Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Hoffmann, Professor. Modern Magic. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1876. First edition, first state (black hat, gold cone). Bright red cloth stamped in black and gold. Engraved frontispiece behind tissue. With 318 illustrations. Thick 8vo. Hinges cracked, minor rubbing to extremities contents sound. Toole-Stott 386. Ex-libris John Henry Grossman, with his notes and a photostat of Hoffmann’s contract for writing the book laid in. A handsome example of the work that revolutionized conjuring literature. The first printing of Modern Magic sold briskly – to the surprise of the author and his publisher – with the initial run of 2,000 copies being exhausted just six weeks after its initial publication. The substantial success of this book ushered in a new era in conjuring literature that has continued to flourish. Few copies of the true first edition of this unarguably important work have survived the years.