Amazing Brandon and Joyce astonish and entertain your
audience with an insider's view of magic and show business. A
professional magician and illusionist who has lived through the
fascinating times of classic magic shows and who has known most of the
legendary magicians, Don Brandon and his wife Joyce will share secrets
of magic and stories never before told. They'll explain: … How thousands
of teenagers would gather nightly for his midnight ghost shows. … How
Blackstone and other great magicians accomplished their best illusions.
… Why and how magic today is so different than in the past. … What it's
like to see three ghosts come out of a "Spirit Cabinet".
ILLUSION SHOW
A Life In Magic
by David Bamberg
The autobiography of the stage magician known as Fu Manchu records the
adventurous life and perceptive observations of one of the last great
traveling showmen. Orson Welles called this book "the greatest magic
biography."
BLACKSTONE: A MAGICIAN'S LIFE
The World and Magic Show of harry Blackstone 1885-1965
by Daniel Waldron
Unlike many magical biographies, this one has texture. That's probably
because much of its content is derived from actual interviews with a
great many members of Blackstone's travelling troupe, key among them
being Blackstone's brother Pete and first wife Inez. For this reason,
the perspective of Blackstone rendered here isn't from the vantage point
of an audience member who watched him in the theatre, but rather a view
from those who accompanied him on the road -- and that's refreshing.
Vaudeville comes suprisingly alive with small details here, and Waldron
does an unusually fine job of historical contextualization. Probably the
best magical biography since Bamberg's Illusion Show.
BE A STREET MAGICIAN
by David Groves
Michael Close says, "You may have read David Groves' article 'Street
Smart' (August 1998) and thought to yourself, 'Man, this is the life for
me!' Well, before you hit the pavement, do yourself a favor and pick up
a copy of David's book "Be a Street Magician!" This book will save you
time, money, energy, and maybe even your life. If you intend to work the
streets you must read this book. "Be a Street Magician!" contains advice
from a man who's been through it, and he's sharing his experience with
you. $40 is way too cheap for this type of information. Highly
recommended."
HOUDINI'S BOX
the Art of Escape
by Adam Phillips
"We cannot describe ourselves without also describing what we need to
escape from, and what we believe we need to escape to," argues
psychoanalyst Phillips (Promises, Promises; On Monogamy; etc.). He
explores literature and mythology from Adam and Eve to Icarus to Emily
Dickinson for allegories of escape, but dubs Houdini, the great escape
artist, as "the modern role model," for having transformed escape into
mass entertainment.
HOUDINI
Master of Illusion
by Clinton Cox
Cox offers a forthright, anecdotal account of the life of this complex
and controversial individual, born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest in 1874.
Frequently drawing from Houdini's diary and correspondence, as well as
period newspapers and reviews of this quintessential illusionist's
performances, the author illuminates both the personal and professional
sides of Houdini. After describing his subject's early years in
Wisconsin, Cox discusses the genesis of Houdini's career and then tracks
his peripatetic life performing legerdemain and escape feats in many
countries. This chronicle strikes a welcome balance between portraying
Houdini as a brazen, masterful showman and as a deep-feeling, sometimes
insecure family man.
SPELLBINDER
The Life of Harry Houdini
by Tom Laliki
A highly readable biography about Harry Houdini (1874-1926), the famous
magician and escape artist, casts a spell of its own. Through the
well-researched and fast-paced narrative, Lalicki (Light Shining Through
the Mist: A Photobiography of Dian Fossey) sifts through the many
contradictions of Houdini's life to unveil the circumstances leading up
to Houdini's stratospheric success. Born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, the
future magician immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1878. By age
18, he had channeled his drive and a love of performing into magic,
choosing the stage name Harry Houdini in homage to master magician
Robert-Houdin. Lalicki effectively underscores the tandem guiding
influences of Houdini's mother and his wife, Bess Rahner, who also acted
as his assistant, in describing a career that spanned from 1892-1926.
The author also puts Houdini's success into perspective at a time when
people had little money and media coverage was scarce. He attributes
Houdini's breakthrough, in large part, to his 1899 introduction to
Martin Beck, who backed him and encouraged Houdini to drop the more
banal magician's tricks in favor of innovative escapes, which he
mastered through intense physical exertion and practice (e.g., he spent
more than three years perfecting the Chinese Water-Torture Cell escape
before performing it in 1912).
HOUDINI !!!
The Career of Erich Weiss
by Kenneth Silverman
Silverman's engaging biography catalogs the life of Harry Houdini, born
Ehrich Weiss, who made a career out of his capacity to amaze. Having
developed conjuring skills and an ability to wriggle free of handcuffs,
ropes and manacles, Houdini elaborated his tricks into theatrical set
pieces that made him famous--stunts like escaping from a strait jacket
while dangling head down from a skyscraper, or from a wooden packing
crate submerged in water. Silverman's meticulously researched book
reveals other sides to the great illusionist too. Houdini collected a
library of books on magic, wrote books himself, exposed shyster psychics
whose tricks he could easily match, and was a friend to Jack London,
Sarah Bernhardt and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
HOUDINI'S BOX
the Art of Escape
by Adam Phillips
"We cannot describe ourselves without also describing what we need to
escape from, and what we believe we need to escape to," argues
psychoanalyst Phillips (Promises, Promises; On Monogamy; etc.). He
explores literature and mythology from Adam and Eve to Icarus to Emily
Dickinson for allegories of escape, but dubs Houdini, the great escape
artist, as "the modern role model," for having transformed escape into
mass entertainment.
MAIRELEON THE MAGICIAN
Patricia Wrede
Young street waif Kim, a girl disguised as a boy, takes up with
traveling magician Mairelon and his lugubrious coachman Hunch after she
is paid by a toff to search Mairelon's wagon and is caught in the act.
She agrees to travel with Mairelon, help with his staging, learn some
real magic, and eventually assist in unravelling the story of the
Saltesh Set, a magical array of silverware that Mairelon has been
falsely accused of stealing.
ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF MAGIC
by Melborne Christopher
The classic history of the magical art as outlined by one of the craft's
most noted historians. The new edition now features an introduction by David Copperfield
who now owns the author's private magic collection.
MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS
by Harry Houdini
Houdini attempts to explain the performances of others in this
reprint--with an introduction by The Amazing Randi, another active
debunker of miracles.
MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS
by Harry Houdini
Houdini himself details his life as an exposer of fraudulent mediums.
THE SECRETS OF HOUDINI
by Clucas Cannell
A pseudo biography on Houdini discussing his life and metods.
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