Books (printed) in Magic & Conjuring

Annemann teaches thirteen commercial mentalism pieces with slates, cards, dollar bills, telephone books and cigarettes. The majority of routines involves cards. Annemann's unique direct style is felt in each one of these effects.

Paul Fleming wrote:

Annemann describes a wealth of forty pieces in this wonderful booklet. The first, "Call me up sometime" is a beautifully direct telephone miracle. This is a prime example of Annemann's mantra of 'effect before method'.

I found the following line from Annemann's introduction funny:

1st edition 1934; 50 pages.

5. Call Me Up Sometime
6. The Borrowed Deck Tragedy
7. Help Wanted In The Dark
9. A Thought...

You will find 143 magnificent and entertaining uses of silks and handkerchiefs. Sleights, tricks, and the famous Stillwell Silk Act are explained in detail with 90 illustrations. Jean Hugard details vanishing methods, production techniques, color changes, knots, and flourishes. He also describes how to care for your silks to keep them in great shape for a long time.

Paul Fleming wrote:

The manipulation of money is fascinating to everyone and probably always will be. Bills are common, pack small, and easy to borrow. This booklet describes in detail all the important moves, gimmicks and tricks with paper money. Great effects are taught, spanning the impromptu situation to the prepared performance from close-up to parlor or stage. This is a great book with very practical and strong effects.

1st edition, 1937 Max Holden, New York; 62 pages.

3. Introduction
4. Chapter 1: Preliminary Preparation
7. Chapter 2: Sleights, Switches
16. Chapter 3: Vanishes
19. Chapter 4: Impromptu Tricks with...

Ted Annemann's writing in Jinx No. 19 alludes to an obscure Al Baker manuscript that Annemann had seen when he was 17 years of age, at which time the manuscript was already old. The manuscript contained some of the first writings by a well experienced and well informed magician. It was called Al Baker’s Mental Effects. This was a remarkable collection of ideas and fabulous routines aimed especially at the mentalist/magician. Although it featured Al Baker’s Billet Reading Extraordinary, each effect in the book was a feature item.

• Al Baker’s Billet Reading Extraordinary
• The Billet Test...

The Life and works of Axel Hellstrom. Contents include:

• Hellstrom's history
• Axel Hellstrom's mnemonic system
• other performers
• Hellstrom & Houdini & the S.A.M.

19 pages

Included in this manuscript are effects that Al Mann himself calls "Spiritual Mentalism". Mind Reading, Future Prediction, Esp, Telepathy, Book Tests and much more are all included in this brilliant manuscript.

• Omar's Prognosis
• Outdone-Outdid
• Top Secret Ii
• Enchantment
• Bonus: A Discussion On "Lorant", Meaning Long Range Telepathy

16 pages

A volunteer consults The Delphian Oracle, and secretly writes a question of his or her choice. The psychic, who stands across the room from the person, answers the question.

8 pages

Effects with the Himber of flip-over wallet.

• The Wallets
• Technique
• The Secret Thrust
• A History
• Richard Himber's Billfooled
• Page One
• The Coins From The Pocket
• Life From Space
• The Name In The Vault
• One Message
• Unknown Forces
• Homer
• The Noesis Of Nyx
• One Hundred Clams
• Instant Mindreading
• The Mounds Of Ashtoreth
• The Royal Album

26 pages

A collection of provocative mental effects. Includes:

• A Link With Eternity (An Object Lesson In The Art Of Mindreading)
• To Command The Elements (Weather Prediction)
• Thot-Prints 1 (Test By Fire)
• Thot-Prints Ii (Passing Thoughts)
• Mental-Kinesis (Spoon Bending)
• Dinner Table Yoga (Levitation)
• The Mystery Of The Triplets (Math Mentalism)
• The Sans Tear Center Method (Billets)
• The Unseen Tear
• Sealed And Torn Messages
• Gemel's Messages
• The Tretology Of Dionysus
• The Mystic Chalice
• Typhon's Tongs
• Herpicks' Tongs
• Psychic Feedback
• Suspended Animation
• The Pharaoh's Palm ...

Part II from Al Mann Zodiac Series. You will find here several card techniques and a special card trick: how to deal five Aces to any seat at the poker table with a shuffled and cut deck. From the introduction, by Al Mann: I have been told by magicians who should know, that Poker demonstrations and Mentalism should not mix. I disagree with the above 100%... I have seen the amazed look in the eyes of a person when the Mentalist reads his mind... And I have also seen the terrible look in the eyes of the spectator after the miracle man deals five aces (4 aces and the joker), to any seat at the...

From the forward by Al Mann: The Mag-Eye catapults the center-tear method of thought reading into the space-age! The technique given here makes obsolete most of the former writings on the center-tear. Including the author's own. Such is progress. But bear in mind that occasionally the mentalist will have need of resorting to the original method of stealing the folded center piece as some spectators write a message and fold it and bring it to you for a test. At this writing only two persons know the secret of the Mag-Eye move. Only three persons know the secrets of "Cistella" and only one has...

• TRANS PHONE TEST: Mentalist asks anyone in the audience to use his cell phone to call home and ask anyone to choose a number (which is kept secret). Another person chooses a number secretly. These numbers combined secretly by the spectators to arrive at a page in a book. Mentalist reveals the passage in the book plus the two numbers thought of. You never approach the spectators.
• WEIRD PROPHESY: You write 6 digits on a card and give to anyone to hold. The digits are visible to the person holding them. Members of the audienc call out 4 digits while another person on the phone chooses 2 more....

There is telekinesis of all kinds within these pages from coins to nails. An effect that allows the mentalist/psychic to bring dead ants back to life! Levitation effects, abnormal lifts, teleportation, creating movement with your mind! Effects included:

• The Bends
• Permutation Of Matter - A Solid Through A Solid Effect
• The Spikes Of Asmodeus
• The Frankenstein Affair
• Imponderable Enrgy
• The Reach Of The Mind
• Merlin's Magic Marionettes
• The Secret Of The Ancients

The book deals exclusively with living and dead tests. It gives a detailed history of the effect and how David Abbott was fooled by mediums doing this. Learn inner secrets from the mediums on how to reveal the names of dead relatives. Simply ingenious methods that will startle you with their cleverness. Mann goes into much detail on these tests and ways to learn the names of dead relatives. Some of these methods were later revamped by Mann and released as other effects but using the basic methods. Mann also teaches you a creepy effect, called Empty Graves, where a person writes the name of a...

• Pyro-Sorcery - Eight methods for causing a borrowed newspaper to burst into flame!
• Arrested Oxidation - Commanding a piece of paper held in a flame not to burn!
• The Shattering Chalice -Smashing glass by thought! Devil's Tears; The Devil's Flask; The Iron Duchess; The Ghost Bullet; The Pulverised Window Pane; The Glass Key (by Ted Lesley)
• The Falling Block
• Cosmic Motion - Several brilliant new effects utilizing the Pendulum Principle, including movement at a distance!
• Bonus Section - The Cobra, 8 pages of how to do the snake charming act - for real! Plus, a very cool levitating doll trick ...

The first part in this four part series deals with effects done with ordinary slates, ungimmicked and without flaps, that anyone can do without having to invest in expensive trick slates.

Note that this manuscript comes unbound in a package of loose sheets, the way Al Mann stored them. You can bind them anyway you like, or leave them unbound, perhaps only hole punch them and put them in a binder.

27 pages

Card feats for the mentalist. This book has 14 effects that Al Mann judged sufficiently amazing enough, and plotted well enugh, as to be suitable for the mentalist to perform. Also incuded is a chapter of Olof Jonsson’s card mentalism stunts, 9 total, with full methedology. Jonsson was the Uri Geller of his day, so these additional 9 effects are also excellent fodder for the Mentalism show. The Contents:

• The Pros and Cons
• Do’s and Dont's
• The Flight of the Psycards. - Signed cards to wallet – Without touching the deck.
• Domination of Thought
• Caster and Pollux
• The Devastators
• The...

Effect: Mentalist displays a board with many designs and colors. Three persons are invited to secretly choose one design each. Mentalist passes out three pieces of art board and tells the three persons to secretly draw their chosen designs on the boards. They are then instructed to think of their designs and color. Mentalist divines all three designs and colors. That is the effect and that is exactly what happens. Mentalist can walk into any audience and do the test without any previous preparation.

Uncannily, the three persons code their thoughts to the mentalist through insignificant "body...

A clever way to read billets, invented by Al Mann.

Note that this manuscript comes unbound in a package of loose sheets, the way Al Mann stored them. You can bind them anyway you like, or leave them unbound, perhaps only hole punch them and put them in a binder.

11 pages

From the forward by Al Mann: "The true art of mentalism is not the illusion of the stage that enchants the eye but the illusion created in the mind that enchants the thought. The mentalist's greatest gimmick is hidden in the inner recesses of his mind and therefore invisible and unexposable. This manuscript expounds the illusive, seldom exploited and little known branch of magic where the spectator unknowingly executes the 'move' that creates the miracle to the full credit of the magician! The "Headline Prediction" is indeed a headline getter for the magician and mentalist. It is a haunting...

A study in thought prints.

• Mastic Mysteries
• The RMS Principle
• The Deluxe Jupiter Gimmick
• The Gemini Slate
• Donovon's Dust
• Cero-Mentics
• Thought Prints
• The Fellow Traveller
• The Million Dollar Gimmick
• The Unseen Specter
• The Inverted Mark
• The Mediums Tablet...Plus A Bonus... The Book From Sumer! Which combines the elements of a books test with thought prints!

Details a true story of Himber challenging Dunninger. Al takes this as inspiration to think about challenge type of effects where somebody challenges you to read his mind.

Note that this manuscript comes unbound in a package of loose sheets, the way Al Mann stored them. You can bind them anyway you like, or leave them unbound, perhaps only hole punch them and put them in a binder.

10 pages

Please keep in mind that you only get the instructions, not the Reader's Digest Enrich Your Word List booklet, not the ungimmicked Webster's New World Dictionary and no prompter cards. However, the instructions will allow you to adapt this effect to any dictionary in any language.

This 1976 Al Mann Exclusive is widely regarded as one of his most ingenious book tests. From an "Enrich your vocabulary" list inside the covers of a dictionary, two spectators secretly agree to think of one of 400 word pairs. Each thinks of one of the words, looking it up in the dictionary to be certain of its meaning....

This is the best and most exhaustive work on billets. It is a treatise on the history, methodology and technique on the use of torn billets in the mentalist’s art of thought reading. It starts with an in depth study of the history and evolution of the Center Tear and goes on to detail more work on billets than you could use in a lifetime. The Thirteen Chapters are:

• Initium
• Blue Ribbon Effects
• Facts
• Prophesy
• Qanda Central
• The Covert Tear
• Tear And Read Methods
• The Young Lions
• Pyramid Power
• Sans Tear Methods
• Pre-Torn Missives
• Sealed Messages
• The Day Of The Sit-Tores ...

• The Ghost of the Unborn
• The Master of the Word
• The Adonis Book Test
• Adonis, Aphrodite and Zeus
• Fifth Row Center Aisle
• The Shades of Thought
• The Uninvited
• Forcing the Word
• Forcing Three Words
• The Book Mark

23 pages

The knowledge in this manuscript allows the mentalist to very convincingly demonstrate the ability to read sealed messages and posses the art of thought-transference! The spectator is told to take his business card out and write out a question and turn the card writing-side down. The card is then sealed in a envelope which the spectator signs and holds. After the mentalist divines the thought, the envelope is opened and the card is taken out for a handwriting analysis and then both the card and the envelope are returned to the spectator! Contents:

• The Essence Of Thought
• Threshold Three...

As Al Mann himself states in the opening line of the introduction, "This manuscript contains 'the perfect billet test!'". A simple paper fold plus a simple move places into the hands of the mentalist a new weapon, an Ultra Exclusive Secret-giving the art of thought-reading a new polish and technique never before possible! Of course as always Al Mann was not satisfied to just give you the one effect. The Nihon Venture contains equally brilliant varations and re-workings. Included is:

• Tear Retaxo
• The Ying And The Yang
• Memory Giant
• Immolated Moola
• The Telephone Scenario

From the Forward by Al Mann: In January of 1979, Bobby Hughes of Columbus Ohio, showed me his amazing presentation which we have called, "The Kolophon." It seems that just a year ago, Bobby was busy buying many props and gimmicks to use in his mental show. Today all of the props and most of the gimmicks have been eliminated and Bobby now works out of his pocket or with borrowed scraps of paper. That is the type of mentalism preferred and what is offered in this book. Therefore AME Salutes Bobby Hughes for his unique effect with envelopes. The Kolophon is a threshold that reveals a hugh landscape...

Al Mann himself says about this manuscript: "The knight's gambit is a method that plays on words and by which miracles are wrought! This is mental magic in its purest form". The mentalist uses words to enchant the audience and to create a non-existing person that assists the mentalist to present his marvels! Effects include:

• The Knight's Gambit (mentalism using chess pieces)
• A Word In Orbit (a brilliant book test)
• The Five Star Gambit (The mentalist uses the spirit of Mr. Faust to assist him in a unique psychic test)
• Gifts Most Rare
• A Special Bonus - Phantini's Fabulous Billet Work! ...

The Tools of Omar is a collection of nail-writing effects. It collects the AME manuscripts, The Naked Thought, The Gilded Quill, The OSS Writer, Challenges, The Invisible Book. Plus history and types of writers. Plus The Ghost Writer and other new effects.

Only about 40 copies were sold in total. So this is an extremely rare book, a true collector item as well as a treasure chest of effects and secrets.

[Note that page 97 is blank. At least it is blank in all copies I have seen.]

104 pages

This ebook is a compilation of three booklets Rufus Steele released:

• Card Tricks You Will Do
• Card Tricks You Can Do
• Card Tricks Easy to Do

You will encounter contributions from people like Bert Allerton, Arthur Buckley, Paul Rosini, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon, Dorny, Harry Blackstone and many more.

• Introduction
• Community Do As I Do
• A "Chic" Trick
• Colors Will Tell
• Mix - Cut And Look
• Location From New Deck
• Your Number - Your Card
• This Is Your Card
• Money...

This is a treatise on the sucker effects of the Three Card Monte. It starts with an intro by Nate Leipzig, includes a definition of gambling terms and goes on to explain moves, routines and schemes to work the Three Card Monte. John Scarne was a master in performing and demonstrating this sucker effect. Learn everything about it in this digital reproduction, either to be aware of the various ways this can be played and thus be protected, or to learn to perform it for entertainment purposes.

From the preface by Nate Leipzig:

A mix of cards, mentalism, and quite unusual manipulation with glasses and thimbles.

1st edition 1937, reprinted 1963; 65 pages.

• CARD AND MENTAL MAGIC
  9. The Heal Coincidence Trick
  9. Telephone Telepathy
  11. Telephone Telepathy Again
  11. Alias Divination
  14. Magazine Miracle
  15. Strange Interlude
  18. A Slate Writing Method
  20. Slate Psychics
  22. The Ultimate One Man Sealed Message Heading System
  26. Predetermination
  32. And a Routine
  33. An Improved Four Ace Routine
  35. Selective Card in Pocket
  36. Si Stebbins Up the Sleeve
  37. The Perfect Card Routine
• MOSTLY MANIPULATIVE — With Glasses
  42. Glass of Liquid from Card Fan
  43. Some...

A parlor sized ring with a stage sized routine.

This is a compact ring and string routine which uses some of the most visual moves one can do with these props. For many years I have performed a very similar routine. I used a red cotton ribbon instead of the standard white rope, because a ribbon lies flat on the ring and is wider than a rope allowing for some sequences a stronger illusion.

1st edition 2003; 10 pages.

Coloring books are one of the easiest tricks on the market to master. Due to this fact, you can concentrate on the presentation. You can do a six to seven minute routine with this wonderful item. This is a routine that can be chopped down to whatever time frame you need, simply by eliminating portions of it. The routine has mime, participation, animation and imagination, all the elements it takes to perform for children as young as three or as much as ten years old. The more energy you add to the presentation the better it will be received.

Don't do the old lame presentation everybody else...

Know their traits and what to expect. Learn routines that work.

1st edition 2003; 21 pages.

5. FOREWORD
6. TO DO or NOT TO DO
6. - DO - Be Polite
6. - DO - Maintain Crowd Control
7. - DO - Maintain an Energy Level
7. - DO - Use Audience Participation
7. - DO NOT - Make a Fool Out of Any Individual
8. - DO NOT - Work From the Floor
8. - DO NOT - Turn Your Back on the Audience
8. - DO NOT - Do Smokes, Booze or Drugs
9. - DO NOT - Do Blue Material
9. - DO NOT - Do Card Tricks
10. THE TRAITS OF CHILDREN BY AGE GROUP
10. - AGES 1 through 2
10. - AGES 3 through 4
11. - AGES 5 through 8
11. - AGES 9 through 11
12. - AGES 12 through 16
12. -...

The only biography of the master magician and spy instructor John Mulholland including his work for the CIA.

"John Mulholland is surely one of the most fascinating personalities in magic history. For his work to advance conjuring as a recognized art, he deserves tremendous respect, and no serious student of magic will want to skip this book." - Michael Claxton, Magic Magazine, Feb 2009.

"I can even imagine him up in heaven huddling with Christopher, Houdini, Blackstone and Thurston as they discuss your biography. Their applause is loud enough to be heard on planet Earth." - Maurine Brooks Christopher

"I am an avid reader of books, all...