Magic and Its Professors

Portraits of the great conjurers by one of magic's best historians, with stories of their careers and the tricks that made them famous.

What’s inside

1. Robert-Houdin: conjurer, author and ambassador
2. The mechanism of ghosts
3. The shadows of a clever pair of hands
4. The princes of prestidigitators
5. Symposium of magic — new tricks by Kellar, Thurston, T. Nelson Downs, Selbit, Stanyon and others
6. Card tricks from the symposium — the Hilliar rising cards, the levitation of a pack, card through a hat
7. Handkerchief, flower and egg tricks — the homing handkerchiefs, growth of flowers, the ring in the egg
8. Stage and parlour pieces — Ching Ling Foo’s paper tearing, the Chinese rice bowls, Cleopatra’s tomb
9. Appendix: a visit to the grave of Robert-Houdin — by W. Golden Mortimer, M.D.

Henry Ridgely Evans, 1902 · George Routledge & Sons. Complete 240-page PDF. Free to download: check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

This classic is in the public domain. Scans come from library copies, so expect the odd stain or stamp of an old book.