Biographies & History in Magic & Conjuring: page 2

Includes chapters on conjuring, fortune-telling and card-sharping.

• Preface
• Part The First. The History Of Cards
  • I. Introduction
  • II. Oriental Origin Of Cards
  • III. Introduction Of Cards Into Southern Europe
  • IV. Date Of Introduction Of Cards
  • V. Introduction Of Cards Into France
  • VI. The Cards Of Charles VI
  • VII. Invention Of The French Cards And Game Of Piquet
  • VIII. Cards In England
  • IX. History Of Tarots, As Told By Themselves
  • X. Modern History Of French And English Cards
  • XI. The Application Of Cards To Science
  • XII. Card Miscellanies
• Part The Second. Card Playing And Card Players...

This ebook is a treat for any magic historian as well as for anybody who likes to learn more about the history of the cups and balls. A collection of 20 woodcuts, copper engravings and oil paintings from the 15th and 16th century depicting conjurers with cups and balls is described in great detail by Kurt Volkmann, the president of the German Magic Circle from 1952-1958.

For example, you will find the famous oil painting "The Juggler" by Hieronymus Bosch as well as an imitation and a very similar copper engraving. Read what we can learn from the various depictions of the cups and balls. One...

A specially-recorded hour-long interview of Don Driver (interviewer is the late David Alexander) that gives history, insights, and advice on how to make money selling the most popular trick deck in the world. Don also tells many stories and anecdotes of how he got into magic, side shows and ultimately pitching Svengali decks.

duration 1h 5min

This 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...

A Journey Through a History of Magic traces the lives and times of famous magicians throughout history through to many popular present day performers. With pictures and photos that introduce you to many almost forgotten performers who have gained fame.

Featuring a few of the performers who have shaped the art and craft of magic through the ages.

• The History of Magic
• The Conjuror Painting
• Dedi the Magician
• Matthias Buchinger
• Hieronymous Scotto
• John Nevil Maskelyne
• Joseph Pinetti
• Louis Hasselmayer
• Robert Houdin
• John Henry Anderson
• Chung Ling Soo
• Charles Dickens
• Fox Sisters
• Annie Abbott
• Great Lafayette ...

This is David Devant's autobiography. On top of his personal recollections he included three chapters on how to perform magic, and six chapters on the history of magic.

• Publisher's Note
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Pictures Of My Early Life
• CHAPTER I. My Introduction To Magic
• CHAPTER II The Hot Pudding And The Vanishing Lady
• CHAPTER III Mixing Magic With Midgets
• CHAPTER IV My Attack On London
• CHAPTER V I Appear With Maskelyne
• CHAPTER VI The First Animated Pictures
• CHAPTER VII Magical Sketches
• CHAPTER VIII A Feast Of Magic
• CHAPTER IX Magic And The Public
• CHAPTER X Secrets Of Magic ...

This is the long-awaited follow up to the first volume. It is a quality soft back publication, perfect bound. It contains a lot of information that arrived too late for inclusion in the first volume. We are grateful to all those who have helped us produce this set of books on the Remarkable Chan Canasta.

• Publisher's Introduction
• Further Discoveries by David Britland
• Chan Canasta article (reprinted from Magic Magazine)

The first volume can be found here: Chan Canasta: A Remarkable Man Volume 1

1st edition 2001, 45 pages.

Chan Canasta (1920 to 1999) was something of a TV sensation in the 1950s as one of Britain's leading mentalists. His blend of psychology and traditional conjuring which he called psychmagic, was a breath of fresh air. This beautifully ebook is a unique record of his mentalist effects and unique entertaining style.

"Martin has excelled himself with the production values. It looks beautiful; maybe it is the most attractive looking book I have ever seen. If you are interested in Canasta then you will have to buy the book." - Peter Zenner

"I'm not sure that there have been other books quite like this....

David Alexander and Richard Kyle would speak for hours on the phone exchanging their thoughts, their insights, and their discoveries regarding Erdnase. Richard Kyle would often write a letter to David afterward to memorialize...

Poker stories from the Mississippi.

The stories play in Brownsville and Arkansas City both located on the West bank of the Mississippi river during the second half of the 19th century.

Excerpt from the preface:

This is a gorgeous and careful digitization of a classic originally published by Harry Stanley in 1962. All drawings have not simply been scanned and included as images but have been converted to vectorized graphics. This means they are crisp and clear even under the largest magnification as well as when printed out.

This PDF ebook has very detailed bookmarks making it easy to browse to your section of choice.

Max Malini was one of the most extraordinary personalities in the history of the performance of magic.

In this ebook, Dai Vernon shows how successfully Malini acted the role of magician and...

Purchase this ebook together with The Amateur Magician's Handbook and receive an immediate $10 discount!

If I ask: "Do you know June Barrows Mussey?" I get a blank stare. If I continue: "you know Henry Hay?" then suddenly the response is: "Certainly. He wrote The Amateur Magician's Handbook."

June Barrows Mussey, alias Henry Hay was a remarkable man who had a magical upbringing. Imagine, a boy of just 14 years old going on an international magic tour in the U.S. all by himself; a year later he went alone to Europe, the Dutch authorities made great trouble when he wanted to enter their country because they felt he was too young. His parents and particularly...

This is a beautiful comics title which entertains as much as it informs you about the history of magic. See illustrated stories from the lives of Robert-Houdin and Harry Houdini. Learn the secrets of some of the most famous stage illusions as well as the 'most marvelous trick in the world'.

This was issued as #23 in the 'World Around Us' series. Art by George Evans and Gray Morrow.

The Illustrated Story of Magic was never reprinted. This digital edition is the first republication of this title in the Classics Illustrated series. Additionally it is the first digital edition of any of the many titles from the Classics...

This is a unique and beautiful ebook that chronicles the fascinating life of Paul Rosini and explains much of the exceptional magic he performed during his career.

Illustrated with rare photographs and beautiful illustrations, this entertaining book relates Rosini's rise to fame in American nightclubs in the 1930's until his untimely death in 1948. Rosini was a master magician and had no equal. His brilliant magic coupled with his sparkling sense of humor, and compelling personality, made him one of conjuring's highest paid entertainers!

In addition to Rosini's life story, detailed explanations...

A unique documentary containing photos accompanied by autobiographical and anecdotal texts, featuring 250 magicians from 28 nations. This first volume includes names from A-H:

• Foreword by Eberhard Riese
• Introduction
• About the Author
• A
  • Adrian Guerra
  • Alan Shaxon
  • Aldo Colombini
  • Alexander Lehmann
  • Alexis
  • Alex Porter
  • Alfred Kellerhof
  • Ali Bongo
  • Almeico
  • Amos Levkovitch
  • Anatoli Kartashkin
  • Andreas Axmann
  • André Dubach
  • Andy Mayno
  • Arino
  • Arsène Lupin
• B
  • Bagattello
  • Bellachini XIII
  • Bert Rex
  • Blake Eduarado
  • Bob Little
  • Bob Sheets
  • Boretti
  • Boris Wild
  • Buccini
• C
  • Camilo Vásquez
  • Carlos Barragàn
  • ChaPeau ...

A unique documentary containing photos accompanied by autobiographical and anecdotal texts, featuring 250 magicians from 28 nations. This second volume includes names from I-O:

• I
  • Irina
  • Ivan Matveyevich Necheporenko
• J
  • Jad
  • Jakob Mathias
  • Jan Logemann
  • Jean de Merry
  • Jean Olivier
  • Jean-Philippe Loupi
  • Jochen Zmeck
  • John Carney
  • Johnny Lonn
  • Jörg Alexander
  • Jörg Willich
  • José Carroll
  • Juan Carlos Rodarte
  • Julius Frack
  • JUNGE JUNGE!
  • Juno
• K
  • Kovari
  • Kuli
  • Kurt Freitag
• L
  • Lars Herren
  • L'Enchanteur
  • Lennart Green
  • Leo Nifosi
  • Lionel
  • Little Green
  • Lorenz Schär
  • Lou DeMilla
  • Lubor Fiedler
  • Lucca ...

A unique documentary containing photos accompanied by autobiographical and anecdotal texts, featuring 250 magicians from 28 nations. This third volume includes names from P-Z:

• P
  • Pad Alexander
  • Pat Page
  • Pat Perry
  • Patrice Curt
  • Patrick Lehnen
  • Paul Gertner
  • Paul Harris
  • Pavel
  • Pedro
  • Pedro Lacerda
  • Peps Zoller
  • Perkeo
  • Perplex & Tiffany
  • Peter Honegger
  • Peter Löhmann
  • Peter Paul Merlin
  • Peter's Magic Show
  • Peter Woerde - De Valsspeler
  • Phantomas / The Magic Phantoms
  • Philius
  • Pierric
  • Pino Pan
  • Pit Hartling
  • Pop Haydn
  • Professor Dr. Bindli
• R
  • Rafael
  • Rafael Benatar
  • Ramón Riobóo
  • Randy Wakeman
  • René
  • René Lavand
  • Rezani
  • Richard McDougall
  • Rico Leitner ...

A unique documentary containing photos accompanied by autobiographical and anecdotal texts, featuring 250 magicians from 28 nations.

The photos were taken by the author from 1980 to 2015 during performances of the magicians in Europe. The texts were contributed by the artists. Foreword by Eberhard Riese.

"A Special Book. An extraordinary book. A history of magic of a different kind." - Eberhard Riese

"These large, beautiful volumes provide an opportunity to spend time with hundreds of magicians who share - in their own words - anecdotes, philosophy, and a bit of themselves. This is...

Dr. Samuel Cox Hooker's Rising Cards have been an unexplainable fascination for nearly a century. Hooker first showed his effect in 1914, and in 1993 and 2007 John Gaughan gave abbreviated performances. Nobody who has seen the Hooker Rising Cards performed has ever been able to explain how such effects can be accomplished. This includes the most notable and most knowledgeable magicians from past and present. How can, from a borrowed and shuffled deck, any card called for rise in the fairest possible manner on a well lit stage only a few feet from the spectators?

This work is not just about...

The hunt to find the true identity of S. W. Erdnase, the author of The Expert at the Card Table, published in 1902 in Chicago, has been raging for more than a century. The book is as revered by gamblers and magicians as the Bible is by Christians.

One of the first and most active Erdnase hunters was well-known science writer, puzzle expert, and magician Martin Gardner, who erroneously thought he identified cardsharp and murderer Milton Franklin Andrews as being Erdnase. After Andrews, many other candidates were proposed, but none had a case strong enough to withstand scrutiny. None wrote like Erdnase, nor had sufficient opportunity, nor even...

This is the story of an Austrian inventor, his patent, and his appliance to make objects and people invisible on demand.

In the 1930s the Austrian press was excited about the invention of "invisibility rays" by an Austrian inventor. The invention was licensed by the company Semperit (the largest car and bicycle tire manufacturer in Austria) and exhibited at a trade show where it became a sensation and was viewed by hundreds of thousands of visitors. During that trade show, the inventor made for the first time also people invisible. He applied and received a patent in Great Britain for his...

This article about highly unusual and uncommon hands at Whist and Poker as reported in the press was written by Charles Dickens for his publication All the Year Round. It includes a reformatted as well as a facsimile version of the article.

1st edition 1876; PDF 8 pages.

A history of magic interwoven with Charles Bertram's recollections.

From the introduction:

This is a fascinating travel log, including a good number of photos, by an accomplished magician circling the globe including visits to India, China, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Unites States, Canada and other places. He devotes three fascinating chapters to the tricks of the Indian conjurers, but does not tell us a lot about his own performances during his voyage.

From the introduction by Professor Hoffmann: