Reviews of products by June Barrows Mussey
1 ★★★★★ reviews
The Oldest Deception: Cups and Balls in the Art of the 15th and 16th Centuries
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Bill Palmer
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Sunday 08 August, 2010)
I've used this book for many years as a source for historical information on the cups and balls. Its value regarding this would be difficult to overestimate. However, the original edition was limited to fewer than 1000 copies, and it is now very difficult to find.
Chris has done magicians a real service by putting this version of Kurt Volkman's book on the market.
It covers graphical depictions of the cups and balls from the 15th and 16th century. When Volkmann wrote the original book, there was very, very little that predated these illustrations. In fact, it has only been in very recent years, through the efforts of Bob Read and Volker Huber that any earlier ones have been unearthed.
If you are a cups and balls aficionado and you want to know more about the history of this ancient piece of magic, you really should treat yourself to this book.
A Magical Upbringing: Collected Letters and Articles from June Barrows Mussey
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Jim Alfredson
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Friday 03 October, 2008)
[This review was published in M-U-M, October 2008. Reproduced with permission of the Society of American Magicians.]
Gold from Hay
There are probably many who will scan this review topic and ask, "Who is J. Barrows Mussey?" and that is the reason Chris Wasshuber published this ebook. In his Introduction, Wasshuber notes that if you are a middle-aged American magician (or in my case, an elderly...) you will probably know part of the answer if one substitutes his pseudonym "Henry Hay." Mussey, as Hay, wrote a small number of magic books for beginners, two of which are arguably minor classics, Learn Magic (1947) and The Amateur Magician's Handbook (1950), the latter being the largest and best known. They are splendid introductory texts, as they concentrate on the important aspects of routining, presentation, and the like, rather than just showing the beginner how tricks are done. Mussey had a flair for getting across sophisticated principles to the beginner in a clear and simple manner. The books remain as fresh today, as they were when published.
Mussey's life was unconventional, to say the least. Born in 1910, he was a prodigy, graduating from high school at 14, and when he was but 13 — his mother not wanting him to enter college at this tender age — he began a tour of the eastern and mid-western United States clad in Persian costume and performing magic. His mother booked this tour by having family friends in various cities set up shows for him, saying, "He will learn self-reliance" from his travels. Mussey traveled alone, by train, and even in the palmy days of the 1920s it was a rather unusual, not to mention risky, experience for a kid — no matter how mature and intelligent. The highlight of the trip was two days spent at the home of his hero T. Nelson Downs, in Iowa. The following year, both alone and accompanied by his mother, he toured Europe and the Far East, and then entered Haverford College. After college, he went into the publishing business and, in 1950, availing himself of his linguistic abilities, he emigrated to Germany where he became an advertising consultant and American correspondent for Advertising Age. Mussey died in Germany in 1985.
It was Wasshuber's decision to republish The Amateur Magician's Handbook as an ebook for $25 that generated this book, explaining who Mussey was. This is done not by a biographical narrative, rather by means of 18 letters, 19 articles, 10 tricks, and two complete coin routines, all by or about Mussey. One cannot say that this is a biography of Mussey per se, but the material is most interesting and goes a long way toward sketching his fascinating life.
In point of criticism, one might say that a bit of editing wouldn't have hurt the project. Mussey's mother's letters, for example, are of great interest but contain much extraneous material. Because the articles have been gathered from many sources, and written at various times, there is repetition. The leaps from one topic to another may prove annoying to some readers. On the other hand, there is a great deal of interesting material here, and it's handy to have it gathered in one place.
The book is illustrated with photos and line drawings, and is available separately at $15, or if the Handbook is purchased with it, $30 for both. I read it with interest and pleasure.
[Please note that the stars given below were not provided by Jim Alfredson but were added by the Lybrary.com staff.]
A Magical Upbringing: Collected Letters and Articles from June Barrows Mussey
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Ben Robinson
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Saturday 23 August, 2008)
I truly enjoyed A Magical Upbringing June Barrows Mussey because it answered many questions I had about the author of The Amateur Magician's Handbook, by far and away my favorite magic book of all. It produces an anecdotal history of firsthand meetings with such personalities as John Mulholland and T. Nelson Downs (among many others). We learn that Mulholland, during the Depression, was "not stirred from his house for less than a hundred dollars" and that T. Nelson Downs could second deal with one hand!
As well, Mussey himself comes across as a purveyor of many languages as he directs the reader in several reproduced articles to proper diction and elocution. The man toured as a child and attended college early and wrote one of the seminal texts of the 20th century. He was considered an authority, and was respected from a very early age. While there is still much more that can be known about this enigmatic Renaissance Man, this book will surely quench the thirst of the hungry acolytes who stand in awe of his work.
The man, his work, his performance and his writing stand tall above the internet age...a purer magic, where magic began and has the most power.
A Magical Upbringing: Collected Letters and Articles from June Barrows Mussey
Overall customer rating: ★★★★★reviewed by Grandpa Chet
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 21 August, 2008)
Call it a labor of love to a book. And this is the book which reflects the man who begat the book we love. June Barrows Mussey was an even deeper man, a better magician, a better "understander" of people than we even suspected. Look behind the curtain and learn of the man who you knew as "Henry Hay." Not only will you find his life and his attitude fascinating, you'll find he teaches you, once again, how to become better at magic, entertaining, and at being a person.