[HOUDINI]. VIZETELLY, Frank. A Desk-Book of 25,000 Words Frequently Mispronounced. New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1917. Blue cloth gilt, frontispiece illustration. Square 8vo. Thumbing to pages, minor stains, rubbing to cloth and minor fraying of extremities, front hinge starting. THE FIRST REFERENCE BOOK TO CONTAIN HOUDINI'S NAME and bearing the autographed bookplate of Beatrice Houdini on the front pastedown. FROM HOUDINI'S LIBRARY. INSCRIBED AND SIGNED on the flyleaf by the master magician: “Given to me by my sister Gladys for Christmas 1918 / H Houdini." Above the inscription is the notation “Page 487." At that page is the following definition of the word “Houdini," highlighted by two inked marks: “[Am. Expert in extrication.]" Houdini's name remains synonymous with magic and escapes nearly 100 years after his death. In 1916, he wrote to Mable Wagnalls of Funk & Wagnalls asking to be included in forthcoming editions of the firms' well-known dictionaries. They would eventually comply, publishing a definition in the 1920 edition. Houdini was the first magician to receive this kind of coverage, but apparently his pleading worked before the dictionary was issued, as his ownership of this volume makes clear.