Published 1800-1899 in Magic & Conjuring

This is an all time classic with 57 beautiful illustrations. It is one of the most complete books written on magic, because it teaches both stage and close-up magic (cards, coins, silks, cups and balls, etc.), technique, presentation, and all the peripheral skills necessary for great conjuring.

"I beg to say that it is far and away the very best work of its kind ever published" - Harry Kellar

"My den contains a large collection of books on magic, but none has a cover so worn as 'Sleight of Hand' by Edwin Sachs." - David Devant

As Alfredson and Daily write in their Conjuring Periodical Bibliography, Mahatma is the 'first English language magical serial of any substance'. It is a fantastic resource for historians, researchers and other treasure hunters. A few of the prominent names you will find in Mahatma are Conradi, De Kolta, Downs, Elliott, Evans, Hilliar, Hoffmann, Houdini, Kellar, Leipzig, Plate, Selbit, Trewey and many more.

Some interesting facts about this periodical are:

• Mahatma was printed in the rear of the storied Martinka's magic shop in New York City, then the central hub of all things magical.
• Among the delightful period advertisements in Mahatma are some...

Every generation a magician comes along, whose intention is to record magic in an encyclopedic fashion. Professor Hoffmann was the first in recorded history to attempt such a feat with his trilogy Modern Magic, More Magic, and Later Magic. Certainly many magic books have been published before him, mostly copying from each other. But none reaches the depth and breadth of Prof. Hoffmann's work. The material in these three books records the state of the art of magic in the late 19th century. Today we know more tricks and we have also refined our techniques and methods. But it is astounding how much was already known...

This is the second volume of the Hoffmann trilogy. If you liked Modern Magic you will love More Magic. There is too much to list. Refer to the 'Table of Contents' below for details. This book was rated one of the ten basic books for a working library of conjuring by H. Adrian Smith, historian, collector and owner of the largest private magic library in his time. Other books in this top 10 list are

• Magicians' Tricks by Henry Hatton and Adrian Plate
• The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase
• The Art of Magic by T. Nelson Downs
• Modern Magic by Prof. Hoffmann
• Later Magic by Prof. Hoffmann
• The Modern Conjurer by C. Lang Neil
• Our Magic by Maskelyne and Devant
• Tarbell Course by Harlan Tarbell
• Greater Magic by John Northern Hilliard

Roterberg 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....

This book is the continuation of The Modern Wizard; same format almost same number of pages and same style. For example the 'handkerchief productions' are continued with methods twelve, thirteen fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. You will find many interesting plots with eggs, glasses, coins, silks, tubes, plates, flowers, nest of boxes, ...

1st edition, 1896; 112 pages.

5. Robinson's Flying Handkerchiefs
9. The Improved Soup Plate and Handkerchief Trick
10. First Method
10. Second Method
11. Third Method
12. Fourth Method
13. The Four Soup Plates and Handkerchiefs
15. The Handkerchief Coloring Trick
16. Handkerchief Productions,...

New Era Card Tricks is the masterpiece of Roterberg's publishing efforts. Scholars are pretty sure that the elusive Erdnase must have known and read this book. It is still today an extremely good and important work on cards. It is a book any serious card man should read. This is to a large part the foundation on which a lot of the later card work has been built. A good part of this book is essentially a translation of the German work Der Moderne Kartenkünstler by Friedrich W. Conradi. Richard Hatch wrote a wonderful introduction that by itself is worth reading. He starts:

This is a wonderful course for a two person act based on a verbal code. It has many exercises and examples and covers a lot of other important points beside the code, such as opening and closing speech.

1st edition, 1884, Lee and Shepard, Boston; 129 pages.

The 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.

• Editor's Preface
• Author's Preface
• Introduction
• Home of Robert-Houdin
• Conjuring and Its Professors
• Art of Conjuring
• Coin Conjuring
• General Principles
• Coin Tricks
• Card Conjuring
• Sundry Expedients
• Cups and Balls
• Various Tricks ...

On the covers you will find:

• Robert Houdin - father of modern magic
• Herrmann - prince of conjurers
• Jewett - the greatest coming 20th century magician
• Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Robinson
• W. D. Leroy
• Davenport Brothers
• Frederick Eugene Powell
• David Devant and his spirit wife
• Frencesca Redding and Hugh Stanton
• A. J. Martyne
• Bernice Nata
• Imro Fox
• Harry Kellar
• Clivette
• Prof. Ziska
• Prof. Elliott

Mahatma, Volume 1, George H. Little, editor

[Note: Page numbers refer to those in the PDF files when the collection was assembled. Originally each issue began with page 1. However, the original page numbers were retained for issues of The Vaudeville and Artist Era.]

184 pages

1. Mahatma - Volume I, Number I - March 1895 - 8 pages
1. Robert Houdin: Father of Modern Magic - biography
2. To Our Readers...

On the covers you will find:

• Sargent
• Soto Sunetario
• Stevenson
• Robert Ankele
• Leon Herrmann
• J. Burlingame of Chicago
• Adrian Plate
• Albert E. Smith - the popular Lyceum prestidigitateur
• Prof. Samri S. Baldwin
• Francis J. Werner
• T. Nelson Downs
• Marshall the Mystic 136 pages
  125. Mahatma - Volume II, Number I - July 1898 - 8 pages
  125. Sargent - biography
  126. Manchester Notes - news
  126. Boston News
  126. Is Magic Dead - Sargent, The Merry Wizard
  127. Spiritualism - F.D. Hewes
  127. News of the Day
  128. My First Performance as a Star - tory by J.W.
  128. Postal Card Trick
  129. Wine and Water Trick
  129. New Vanishing Performer...

On the covers are:

• F. Robert Lanskail
• John Hamley
• John Henricks
• Hal Merton
• C. Milton Chase
• John Whalen
• Zanzic
• Walter G. Peterkin
• Ellis Stanyon
• The White Yogi
• J. Witt Dougherty

Note: Page numbers refer to those in the PDF files when the collection was assembled. Originally each issue began with page 1.

253. Mahatma - Volume III, Number I - July 1899 - 12 pages
253. F. Robert Lanskail - photo & cover story
254. New Card Tricks - Elliott
     • New Card Reading
     • Mystic Flight of Card
254. The Modern William Tell - Chas. L. Burlingame - continued
256. Juggling Tricks - Wm. E. Robinson ...

This is a reprint of an interesting book from 1895. Mr. Burlingame covers the earliest days of magic, then goes into detail about magic and magicians as they existed in the 19th century. This material is seldom found in magic books of today, but the man who would be a complete magician should know something of the history of the art he follows. Well written and very interesting reading.

1st edition 1895, 1st digital edition 2013, 44 pages.

This is quite an interesting relatively early book on card moves, tricks and cons. It was published in 1877. Some believe that the author C. H. Wilson could be the elusive Erdnase, the author of The Expert at the Card Table, because the S.W.E. Shift is explained in The 52 Wonders.

Chapters are:

• Chapter I: The Double and Single Passes
  • The Long Pass
  • The Short Pass
  • The Magic Pass
  • The Rolling Pass
  • The Grand Pass
  • The Invisible Pass
  • The Vizard Pass and Change
  • The Circle Pass
  • The Dovetail Pass
  • The Single Short Pass
• Chapter II: Miscellaneous Passes
  • The Elbow Pass
  • The Side Pass
  • The Monte Pass
  • The Table Pass ...

This is the first catalog Roterberg issued, titled: "Descriptive Catalogue of the Latest European Novelties in Magic, Second Sight, Anti-Spiritualism".

Noteworthy here is that Roterberg states that he corresponds not only in English but also German, French and Volapük - a universal language created by the German catholic priest Johann Martin Schleyer in 1880.

1st edition ca. 1894, 20 pages.

The title page reads: "Superior, New and Standard Conjuring Tricks, Spiritualistic Manifestations and Books on Conjuring."

Particularly noteworthy are the pages in the back where he reprints quotes and praises from customers who have read his books including John Northern Hilliard and Harry Kellar.

1st edition ca. 1898, 76 pages.

This is a fun and informative article by an anonymous amateur magician detailing various mishaps of magic performances. Along the way we learn the modus operandi of all kinds of illusions, from Buatier de Kolta's vanishing cage all the way to the bullet catch.

This article was originally published in Chamber's Journal of December 16th, 1882.

1st edition 1882, 5 pages; digital edition 8 pages.

A Chicago dealer who did manufacture his own apparatus.

1st edition 1893, 24 pages.

Interesting 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.]

• Instructions For Amateurs
• How To Make The Pass
• Forcing A Card
• The "Long Card"
• The Divining Card
• Deceptive Shuffles
• To Smuggle A Card
• To Slip A Card
• To Carry Away A Card
• To Place A Card
• The Ten Duplicate Cards—To Reveal A Person’s Thoughts
• The Changeable Ace
• The Convertible Aces
• The Metamorphosed Cards
• The Gathering Of The Clans
• To Tell The Number Of Cards By The Weight
• To Make A Card Pass From One Hand Into The Other
• The Card Hit Upon By Guess
• Ups...

W. H. J. Shaw was a magic dealer and apparatus manufacturer in Chicago. Like his magic dealer competitor August Roterberg he decided to write a magic book almost at the same time.

• Preface
• The Mystic Percolator
• Water Into Ice
• The National Ball Transformation
• New Spirit Ghost Seance
• Spirit Bell On Glass Top Table
• The Spiritual Ring Test
• The Extinguished Cigar
• The Charmed Organ Pipes
• D’Alvini’s Album Trick
• Lightning, Slate And Blackboard Test
• The Egyptian Cremation
• New Hat Fake
• The Diamond Mystery
• The Spirit Scribe
• A Live Hat
• Changing Decapitation
• The Wonderful Lager-Beer Glass And Paper...

• Chapter I: Introduction
• Chapter II: Dress, Table, Wand, Apparatus, And Stage
• Chapter III: Tricks With Handkerchiefs
• Chapter IV: Palming, Passing, And Changing Coins, Rings, And Small Articles
• Chapter V: Tricks With Coins Not Requiring Apparatus
• Chapter VI: Coin Tricks Requiring Apparatus
• Chapter VII: Tricks With Cups And Balls
• Chapter VIII: Tricks With Rings
• Chapter IX: Tricks With Hats
• Chapter X: Tricks With Watches
• Chapter XI: Tricks With Dice And Dominoes
• Chapter XII: Tricks With Electricity
• Chapter XIII: Miscellaneous Tricks
• Chapter XIV: Spiritualism And Mesmerism

1st edition...

Concerning marks and stamps, portable and fixed devices, manipulation of cards and other matters of interest to lovers of draw.

This is one of the better early books on card advantage play. We can be almost certain that Erdnase read this book.

• Preface
• Introduction
• Marks And Stamps
• Watermark
• Disfigurement Of Edges
• Nail Impressions
• Ruffling
• Roughening
• Bleaching
• Crimping
• Erasing
• Evaporating
• Glazing
• Enamel
• Acidulated
• Other Marks
• Pricking
• Trimmed
• Briefs
• Wedges
• Strippers Or Humps
• Scratches
• Filling And Burnishing
• Assorted
• Cut-Off
• Shading
• Scrolling
• Stamped Or Readers
• Portable...

This is an unusual mix of contents including magic card tricks, card games and how gamblers cheat at those games, other swindles and scams, a section on dice and cheating at dice games, as well as moralizing against the evils of gambling.

Jonathan H. Green was a reformed gambler, who made a career exposing cheating via lectures, presentations and books.

An earlier shorter edition of this book was published under the title Games and Tricks with Cards.

If you are looking for an edited version and somewhat modernized rendition of this book you can find it here.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick...

The record of a career famous for adventure and vicissitude, and in which the jester won more tricks than the gamester.

• Preface
• Chapter I: Birth And Early Peregrinations
• Chapter II: Becoming A Patron Of The Pasteboards
• Chapter III: Early Times On The Mississippi
• Chapter IV: Getting A Sobriquet And Meeting Great Men
• Chapter V: The Turnpikes, The Packets And The Inns
• Chapter VI: Initiated In The Sons Of Malta
• Chapter VII: From The Green Mountains To Pike's Peak
• Chapter VIII: With The Bold Soldier Boys
• Chapter IX: The Fraternity Of Gamesters
• Chapter X: To Point A Moral And Adorn A...

A 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.

• CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
• CHAPTER II. SLEIGHT OF HAND PROCESSES, APPLICABLE TO CARD CONJURING
  • To Make the Pass
  • To Make the Pass with both Hands
  • Single-handed Pass, No. 1
  • Single-handed Pass, No. 2
  • Single-handed Pass, No. 3
  • To Force a Card
  • To Force a Person to Think...

• TRICKS WITH CARDS
  1. How To Make The Pass
  2. The Long Card
  3. To Produce a Particular Card without Seeing the Pack
  4. To Call for Any Card in the Pack
  5. The Changeable Ace
  6. The Convertible Aces
  7. The Gathering of the Clans
  8. Everybody's Card
  9. Forcing a Card
  10. The Card hit upon by Guess
  11. Ups and Downs
  12. To Tell The Card That A Person Has Touched With His Finger
  13. The Card Discovered by Touch or Smell
  14. Confederate Cards
  15. The Ten Duplicates, or Cards in Couples
  16. The Turn-Over Feat
  17. The Nerve Feat
  18. To Tell The Number Of Cards By The Weight
  19. To Change the Card by Word of Command
  20. The Card in a Mirror
  21. The...

Translated by Professor Hoffmann.

• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I. The Theatre Of Robert-Houdin
• CHAPTER II. A Conjuror’s Stage Arrangements
• CHAPTER III. Handkerchief Tricks
• CHAPTER IV. The Light And Heavy Chest
• CHAPTER V. The Hundred Candles Lighted By A Pistol Shot
• CHAPTER VI. The Ghost Illusion
• CHAPTER VII. The Indian Basket Trick
• CHAPTER VIII. Spiritualistic Manifestations
• CHAPTER IX. The Bust Of Socrates
• CHAPTER X. A Curious Effect In Acoustics
• CHAPTER XI. The Decapitated Speaking
• CHAPTER XII. The Protean Cabinet
• CHAPTER XIII. The Feats Of The Davenport Brothers
• CHAPTER XIV. The Enchanted...

The authorship of this book is not entirely clear, but Frikell is a likely author of at least good parts of the book. However, most likely it is a compilation of material from different sources with potentially a number of editors and compilers. Some of the other names associated with this book are H.L. Williams, George Arnold, Frank Cahill, and John Wyman, Jr. The book covers not only magic tricks of various kinds, but also a lot of what we would call today "kitchen table top experiments" in fields ranging from mechanical and chemical to optical, math and others. It also features a section...

This is a fairly typical magic book from the 19th century. It mixes magic tricks and illusions with science experiments. Due to the fact that back then many did not have a basic understanding of physics and chemistry, many of these exhibitions of science appeared like magic.

• How to Cut Your Arm off without Hurt or Danger
• The Basket Trick
• To Knock a Tumbler Through a Table
• To Drive One Tumbler Through Another
• The Dancing Skeleton
• To Place Water in a Drinking-glass Upside Down
• The Faded Rose Restored
• The Protean Liquid
• Eatable Candle Ends
• To Make a Watch Stop or Go at the Word of Command ...

A series of letters, between an unidentified friend and his correspondent (William Frederick Pinchbeck) comprising of how to train a pig, invisible lady and acoustic temple, philosophical swan, penetrating spy glasses, several magic tricks, such as how to catch a bullet, and reflections on ventriloquism.

This book includes the first known description of the "Eight Kings" card stack.

1. Method of teach the Pig – from Letter I. to IX. See also Letter V. Appendix
2. Principles of the Acoustic Temple – from Letter IX. To XIV. See also Letter II. Appendix.
3. A Demonstration of the philosophical...

The 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...

The subtitle reads: Containing explanations of all the tricks and deceptions with playing cards. Tricks with cards performed by skillful manipulation and sleight of hand; by the aid of memory, mental calculation, and the peculiar arrangement of the cards; by the aid of confederacy and sheer audacity and tricks performed by the aid of ingenious apparatus and prepared cards. The whole illustrated, and made plain and easy.

The first section of this book is identical with the card section in The Secret Out.

• PARLOR TRICKS WITH CARDS
  • General Rules for Amateurs
• PART I: TRICKS WITH CARDS PERFORMED BY SKILFUL...