William John Hilliar

Subtitled: Their tricks exposed or the art of always winning

Translated from the French of Robert-Houdin by William J. Hilliar. Robert-Houdin wrote this book primarily as an expose to reduce the number of people being cheated. He writes in his preface: "Enlighten the dupes and there will be no more cheats."

1st edition 1903; original 201 pages; PDF 145

Table of Contents

4. PREFACE
6. PUBLISHER'S NOTE

   CARD-SHARPERS

9. A Dangerous Teacher
15. CHAPTER I: The Modern Greeks
18. CHAPTER II: The Greek Of The Fashionable World
20. CHAPTER III: The Greek Of The Middle Class
24. CHAPTER IV: The Greek Of The Gambling...

What an excellent book. The quality of the material is outstanding. What makes this book particularly rare is a chapter on juggling and how to fake great juggle skills. I have yet to see another book on magic with such an extensive chapter on juggling. You will also find the obligatory chapter on shadowgraphy, a good write up of black art, and large sections on cards, coins, and tricks with many other props. You will find billiard ball manipulation as well as stage tricks with large apparatus.

1st edition, 1902, Frederick J. Drake & Co, Chicago; 440 pages; PDF 325 pages.

5. Introduction ...

You get all 52 volumes (597 issues), almost 17,000 pages as color PDF files (one for each volume). We have added to that a complete index stretching over 540 pages. (Don't ask us how long it took to prepare this index because it will bring up painful memories.) Additionally you receive an introduction by Bill Kuethe, an article about The Sphinx by Gabe Fajuri, a presentation about The Sphinx also by Gabe Fajuri and the personal research A. M. Wilson's granddaughter, Mary Syphus, conducted about Wilson.

One could write long articles about The Sphinx. Two are included as introductions to this...