Red cloth with gilt stamping on front cover and spine. Portrait frontispiece of Houdini, illustrated, 110 pages. Previous owner’s bookplate glued to the back of the front cover, mild toning to pages, else in very good condition. Considered by Houdini to be his "monument" and "the first real history of magic and magicians," this work reproduces rare playbills from Houdini's own collection, and chronicles not only the career of Robert-Houdin, but casts light on the lives and work of many of his contemporary conjurers of the nineteenth century and before.
