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Henry Ridgely Evans

Henry Ridgely Evans

(Baltimore, Maryland: 7th November 1861 - 29th March 1949)

Inspired as child seeing Albert Niblack. Learned in 1876-77 reading Cremer's The Secret Out and Hoffmann's series in Every Boy's Annual. Journalist, then in U.S. Department of Agriculture 1894-1934. Amateur magician, specializing in history of magic.

Wrote Hours with the Ghosts; or, XIX Century Witchcraft (1897, 302pp; reprinted 1902 as The Spirit World Unmasked), Magic and Its Professors (1902, 220pp), The Old and the New Magic (1906, 348pp; 2nd ed 1909, 516pp), Adventures in Magic (1924, 87pp), The History of Conjuring and Magic (1928, 235pp), Cagliostro (1931, 83pp), A Master of Modern Magic (1932, 58pp), Some Rare Old Books on Conjuring and Magic (1943, 21pp), etc.

USA correspondent for Magic. Also articles under pen name "Mysticus". As a 33rd Degree Mason he wrote several masonic tracts and Magicians and Freemasonry (n.d., 28 unnumbered pages).

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Henry Ridgely Evans
The Napoleon Myth by Henry Ridgely Evans

(We are carrying this ebook primarily because of the author, Henry Ridgeley Evans, who published several interesting books on conjuring.)

On its face the book is about the myth that Napoleon never existed. It was at one time a popular myth, hoax, or fake news as it would be called today. It also provides interesting lessons and insights on how myths can develop. Since there are a number of myths in the world of conjuring, this work can help one understand why and how some of the myths in magic may have developed.

  • Introduction
  • Grand Erratum. The Non-Existence of Napoleon Proved
  • The Mythical...
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Henry Ridgely Evans
Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry by Henry Ridgely Evans

Evans raises the possibility that Cagliostro's real name might not have been Giuseppe Balsamo, as well as describes his Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry.

  • Introduction
  • PART I.—A Master Of Magic
  • PART II.—The Egyptian Rite
  • PART III.—A Visit To The House Of Cagliostro
  • PART IV.—Reception Of An Apprentice In An Egyptian Lodge
1st edition 1919, 26 pages; PDF 37 pages.
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Henry Ridgely Evans
Cagliostro by Henry Ridgely Evans

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, by real name Giuseppe Balsamo, was an Italian occultist, mentalist and magician, who managed to achieve entry into the royal courts of Europe where he practiced various occult arts, mentalism, magic, alchemy, etc. His fame continued beyond his death, but eventually he was labeled a charlatan. Regardless of how one wants to portrait Cagliostro, there is a lot magicians and mentalists can learn from him and his exploits.

  • Proem
  • I. A Master of Magic
  • II. The Conjurer and the Cardinal
  • III. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace
  • IV. The Downfall of the Grand Cophta ...
★★★★★ $10
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Henry Ridgely Evans
Adventures in Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans

From the Foreword:

Some years ago I went to see a performance by the late Imro Fox, a clever conjurer, that pleased me very much. The curtain rose on a gloomy cavern, in the middle of which stood a smoking caldron, fed by witches à la Macbeth. An aged necromancer, habited in a long robe covered with cabalistic characters, entered. He went through certain incantations, whereupon hosts of demons appeared and danced a weird ceremonial dance about the caldron. Suddenly, amid a crash of thunder and a blinding flash of lightning, the wizard’s cave was metamorphosed into a twentieth century drawing-room,...
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Henry Ridgely Evans
Some Rare Old Books on Conjuring and Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans

From the introduction:

Magic has been divided into (1) White Magic, or the evocation of angels and beneficent powers; (2) Black Magic, or the summoning of demons; and (3) Natural Magic, or feats performed by dexterity and mechanical appliances, etc. Although believing implicitly in white magic and black magic, the medicine men, spirit doctors, and hierophants of olden times did not disdain to use natural means also to overawe and surprise their votaries.

...

With the passing of so-called genuine magic or sorcery we see the rise of natural magic and conjuring. In the Middle Ages conjurers...

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Henry Ridgely Evans
History of Conjuring and Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans

Henry Ridgely Evans provides an account of the history of conjuring, from ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages and into the 20th century. He develops biographical portraits of many well-known magicians and includes descriptions of their acts. Perhaps the most unusual feature of the work is that at the very end he includes photos of the hands of many famous magicians.

From the Proem:

With the passing of so-called genuine magic or sorcery we see the rise of natural magic and conjuring. In the Middle Ages conjurers were mere strolling mountebanks who exhibited their feats at fairs, in barns,...

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Henry Ridgely Evans
Magic and its Professors by Henry Ridgely Evans

From the introduction:

To those amateurs and to my numerous professional friends who delight in new books, I send forth "Magic and its Professors," trusting that it will prove of interest to them. Part III is a symposium on magic by some of the best performers and inventors of the day. I sincerely thank them for the labor of love which they have rendered. I am indebted to Mr. T. Francis Fritz, the editor of Mahatma, and Mr. William J. Hilliar, editor of The Sphinx, for the right to reprint in book form some of the valuable exposes contained in their respective journals. I am also under obligations to those...

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Henry Ridgely Evans
The Spirit World Unmasked by Henry Ridgely Evans

Illustrated investigations into the phenomena of spiritualism and theosophy. [Note: This is a reprint of the earlier Hours with the Ghosts.

From the preface:

The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things mundane. ...

★★★★★ $8
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Henry Ridgely Evans
Hours with the Ghosts by Henry Ridgely Evans

Illustrated investigations into the phenomena of spiritualism and theosophy.

From the preface:

The author has had sittings with many famous mediums of this country and Europe, but has seen little to convince him of the fact of spirit communication. The slate tests and so-called materializations have invariably been frauds. Some experiments along the line of automatic writing and psychometry, however, have demonstrated to the writer the truth of telepathy or thought-transference. The theory of telepathy explains many of the marvels ascribed to spirit intervention in things mundane.

...
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Henry Ridgely Evans
The Old and The New Magic by Henry Ridgely Evans

From the introduction:

The very word magic has an alluring sound, and its practice as an art will probably never lose its attractiveness for people's minds. But we must remember that there is a difference between the old magic and the new, and that both are separated by a deep chasm, which is a kind of color line, for though the latter develops from the former in a gradual and natural course of evolution, they are radically different in principle, and the new magic is irredeemably opposed to the assumptions upon which the old magic rests.

Magic originally meant priestcraft. It is probable...

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Henry Ridgely Evans
The House of the Sphinx by Henry Ridgely Evans

A novel involving love, mystery, magic and deception.

1st edition 1907, 1st digital edition 2013, 86 pages.

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