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The GhostHenry DircksAs produced in the spectre drama, popularly illustrating the marvellous optical illusions obtained by the apparatus called the Dircksian Phantasmagoria being a full account of its history, construction, and various adaptations. Henry Dircks was the first who came up with the stage illusions that later became known as Pepper's Ghost. He had an arrangement with Pepper, they took out a patent in both their names, and Dircks did not want any monetary remuneration for it. John Henry Pepper improved the configuration to make it more practical and successfully staged it earning quite a lot of money with it. However,... | $7 to wish list | |
The Hand-Book of SwindlingDouglas William JerroldA humoristic manual about swindling, how to become a successful swindler, as well as why it is such a good thing - featuring the late captain Barabbas Whitefeather.
| $7 to wish list | |
The History of Playing CardsEd. S. TaylorIncludes chapters on conjuring, fortune-telling and card-sharping.
| ★★★★★ $10 to wish list | |
The Involuntary LifeGeorge Miller BeardThe 'involuntary life' would today be described as trance or as a hypnotic state. Beard writes: Every human being lives two lives, the voluntary, in which he acts more or less under the control of the will, and the involuntary, in which he acts automatically, and over which the will has but a limited power, or none at all. The acts of both the body and the mind, may be involuntary as will as voluntary, and in both body and mind, the two lives are constantly blended. However, he was a skeptic when it came to the popular practices and explanations of these phenomena by the means of animal... | $5 to wish list | |
The Life of a ShowmanDavid Prince MillerThis is a wonderful account of a traveling showman's trials and tribulations in England and Scotland during the middle of the 19th century. Among other things, he was a conjurer. While this is not a book of tricks, one coin trick is explained as part of one story of his life. But much more interesting are the descriptions of various scams and the modus operandi of various ways to defraud the public by traveling hucksters the author encountered. The operation of the thimble rig is explained in detail. It is an account of how traveling showmen struggled essentially their entire life to make... | $10 to wish list | |
The Life of Mason Long the Converted GamblerMason LongBeing a record of his experience as a white slave; a soldier in the Union Army; a professional gambler; a patron of the turf; a variety theater and minstrel manager; and, finally, a convert to the Murphy Cause, and to the Gospel of Christ. This book is an illustration of this paragraph by S.W. Erdnase: Hazard at play carries sensations that once enjoyed are rarely forgotten. The winnings are known as "pretty money," and it is generally spent as freely as water. The average professional who is successful at his own game will, with the sublimest unconcern, stake his money on that of another's, though... | $10 to wish list | |
The Lives of the ConjurorsThomas FrostThis is considered one of the best early histories of magic. From the Preface: The present volume closes the series of works on the entertaining classes which I contemplated when writing Circus Life and Circus Celebrities, the greater part of which was written before The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs was commenced, though the publication of the latter work preceded that of the former. In embracing within the present volume the lives of the conjurors of every period and every country, while the record of shows and showmen is confined to London and the suburban districts, (which may now be said to embrace a circle of twenty miles across,) and that of circuses... | $8 to wish list | |
The Magic Oracle or Conjuror's GuideunknownThis work reveals a mix of card tricks and other small magic effects, science tricks, and in particular chemical stunts and experiments. It also covers the making of fireworks in some depth including how to make an artificial volcano. Interesting was that even in 1850 it was clear that experimenting with mercury (quicksilver) was risky as the following quote from the book shows: Feats performed through the medium of quicksilver should be executed with the greatest caution, as there is some danger attending them. (Obviously, nobody should be casually experimenting with mercury. It is... | $10 to wish list | |
The Modern WizardAugust RoterbergRoterberg was a dealer, but he also wrote excellent magic books - four altogether. The Card Tricks and how to do them is an excerpt from New Era Card Tricks. So actually he wrote only three books. The Modern Wizard was his first one. It explains tricks with silks, eggs, glasses, billiard balls, coins, candles, pill boxes and more. Roterberg has a very efficient style of describing a trick. He supplies no patter or other fluff, but still manages to explain a trick thoroughly. He packs 68 tricks or methods into merely 120 pages. He closes his book with the chapter "The Art of Magic" where Roterberg gives a crash course in how to be a good magician.... | $11 to wish list | |
The New Conjuror's Museum and Magical MagazineunknownFor magicians most interesting is a section with arithmetic tricks and another with legerdemain featuring effects such as letting a pen-knife jump out of a goblet, some card tricks, coin tricks, and chemical tricks.
| $12 to wish list | |
The Old Showmen and Old London FairsThomas FrostA detailed chronology of places, dates and performers of fairs in and around London. We learn mostly of theatrical productions of various kinds including pantomime and dances, and menageries exhibiting exotic animals, and less so of tumbling and acrobats, juggling, balancing and the like. It includes some coverage of conjurers including Fawkes, Pinchbeck, Breslaw and others. There is some overlap of stories from Circus Life and Circus Celebrities because some performers and operators were active in both venues.
| $5 to wish list | |
The Parlor MagicianWiljalba Frikell100 tricks for the drawing room. Containing an extensive and miscellaneous collection of conjuring and legerdemain; sleights with dice, dominoes, cards, ribbons, rings, fruit, coins, balls, handkerchiefs, etc. All of which may be performed in the parlor or drawing room. Without the aid of any apparatus; also embracing a choice variety of curious deceptions which may be performed with the aid of simple apparatus.
| $10 to wish list | |
The Real New London Conjuror or the Art of LegerdemainunknownShowing the various ways of performing tricks by sleight-of-hand on dice, cards, etc., together with many surprising deceptions.
| $6 to wish list | |
The Secrets of Conjuring and MagicJean Eugene Robert-Houdin & Professor HoffmannThe original title is Les Secrets de la Prestidigitation et de la Magie. It was the collection of lessons and information Robert-Houdin intended to teach his sons to make them expert magicians. However, his sons did have other interests, mechanics and military, which led him to publish his recordings as book. Prof. Hoffmann has translated this masterpiece into English.
| ★★★★★ $9 to wish list | |
The Secrets of Stage ConjuringJean Eugene Robert-Houdin & Professor HoffmannTranslated by Professor Hoffmann.
| ★★★★★ $5 to wish list | |
The Sharper Detected and ExposedJean Eugene Robert-HoudinThe first part consists of stories about cardsharks and other crooks from Robert-Houdin's recollections. This is very readable and an entertaining part of the work. The second part explains some of the technical details of the methods used by cardsharks. However, the methods are for the most part only described in very rudimentary form. As Robert-Houdin writes himself, this is not meant as a way to teach you how to do it, but merely to give the reader insight in how the different ruses are accomplished. Nevertheless, it provides interesting insight into the ways and means of cardsharks. This... | $7 to wish list | |
The Study of Trance Muscle ReadingGeorge Miller BeardFrom the preface: The following narratives and analyses of facts relating to the investigation of important and interesting phenomena of the nervous system are published in the belief that they will be new, in whole or in part, to the majority of neurologists and practitioners, both in Europe and America. Some of the facts connected with the detailed history of muscle-reading are here put on permanent record for the first time, and have been obtained partly from memory and partly from public and private documents in my possession. It is interesting and incredible that these phenomena... | $8 to wish list | |
The Supernatural?Lionel A. Weatherly & John Nevil MaskelyneIn this work, Lionel Weatherly inspects and investigates stories of mirages, prophetic dreams and the experiences of historical figures like Joan of Arc. Illusionist John Nevil Maskelyne, who exposed the fraud of a number of spiritualists including the Davenport Brothers, and who created several famous illusions which are still being performed today, examines the truth behind a number of famous Eastern magical illusions. Maskelyne also scrutinizes mediumistic fraud, questioning the credibility of figures like D. D. Home and Madame Blavatsky, in an entertaining and carefully argued investigation... | ★★★★★ $12 to wish list | |
The True History of Pepper's GhostJohn Henry PepperJohn Henry Pepper took a projection invention of Henry Dircks, called The Ghost, with his permission, and made it practical so that it could more easily be performed. He earned a lot of money staging it. Even though Dircks did not want any payments from Pepper, there was a falling out between the two because the invention became known as Pepper's Ghost. Dircks wanted to have his name associated with it. This prompted Dircks to write The Ghost. Pepper's answer to that publication and dispute came almost 30 years later in this work The True History of the Ghost. He also includes the history and working of Metempsychosis... | $7 to wish list | |
Tricks and Diversions with CardsProfessor MillerInteresting here are not only the many card tricks described but also a section on crooked gambling at the very end. [Note that pages 11-14 are missing in our original from which this digital edition has been prepared.]
| ★★★★★ $10 to wish list | |
Tricks with Cards: A Complete Manual of Card ConjuringProfessor HoffmannA complete manual of card conjuring. This is not identical to the card sections in Hoffmann's other books such as Modern Magic etc. But this book has been released in sections under the titles Card Tricks With Apparatus and Card Tricks Without Apparatus since 1893. It appears Hoffmann was not too happy about breaking it up into parts.
| ★★★★★ $15 to wish list | |
Two Pounds Less Than An ElephantPopular MechanicsA nicely illustrated article explaining some of the popular pseudo-strength demonstrations made popular for example by Lulu Hurst and others. 200 years ago demonstrations of this kind created a sensation. Nobody could explain them. Many believed these were manifestations of some yet unexplained force. Today they are relegated to party stunts. Nevertheless, some are quite surprising demonstrations you can try out in your living room. 1st edition 1928, PDF 6 pages. | ★★★★★ $4 to wish listPDF_facsimile | |
W. H. J. Shaw Catalog 1893William Henry James Shaw | $10 to wish listPDF_facsimile | |
Wyman's Hand-Book of MagicJohn WymanThis work covers a lot of ground, from various parlor tricks, chemical tricks, card tricks, to a section on two person codes, and a section on artifices of cardsharks.
| ★★★★★ $8 to wish list |