$16,000
Houdini, Harry. A Magician Among the Spirits original manuscript. Likely a second or third draft of Houdini’s last book exposing and explaining the history of modern spiritualism and the methods used to defraud the public by an array of underhanded individuals who claimed an ability to communicate with the dead. Included here are original typescripts and carbons of over half of the book, including the following chapters: “Introduction” and a synopsis, “The Fox Sisters,” “The Davenport Brothers,” “Odelia Diss Debarr,” “Palladino,” “Slate Writing,” “Spirit Photography,” “Ectoplasm,” “Investigations – Wise & Otherwise,” and “Exposé of Methods.” Many chapters include a one- or two-page summary. Hundreds of handmade corrections in pencil and ink are scattered throughout, and include considerable underlining, strike-throughs of entire paragraphs, and corrections. Dozens of pasted-in additions, mostly in the form of footnotes, have been added to the original 4to pages. Some corrections likely in the hand of Houdini himself, though the bulk of the holographic notes are most likely in the hand of Oscar Teale, a well-known magician and author in his own right, and Houdini’s secretary and aide in investigating the spiritualists and their methods. A Magician Among the Spirits was published in 1924. However, based on a comparison of the text in these pages, the manuscript more closely reflects a revised edition Houdini was preparing at the time of his death, as the prose more closely matc
Auctioneer:
Potter & Potter
Date:
2014-08-23
