Good morning, welcome to a new week and a BLESSED Monday morning. I wanted to share a new blog review for Houdini’s Fabulous Magic by Walter B. Gibson and Morris N. Young’s which is part of WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR. The blog tour starts on February 27 and lasts through April 2nd.
Before I share my Review with you, I wanted to let you know The launch day post on WOW! Women on Writing’s blog The Muffin will go live on February 27th which will have a giveaway of the book, and a list of all the tour stops. Iif you could visit/share with your followers on Social Media, that’d be great!
My family has been fascinated with magic forever it seems. I’ve even been blessed to take Charlie to a magic show that he was able to be a part of. Which is why I couldn’t wait to read Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. I don’t know if your like David and I, but we’ve always followed his career. I wish I had been able to be at one of his shoes but that wasn’t meant to be.
Houdini’s Fabulous Magic book being is re-released to the public by the author’s (Walter Gibson) own children allowing our children to learn more about this amazing man and his profession. Charlie and I can add Houdini’s Fabulous Magic to us homeschool reading class when we study biographies.
If I am not mistake this is one book David will also want to read and not put down just as I did when I began to read it. I had so much trouble not sharing what was inside the book with David and Charlie, but I wanted them to read the book themselves then share their thoughts with me. As well as allowing them to look up the people in the book and share facts with me which we can use in our Homeschool.
I just have one question for you. How can you make a 10,000-pound Elephant vanish and can I have the Elephant? David and I enjoyed learning about Walter Gibson whom we didn’t know anything about. Did you? I love how the book can help a beginning magician home their skills and become a magician of sorts although no, one will ever touch Houdini.
Book Summary
Incredible escapes, fantastic sleight-of-hand-Houdini’s most challenging performances are dramatically portrayed in Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. Walter Gibson, co-author, was in close touch with Harry Houdini for a number of years before his death and worked with the master magician in preparing material for the book. It is with the aid of Houdini’s own scrapbooks and notes that this book was written.
The spectacular highlights of Houdini’s career are described-and explained-here. Included are the famous escapes: escapes from a padlocked milk can filled with water; from locked jail cells; from a water-filled Chinese torture cell while suspended upside down; from packing cases weighted under water. Again, in this book, Houdini walks through a brick wall, vanishes a 10,000-pound elephant and is buried alive. Once more, Houdini and his wife Bessie mysteriously exchange places in a locked trunk-in three seconds!
And Houdini the man is not ignored. His impact on the world in the early years of the twentieth century was enormous. He was a public hero who, in his own way, helped sweep out the cobwebs of nineteenth-century thinking. While doing so, he distinguished himself as a patriot, writer, collector of magic, aviator, movie idol, philanthropist, and crusader against fraudulent spiritualistic practices.
This is a technical manual for magicians, complete with illustrations and diagrams, but it is also an astute analysis of the best of Houdini’s magic and a readable biography of a man who turned himself into a legend. It is a book for would-be conjurers, for professional necromancers, for those curious about the methods and means of one of the most enchanting men of the previous century.
Publisher: Vine Leaves Press ISBN-10: 0517180747 ISBN-13: 978-0517180747 ASIN: B0BH8L1LRC
Print length: 249 pages
Purchase a copy of Houdini’s Fabulous Magic on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list.
About the Author Walter B. Gibson (1897-1985)
Walter, a graduate of Colgate University, was a prolific writer including The Shadow novels under his pen name Maxwell Grant. For a time he was Houdini’s personal secretary. Following Houdini’s death, the attorney for the estate permitted Walter to examine many of Houdini’s private scrapbooks and notes from which Gibson wrote Houdini’s Magic and Houdini’s Escapes.
Houdini’s scrapbooks, papers and other documents form the background for Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. Also, a magician, Walter toured with and wrote for magicians such as Blackstone (Sr.), Thurston and Raymond. He was a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the American Society for Psychical Research, the Magician’s Guild of America and the Magician’s Club of London.
Morris N. Young, M.D. (1909-2002)
Morris, a graduate of M.I.T., Harvard and Columbia University was Director of Ophthalmology at Beekman Downtown Hospital in New York City. Aside from his numerous professional memberships, he was a member of the Society of American Magicians (to which Houdini had helped him join as a young man), the International Brotherhood of Magicians and a member of the Inner Circle of the Magic Circle (London).
He was a founder of the Magic Collectors Association including their publication MAGICOL. Along with his wife Chesley, he established the largest private holdings on memory and mnemonics which now resides at the University of San Marino. Along with his friend John McManus, in 1955 they established the McManus-Young Collections at the Library of Congress, The University of Texas, Austin and the University of California in Berkeley. Morris’ other book publications include Hobby Magic, Houdini on Magic (with Walter Gibson), Presto Prestige, Bibliography of Memory, How To Develop An Exceptional Memory (with Walter Gibson), The Complete Guide to Science Fair Competition (with John Stolzfus) and Radio Music Live (with John Stolzfus).
You can visit the website created by Morris N. Young’s children, Charles C. Young and Cheryl L. Young:
Advance Praise of the Book
Teller of Penn & Teller says: “I’ve loved this book for sixty years. My first copy was borrowed from the Philadelphia Public Library when I was fourteen, and I kept renewing the loan till I could afford to own my own copy. Houdini’s Fabulous Magic has just the right blend of history, technical secrets, and romance to fire the passion of a young magician. Four pieces of the Penn & Teller repertoire were directly inspired by Houdini’s Fabulous Magic–four times more than any other book in my library”.
John Cox in his “Wild About Harry” website and blog said of the earlier editions: Houdini’s Fabulous Magic by Walter B. Gibson and Morris N. Young is the best forgotten Houdini book. I say that because when one thinks of books on Houdini’s methods, one tends to turn to Houdini The Key by Patrick Culliton, The Secrets of Houdini by J.C. Cannel, or even Gibson’s earlier work, Houdini’s Escapes and Magic. Maybe because Fabulous Magic contains some reprinted material from the earlier Gibson book it tends to be thought of as a somewhat recycled work. But it’s actually one of the very best books on Houdini’s major feats and methods and maybe the best book for the layperson. It also contains historical tidbits that aren’t found elsewhere. So let’s remember it today!”
I’m so excited for the launch of this next tour, Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. It launches on Monday, February 27th.
If you have read Houdini’s Fabulous Magic or if you plan on reading this book please share your thoughts on Social Media, using the hashtag #HoudinisFabulousMagic. If you are on Twitter, include WOW @WomenonWriting. Then I can share your posts! If you are on Instagram, you can tag @wow_womenonwriting.
The launch day post on WOW! Women on Writing’s blog The Muffin will go live on February 27th. It will have a giveaway of the book, and a list of all the tour stops. If you could visit/share that’d be great!
GoodReads: Barnes and Noble: Amazon:
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
