Harry Houdini

With Harry Houdini, things are not always as they seem. Part expos©, part instruction manual, The Right Way To Do Wrong features history's most famous illusionist revealing the methods of deception involved in everything from burglary, to pickpocketing, to swindles, forgeries and tricks. Along the way, he also debunks the secrets of his own and other conjurer's tricks, as well as the secrets of sideshow circus acts. Houdini was as clever and nimble a writer as he was a magician, making this book the ultimate anti-etiquette guide.

A Unique Selection of Writings by History's Greatest Escape Artist

The Right Way to Do Wrong

The legendary magician and illusionist Harry Houdini turns a critical eye to the astonishing claims of those in his own profession. Using personal research and observations, Houdini reveals the cunning techniques employed by fire-eaters, sword swallowers, and other masters of deception to mystify and amaze audiences around the world. This classic skeptical work explores and exposes the methods of such "wonders" as "The Incombustible Spaniard," "Defiers of Poisonous Reptiles," and many others. Originally published in the 1920s, Miracle Mongers and Their Methods scrupulously examines the direct predecessors of modern psychics and mentalists. "My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion," writes Houdini in his preface, "and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the everyday commonplace in my business. But I have never been without some seeming marvel to pique my curiousity and challenge my investigation. In this book I have set down some of the stories of strange folk and unusual performers that I have gathered in many years of such research." The greatest magician of his time, Houdini baffled experts and amateurs alike with his sensational and dangerous feats. Houdini attained worldwide fame during his lifetime for his daring escapes from strait-jackets, jails, underwater chambers, and a variety of "escape-proof" devices. Throughout his career, Houdini insisted that all of his feats could be rationally explained and boldly exposed the methods of those claiming supernatural powers. The ever present fascination with psychics and miracle mongers makes this book as timely as when it was originally written.

A Complete Exposé

Miracle Mongers and Their Methods

Arthur Conan - Sir - Doyle, Sir

Sherlock Holmes contra Houdini : Arthur Conan Doyle, Houdini y el mundo de los espíritus

HARRY HOUDINI, "the World's Handcuff King and amazing Prison Breaker," a title universally and unanimously bestowed upon him, has had a career as adventurous and romantic as the most imaginative writer could possibly conjure. Indeed, this wonderful genius, with a science concerning bolts, bars, locks, and chains that will yet revolutionize the world's methods of safeguarding itself against "the men that prowl in the night," confirms the truth of the ancient adage that "truth is stranger than fiction." Just remember for a moment that he is the man to whom the shrewdest police, the sharpest detectives, and the most watchful jail wardens look with awe and anxiety. And they are eminently right in this attitude of disquiet, because they know that buried in the brain of Houdini lies the secret of an unknown power he alone possesses that makes their prisons as powerless as Japanese screens, and renders their multiple-locking handcuffs, leg irons, and all the other prison paraphernalia, no more binding than store twine. Suppose the innate and inherent integrity of character that Houdini possesses, in common with most men brought up within the circle of a mother's sweet influence, were to be swept aside by the desire for riches not his own. There are many men of many millions to-day whose money is not their own. Suppose he should be captured by a band of desperate men determined to wrest from Houdini this secret worth millions. Suppose a great hypnotist were to obtain dominance over this mystery-enveloped genius and use his baneful powers for evil designs. What then? A slight knowledge of the marvels Houdini has accomplished mixed with a little imagination would create as many more suppositions of this kind as this book could contain. But, to be brief, admitting the possibility of the happening of any of these suppositious instances, and you will gain a clear idea of the extraordinary character and quality of Houdini's powers. It is often the best way to see the full scope of a cause by carefully ascertaining its effect. This analytical method is equally applicable to Houdini, and recognizing the harm he would receive were his secrets confided to unworthy hands, you gain an adequately impressive idea of the enormity of responsibility that rests upon him.

The Adventurous Life of a Versatile Artist: Houdini

The Book of Houdini contains three publications, all focusing on magic, and the great work of Harry Houdini. The first volume was authored in 1922, and is titled 'Houdini, The Adventurous Life of a Versatile Artist', and is a glance at just that. The second installment was written in 1908 by Houdini, who penned a work on 'The Unmasking of Robert Houdin', a study of Robert Houdin's alleged magical abilities. Book III, written in 1920, and the final volume in The Book of Houdini, is called 'Miracle Mongers & Thier Methods', where Harry again analyzes and exposes the tricks behind magic, while sharing the secrets behind some of his own.

Three Works on the Magical Life of Harry Houdini

The Book of Houdini

Reproduction of the original: The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin by Harry Houdini

The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

REVEALING THE PERSONAL SECRETS OF HARRY HOUDINI WAS HE A CLOSET PSYCHIC? CLAIRVOYANT? OR MEDIUM? HIS LIFE LONG FRIEND SIR AUTHOR CONAN DOYAL INSISTED HE HAD THE EVIDENCE THAT THE WORLD'S GREATEST ESCAPE ARTIST WAS NOT THE SKEPTIC HE MADE HIMSELF OUT TO BE THE CREATOR OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ASKED? --WAS HOUDINI'S FANATICAL DEBUNKING OF PSYCHICS AND MEDIUMS A SUBTERFUGE TO CONCEAL HIS OWN REMARKABLE PARANORMAL ABILITIES? . . At his burial some curious and suggestive words were used by the presiding rabbi: -- "HOUDINI POSSESSED A WONDROUS POWER THAT HE NEVER UNDERSTOOD AND WHICH HE NEVER REVEALED TO ANYONE IN LIFE! . .The creator of Sherlock Holes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Harry Houdini were strange bedfellows. Doyle was a contemporary of the world's greatest magician and escape artist, who continually battled his friend over the legitimacy of life after death, and the reality of spiritualism. Doyle was a "true believer," while Houdini made it his "mission" to denounce just about all things preternatural. . . -- Doyle was convinced - from what he personally witnessed and what others confided to him - that Houdini could read minds, dematerialize, possessed supernatural strength, and was guided by angelic forces which shielded him from harm even during the most dangerous of escape performances which likely would have caused death to others. . . Doyle stated that Houdini had once remarked, "There are some of my feats which my own wife does not know the secret of." And a famous Chinese conjurer who had seen Houdini perform added, "This is not a trick, it is a gift." Sadly, many of Houdini's feats died with him, even though they would have been an invaluable asset. "What can cover all these facts," states Doyle, "save that there was some element in his power which was peculiar to himself, that could only point to a psychic element -- in a word, that he was a medium." . . . -- Here is both sides of the story -- in the actual words of the famed Sherlock Holmes originator and Houdini himself, who went out of his way to create the impression that fakes and phonies were afoot everywhere in the "shady world" of table tapping, levitating trumpets, spirit photography, slate writing, as well as the materialization of ectoplasmic forms in the darkening shadows of the seance room.

Psychic? Medium? Clairvoyant? Prophet?

Revealing the Amazing Powers of Harry Houdini Updated

Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, later Ehrich Weiss or Harry Weiss; March 24, 1874 - October 31, 1926) was an American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can. In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts. Houdini made several movies, but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator, and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia.

Harry Houdini (Illustrated)

A Magician Among the Spirits .by

Magician and escape artist, Harry Houdini was born as Ehrich Weisz in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. After his father took him to see Dr. Lynn, a traveling magician, Houdini's interest in performing soon consumed him. After happening upon a book entitled The Memoirs of Robert-Houdin, Ambassador, Author, and Conjuror, Written by Himself., Houdini added an i to his name and assumed the name that would go down in history. Houdini was soon escaping from numerous devices, including leg irons, coffins, straitjackets, and prison cells. Unliked other magicians, Houdini began to make his escapes in full view of the audience, increasing the drama. Harry Houdini died from peritonitis on October 31 1926. File contains bibliographic and biographical notes, theatre programs, leaflets, correspondence and press cuttings.

Magic File

Harry Houdini's expose of the fraudulent spiritualist, spirit photography, spirit slate writing, ectoplasm, clairvoyance, and other quakery and cons perpetrated on desperate believers. Specific spiritualists covered in the book include Dr. Slade, the Davenport Brothers, Anne O'Delia Diss Debar, the Fox Sisters, Daniel Dunglas Home, Eusapia Palladino, and other con artists of their ilk. The whole nation was excited by Houdini's campaign against fakers. He traveled across the country, offering money for spirit activities he would be unable to duplicate by his use of skilled illusions. It was a heyday not only for Houdini, but for the spiritualists themselves -- and there was an equally famous protagonist who thought the spirits could indeed be contacted, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A photo at the start of the book records a meeting between Houdini and Doyle, who is given his own chapter in the book. There's also a full section on Daniel Dunglas Home, the English engineer of spectacular paranormal effects. Houdini saves his sharpest arguments for spiritualists who were giving their (usually paying) clients a vision of the hereafter, and shares the methods used to practice "fake" and sensational spiritualism. Houdini was nothing if not unrelenting. As a taste of things to come, he ends his introduction with the words: "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains," though Houdini attests to his own open mind on the topic of the afterlife and recounts his personal attempts to communicate with the dead.

A Magician Among the Spirits

Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most terrible of the elements. To the early tribes it must also have been the most mysterious; for, while earth and air and water were always in evidence, fire came and went in a manner which must have been quite unaccountable to them. Thus it naturally followed that the custom of deifying all things which the primitive mind was unable to grasp, led in direct line to the fire-worship of later days. That fire could be produced through friction finally came into the knowledge of man, but the early methods entailed much labor. Consequently our ease-loving forebears cast about for a method to "keep the home fires burning" and hit upon the plan of appointing a person in each community who should at all times carry a burning brand. This arrangement had many faults, however, and after a while it was superseded by the expedient of a fire kept continually burning in a building erected for the purpose. The Greeks worshiped at an altar of this kind which they called the Altar of Hestia and which the Romans called the Altar of Vesta. The sacred fire itself was known as Vesta, and its burning was considered a proof of the presence of the goddess. The Persians had such a building in each town and village; and the Egyptians, such a fire in every temple; while the Mexicans, Natches, Peruvians and Mayas kept their "national fires" burning upon great pyramids. Eventually the keeping of such fires became a sacred rite, and the "Eternal Lamps" kept burning in synagogues and in Byzantine and Catholic churches may be a survival of these customs.

Human Understanding

"A Magician Among the Spirits" by Harry Houdini. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

This is a new release of the original 1927 edition.

Fascinating Puzzles, Tricks and Mysterious Stunts

Houdini's Big Little Book of Magic

"All wonder," said Samuel Johnson, "is the effect of novelty on ignorance." Yet we are so created that without something to wonder at we should find life scarcely worth living. That fact does not make ignorance bliss, or make it "folly to be wise." For the wisest man never gets beyond the reach of novelty, nor can ever make it his boast that there is nothing he is ignorant of; on the contrary, the wiser he becomes the more clearly he sees how much there is of which he remains in ignorance. The more he knows, the more he will find to wonder at. My professional life has been a constant record of disillusion, and many things that seem wonderful to most men are the everyday commonplaces of my business. But I have never been without some seeming marvel to pique my curiosity and challenge my investigation. In this book I have set down some of the stories of strange folk and unusual performers that I have gathered in many years of such research.

Aspiring illusionists can learn from one of the world's greatest magicians with this facsimile of a 1922 book by Harry Houdini. Easy-to-follow directions, accessible to readers of all ages and skill levels.

The Whole Art of Paper Tricks, Including Folding, Tearing and Puzzles

Harry Houdini's Paper Magic

Harry Houdini (1874-1926), whose real name was Erik Weisz, was one of the most famous magicians and escapologists of all time. He was highly sceptical of the many claims made concerning psychic and paranormal phenomena, which were very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He attended hundreds of séances for the purposes of his study, and never experienced one he believed genuine. In this book, published in 1924, he described the mediums and psychics whom he revealed as fraudulent, exposing the tricks which had convinced many notable scientists and academics. These included spirit writing, table rapping, spirit manifestations, and levitation. Among those he revealed as frauds was the famous medium Mina Crandon, and his exposures led to a public split with his former friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a firm believer. The book is a fascinating account of superstition and gullibility.

Houdini

The whole country got excited by Houdini's campaign against faking spiritualists. He careened through the country, offering money for spirit contacts he couldn't duplicate by admitted magical chicanery. It was a heyday not only for Houdini but for the spirit-callers and there was an equally famous protagonist who thought the spirits could indeed be contacted, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.A photo at the front records a meeting between Houdini and Doyle and Houdini gives Doyle his own chapter. There's an earlier chapter on Daniel Dunglas Home, the English engineer of spectacular paranormal effects. Houdini raises hell with spiritualists who were giving their (usually paying) clients a vision of heavens to come, and shares the methods used to practice "fake" and sensational spiritualism.Houdini was nothing if not unrelenting. As a taste of things to come, he ends his introduction with the words: "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains."

Harry Houdini

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