Houdini, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin WHOLESALE

Retail: $34.99

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Houdini’s classic history of magic

Facsimile scanned from the original
Originally published 1908
Almost 200 historic illustrations
Eleven chapters
Biographies of bygone magic performers
Images of playbills and memorabilia from Houdini’s collection
An important source for magic history research

336 pp.
Softbound (perfect-bound)
6 x 9 in.
Gorgeous glossy cover
Houdini window card in color on back cover
High-quality satin-finish paper

The French descendants of Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic, didn’t appreciate that Houdini appropriated their family surname as a stage name, so an insulted Houdini threw a literary temper tantrum and wrote a distorted history of magic that falsely portrayed Robert-Houdin as a dishonest imitator. The magic world fortunately did not adopt Houdini’s biased viewpoints.

In the process of making his case, Houdini preserved in print some of the most important artifacts in his collection, illustrating his book with almost 200 playbills, photos, clippings, and engravings, as well as tracing the life stories of many important figures in early magic.

Our facsimile reproduces the 1908 first edition from the Karr Collection. Like our other reprints, we haven’t re-typeset the text, so you can see the actual original pages.