Magic A Reference Guide

Subjects:

• Popular Culture » Popular Culture (General)

Reviews:

• An excellent and exhaustive expansion of Coleman's 20-page chapter in Volume 3 of the valuable Handbook of American Popular Culture. . . . Contents include a preface, introduction, chapters on history of magic, principles and appreciation, manuals on performance, relation to the other `arts' biographies, and appendixes of historical dates, periodicals, directories, research collections, and dealers. Chapters contain very thorough bibliographies and there are author subject indexes. It is impossible to imagine a more thorough guide to magic.
  —Choice
• We normally don't review books on conjuring, although the other kind of magic comes into our purview as a part of the irrational occult. However, once you know the secrets of the conjurer, you will realize that magic is totally rational. There is no supernatural involved. Therefore, this guide to the literature of magic is a guide to the rational in deception. People like to be fooled if it is understood to be in the name of entertainment, so it's ethical. This book consists of five narrative chapters, each dealing with the literature of a part of conjuring. . . this is a useful guide in trying to bring the magical literature together in a critically-evaluated way. There is no comparable work.
  —The American Rationalist

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Introduction
• Histories of Magic
• Appreciation: On the Principles of Psychology and Showmanship that Underlie the Performance of Magic
• The Creation of Illusion: Manuals in the Execution of Magic
• Magic in Relation to Other Arts
• Biographies and Autobiographies
• Appendixes: Selected Dates in the History of Conjuring; Magic Periodicals; Directories; Research Collections; Dealers
• Author Index
• Subject Index