"Houdini's Escapes and Magic" by Walter B. Gibson. NY: Funk & Wagnalls, (1976). Reprint edition. Jacket art by Mark Esper
This is a reprint of two classic works, "Houdini's Escapes" (1930) and "Houdini's Magic" (1932). These books provided the most complete description available of Houdini's feats and how he performed them. Walter Gibson prepared them after Houdini's death in 1926, from the magician's private notebooks and with the assistance of his widow, Beatrice, and of Bernard Ernst, then president of the Society of American Magicians.
"It will soon become apparent to the reader that, although Houdini was daring, he never took an uncalculated risk. He would not accept a challenge unless he was sure he could meet it. He was physically fit, an athlete, and a strong swimmer. Yet his assistants were poised to rescue him if he didn't surface on schedule from an underwater box. A dozen less careful performers have been drowned, or seriously injured, because they attempted this feat without sufficient knowledge, or without taking the necessary precautions." -- Milbourne Christopher
Author Walter B. Gibson, after completing "Houdini's Escapes and Houdini's Magic" in the early 1930s, turned to fiction writing, creating the famed pulp hero of Lamont Cranston, also known as the Shadow. Under the pen name of Maxwell Grant, he wrote novel-length stories for "The Shadow Magazine" for more than fifteen years. These novels were adapted for the Shadow radio program and, today, they have been reprinted in paperback and hardcover editions. Under his own name, Walter Gibson has written many other books in the fields of magic, games and the occult.
"Houdini's Escapes and Magic" by Walter B. Gibson. NY: Funk & Wagnalls, (1976). Reprint edition. Jacket art by Mark Esper
This is a reprint of two classic works, "Houdini's Escapes" (1930) and "Houdini's Magic" (1932). These books provided the most complete description available of Houdini's feats and how he performed them. Walter Gibson prepared them after Houdini's death in 1926, from the magician's private notebooks and with the assistance of his widow, Beatrice, and of Bernard Ernst, then president of the Society of American Magicians.
"It will soon become apparent to the reader that, although Houdini was daring, he never took an uncalculated risk. He would not accept a challenge unless he was sure he could meet it. He was physically fit, an athlete, and a strong swimmer. Yet his assistants were poised to rescue him if he didn't surface on schedule from an underwater box. A dozen less careful performers have been drowned, or seriously injured, because they attempted this feat without sufficient knowledge, or without taking the necessary precautions." -- Milbourne Christopher
Author Walter B. Gibson, after completing "Houdini's Escapes and Houdini's Magic" in the early 1930s, turned to fiction writing, creating the famed pulp hero of Lamont Cranston, also known as the Shadow. Under the pen name of Maxwell Grant, he wrote novel-length stories for "The Shadow Magazine" for more than fifteen years. These novels were adapted for the Shadow radio program and, today, they have been reprinted in paperback and hardcover editions. Under his own name, Walter Gibson has written many other books in the fields of magic, games and the occult.