(Andelys, Eure, France: 24th January 1872 - 20th December 1943)
Lawyer. Amateur sleight-of-hand magician, having learned on physician's advice to do finger exercises to cure numbness. Wrote the classic La Prestidigitation sans appareils (1914, 558pp) with English tr by Jean Hugard as Magic Without Apparatus (1945, 527pp). Translated Farelli's Card Magic as La Magie des cartes (2 vols, 1937).
Hardcover with dustjacket. The dustjacket has a small tear at the bottom edge in the front. It is in excellent condition. It is the second edition from 1980 and it has a Lee Jacobs sticker on the bottom of the title page. For the content see the digital edition.
A sleight-of-hand reference work for cards, coins, billiard balls, and thimbles.
Magic without Apparatus is the first English translation of La Prestidigitation sans Appareils, which has been recognized by authorities on magic as the world's greatest treatise on legerdemain with cards, coins, billiard balls, and thimbles. The French edition elicited such comments as these:
Leo Rullman (Connoisseur of magical literature): "The greatest work on pure sleight-of-hand in any language."
Professor Hoffmann (Author of Modern Magic, More Magic, Later Magic): "A contribution of the first rank to the literature...