Published 1800-1899 in Magic & Conjuring: page 2

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 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

A collection of simple and effective experiments illustrating chemical, physical, and optical wonders.

Published by the Offices of the Chemist and Druggist. 42 Cannon Street, London.

• ANCIENT AND MODERN CHEMISTRY
  • 'The Four Elements'
  • Collecting Gases
• EXPERIMENTS WITH THE GASES
  • Oxygen
  • Nitrogen
  • Hydrogen
  • Experiments With Hydrogen
  • Composition Of Water
  • Making Gas From A Bottle
  • A Model Gas Manufactory
  • Inextinguishable Flame
  • Gas Balloons
  • Musical Flame
  • Musical Tubes
  • Carbonic Acid Gas
  • Carbonic Acid Gas From The Lungs
  • Combustion And Respiration
  • Decantation Of Gases
  • Weighing...

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 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.

A complete handbook of legerdemain, containing all the latest optical, chemical, mechanical, and magical tricks and deceptions, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, together with all the noted tricks of modern magicians and prestidigitators.

If you always wanted to make a mouse come out of a pack of cards, change salt to sugar, or make fire burn under water, this may be just the book for you. The author only identifies himself as 'An Old Conjuror'.

Excerpt from the publisher's preface:

The type of 'mind-reading' George Beard means here is what we today call muscle-reading, which is a term that Beard himself coined. Beard describes several experiments he conducted and describes very clearly the physiology of muscle-reading, and that it is an involuntary muscle contraction that has nothing to do with animal magnetism or thought transference.

1st edition 1877; PDF 10 pages.

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...

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 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

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...

After a lengthy introduction, it describes and explains the performances of the muscle-reader Mr. Brown. It also describes and explains the performances of the brothers Outerbridge whose purpose it was to prove that these types of experiments are based on muscle-reading and not any other mysterious mental forces.

This talk was given before the Social Science Association on May 12th, 1875.

Persifor Frazer was an interesting character. For example, he was internationally respected as an expert on handwriting. He devised a process for detecting forgeries through composite photography, leading...

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 ...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

From the preface:

For the first time explains and demonstrates the great secret of her marvelous power.

In this autobiography, Lulu Hurst tells her rise to fame and fortune by performing acts of incredible strength on stage. She does this with personal recollections as well as quoting from various newspaper reports. At the time she performed many attributed her strength to some as of yet unknown or unexplainable force. But she had no unusual strength or the aid of any special force. She cleverly used mechanical principles as well as showmanship to make it appear she had super-human strength. In the second...

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 ...

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,...

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...

Judge's Library was a satirical periodical published in the USA from 1881 to 1947. It was a rival magazine to Puck founded among others by cartoonist James Albert Wales, dime novels publisher Frank Tousey and author George H. Jessop.

This issue No. 79 of Judge is all about poker. It provides a wonderful glimpse into how ubiquitous poker was in the US that such a successful periodical would dedicate an entire issue to it.

Also noteworthy, particularly for Erdnase scholars, is the fact that pretty much all the funny dialogs in this issue are in various national slang and ebonic. Thus the few lines...