Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Jarrett, Guy. Two-Page TLS by Illusion Designer Guy Jarrett. Dated June 12, 1962, Jarrett writes to Dr. Morris N. Young, noted magic collector and author, stating “I have been out of touch for so long that [magic] seems to be another world to me…” and discusses his fabled book at length, admitting that he no longer owned a copy himself (“…now I want to get a copy…”) and describing his limited interactions with the magic community (“I drop in to Joe Bergs in Hollywood two or three times a year”). Jarrett reminisces about Harry Blackstone in his “vodvil days,” his time at Clyde Powers’ shop, early encounters with John Mulholland and a Sphinx story about Jarrett. Together with the carbon reply (proposing a reprint of Jarrett’s book), original mailing cover and a photograph of Jarrett executing a headstand in a fifty-foot-tall tree, on the ground, and upside down on parallel bars he calls “special equipment for children” he’d constructed. Signed “Guy Jarrett” in ink. Rare. Jarrett (1881 – 1972) was responsible for several revolutionary ideas in stage magic, constructed effects for Broadway shows and many famous magicians, and authored a now-legendary book in 1936 that described his ideas and experiences. Jarrett wrote the book as he set the type and printed the individual pages; by the time this letter was written, he states that one collector he knew “wouldn’t sell [his copy] for 100 [dollars].”