A biography of Harry Houdini, who became famous as America's most famous escape artist and magician.

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an exuberant biography of the world's greatest escape artist In 1916, the war in Europe having prevented a tour abroad, Harry Houdini wrote a film treatment for a rollicking motion picture. Though the movie was never made, its title, "The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini: The Justly Celebrated Elusive American," provides a succinct summary of the Master Mystifier's life. Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, Houdini grew up an impoverished Jewish immigrant in the Midwest and became world-famous thanks to talent, industry, and ferocious determination. He concealed as a matter of temperament and professional ethics the secrets of his sensational success. Nobody knows how Houdini performed some of his dazzling, death-defying tricks, and nobody knows, finally, why he felt compelled to punish and imprison himself over and over again. Must a self-liberator also be a self-torturer? Tracking the restless Houdini's wide-ranging exploits, acclaimed biographer Adam Begley asks the essential question: What kind of man was this? About Jewish Lives: Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award. More praise for Jewish Lives: "Excellent." - New York times "Exemplary." - Wall St. Journal "Distinguished." - New Yorker "Superb." - The Guardian

Each book in this middle-grade series is illustrated with photographs and illustrations while sidebars, a timeline, and entertaining cartoons further illuminate each subject's personality.

A friend and colleague of Houdini discusses the master magician's career and explains many of his tricks and escape devices

The secrets of the greatest magician of them all are revealed in this new one-volume edition of two classic long-out-of-print works, Houdini's Escapes and Houdini's Magic. Prepared by Walter Gibson after Houdini's death in 1926, from the magicians private notebook and memoranda, and with the assistance of his widow, Beatrice, and his friend and attorney, Bernard M. L. Ernst, then President of the Society of American Magicians, these books provide the most complete description available of Houdini's feats and how he performed them. In effect, these are the books that Houdini himself would have written, if only he had lived long enough. Here are the details of the spectacular illusions: Walking Through a Brick Wall, The Spanish Maiden Escape, The Milk Can Challenge, and many more such marvelous feats. Special topics covered in the first volume include rope ties and chain releases, underwater escapes, and box, trunk, barrel and coffin escapes. In learning about his escapes, the reader will also learn about Houdini himself. As Melbourne Christopher, America's foremost illusionist, writes: "It will soon become apparent to the reader that though Houdini was daring, he never took an uncalculated risk. He would not accept a challenge unless he was sure he could meet it. He was physically fit, an athlete and a strong swimmer . Yet his assistants were poised to rescue him if he didn't surface on schedule from an underwater box. A dozen less careful performers would have been drowned or seriously injured because they attempted this feat without sufficient knowledge or without taking necessary precautions. The second volume on Houdini's magic includes sections on impromptu tricks for close up performance; card tricks; slate tricks; message-reading and second-sight tricks; platform tricks; stage illusions and special effects (including a mid-air vanish and decapitation act); tricks that Houdini used to duplicate the effects of fraudulent mediums in his anti-spiritualistic campaigns and finally the notes Houdini made on the magic of the great Harry Kellar. All magicians, professional as well as amateur, will welcome the republication of these two classic books. WALTER GIBSON, after completing Houdini's Escapes and Houdini's Magic, turned to fiction writing, creating the famed mystery character of Lamont Cranston, also known as The Shadow. Under the pen name of Maxwell Grant, he wrote novel-length stories for The Shadow Magazine for more than fifteen years. These novels were adapted for The Shadow radio program and today they are being reprinted in paperback and hard-cover editions. Under his own name, Mr. Gibson has written The Master Magicians and many other books in the fields of magic, games and the occult.

Originally published as: SPELLBINDER: The Life of Harry Houdini. He was born Ehrich Weiss but, at an early age, he chose another name for himself. He wanted a name to suit his career of magic and entertainment and he chose a name that paid homage to one of the legendary magicians of all time: Robert Houdin. His illusions and escapes were more astonishing and more challenging than anyone had ever done before and he eclipsed the names of all other magicians as his fame reached around the world, made him famous and made him the most famous illusionist ever. Houdini disappeared through brick walls. He escaped from straitjackets and then straitjackets immersed in water. He performed escapes in public places and from jail cells in major cities--and the crowds flocked to his performances. Tom Lalicki tells Houdini's story with a fascinating mix of text and images, revealing the facts and juxtaposing them with startling images of a master entertainer performing masterfully and mysteriously, mesmerizing his audiences and mystifying experts with his skill and his invention.

A graphic novel account of the most death-defying jump Harry Houdini ever attempted as well as a behind-the-scenes look at how he prepared for and performed the escape.

Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research, but as exciting and dramatic as a good thriller, THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magician's long and circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend.

In Wonder Shows, Fred Nadis offers a colorful history of these traveling magicians, inventors, popular science lecturers, and other presenters of “miracle science” who revealed science and technology to the public in awe-inspiring fashion. The book provides an innovative synthesis of the history of performance with a wider study of culture, science, and religion from the antebellum period to the present.