Houdiniana & Magic Memorabilia

HOUDINI, Harry (Ehrich Weisz). Important Spiritualism and Magic Scrapbook belonging to Houdini. Small folio album of 287 pages, each leaf filled – sometimes to overflowing - with news and magazine clippings and ephemera dating from the 1760s to the 1920s, the bulk concerning spiritualism and related subjects, but also including much relating directly to Houdini and other important magicians of the time. Marginalia and notes appear on many pages, in a variety of hands, both in ink and pencil, including signatures and notes in Houdini’s hand in ink. Among the ephemera included are the business cards of J.N. Maskelyne, and S.S. Baldwin, printed advertisements for The Zancigs, a remarkable candid photograph of Houdini seated atop the monument beneath which he would eventually be buried, Houdini letterheads and programs, a poem to Harry Kellar signed by John William Sargent, a quantity of F.E. Powell items including throw-out cards, testimonial items and broadsides for his shows, numerous TLSs from Oscar Teale, Teale’s 1922 S.A.M. membership card signed by Houdini as president, Houdini postcards, a blank membership form for The Magic Mystic Fraternity bearing a holographic note in Teale’s hand stating that this is “the first attempt at organizing magicians in the U.S.A.”, a small poster for Thurston’s Buried Alive stunt at Ebbets Field, an early Walter Floyd wood engraved broadside, TLSs written to Houdini and Teale on various subjects, an early Henry Evanion program, a program for Beatrice Houdini appearing as a solo act in 1928 (Teale’s note states: “Mrs. Houdini’s first appearance in her own act.”), and three cards used in Dr. Hooker’s “Impossibilities” alongside an invitation to the performance at his Brooklyn home. The final leaves of the book are filled with clippings related to Arthur Conan Doyle and his ardent belief in spiritualism. Included in this tranche of paper is an ANS from Arthur Conan Doyle in its original mailing cover, addressed to Teale (under a pseudonym), accompanied by a catalog from the Psychic Bookshop & Library with Doyle’s notation in the margin indicating Doyle’s selection of a book he suggests Teal should read. These articles are accompanied by an explanatory ALS from Teale describing how he received the catalog from Doyle and why he contacted him pseudonymously, so as to preclude any judgment or bias on Doyle’s part, as Teale was Houdini’s secretary. Original half calf over marbled boards, very worn and spine perished, but binding just holding. With three paper cover labels indicating that the book was likely first been kept by William E. Robinson, who went on to be Chung Ling Soo, the “marvelous Chinese conjurer.” Chipping and damage scattered throughout to clippings as expected. Inscribed and signed to Houdini by Henry Ridgley Evans on the front pastedown. A remarkable relic from Houdini’s fabled collection, the bulk of which is now housed in public institutions, including the Library of Congress. The cover labels indicate that this book may have been kept by Robinson after the publication of his book Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena was published in New York in 1898. A picture of Dot Robinson as the Maid of the Moon is affixed to the front pastedown, lending further credence to the idea that this book was assembled, at least in part, by Robinson before leaving America and attaining fame as Chung Ling Soo. An early review of the book published in The Banner of Light is among the articles collected in the scrapbook.