(27th November 1876 - 15th November 1936)
Born in Oxford, England. Inspired at age 14 seing Bosco. Learned working in vaudeville troupe. Pro. Moved to USA in 1902.
He was so skilled that he once substituted on stage for Howard Thurston, with no one in the audience realizing the switch. Committed suicide.
Coauthors: Albert M. Wilson, John Mulholland, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin
Subtitled: Their tricks exposed or the art of always winning
Translated from the French of Robert-Houdin, first published in 1861, 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."
This work was first translated in 1863 under the title The Sharper Detected and Exposed. In 1881 Prof. Hoffman translated it anew and brought it up to date under the title Card-Sharping Exposed. It is not clear why Hilliar would do a new translation in 1903. Perhaps he felt he could ride Erdnase's coattails after his groundbreaking...
| VOLUME 1 | |
|---|---|
| NO. 1: MARCH 1902 | |
| Editor's Notes. | 2 |
| A Humorous Glass Trick. | 2 |
| Novel Apparatus: The Hilliar Rising Card. | 2 |
| The Magician of the Month: Harry Kellar. | 3 |
| The Great Hindoo Tongue Trick. By Ali Ben Nabob. | 3 |
| Hand Shadows. By Hilliar. | 3 |
| The Great Goldfishing Trick. Its Invention, History and Explanation. | 4 |
| A Card Trick. By Thos. Peters. | 4 |
| New Books: The Magician's Handbook, by Selbit. | 5 |
| A Novel Match Trick. By T. Nelson Downs, "King of Koins." | 5 |
| Novel Sleights: A Pass with Thirty Coins. | 5 |
| The Fairy Coins and Tumbler. | 5 |
| Ching Ling Foo's Paper Tearing Trick. | 6 |
| Magicians Doings: | 6 |
| - Chicago,... | |
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.
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...