Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic

London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. -----287 pages filled with colour and b & w photos and illustrations, errant pen mark on top edge (minor), dust jacket is in Very Good Plus condition with minor edge wear. "The art of conjuring is arguably the earliest recorded theratrical skill: its practitioners have variously-been called necromancer, wizard, alchemist, charlatan, jongleur and magician. The popular entertainer, Paul Daniels, has today revolutionised ths most spellbinding of performing arts. While not a full-dress academic history of magic, it conveys something that other works have played down: the personalities of those who people that history, with vivid accounts of what they actually did in performance, wheather on stage or in an informal situation. Here you will discover how a sexual scandal may have let to the first production of a rabbit from a hat; how the legendary French magician, Robert-Houdin, anticipated science with his inventive skills & quelled an Algerian rebellion in the process; how Houdini was almost killed by arsenical fumes in a sea-moster's belly; how Churchill allowed magic to interrupt parliamentary business during darkest hours of war. Lavishly illustrated from the personal collections of John Fisher & Paul Daniels, the book provides a unique appreciation of the great performers of magic, enhancing as well as preserving their illusions, with details of actual performances, form earlies known tricks to the fiendishly up-to-date television sorcery of Daniels himself." Contents include: In the Beginning: a Cup and a Ball / A Magician in the Making / Funny Way to be a Magician: The Man Who Made Ice Famous / The Human Haipin / The Magical Comedian / The Humorous Trickster / One of the Better, Cheaper Acts / A Magical Crusade / 'Nobody Wins in the Bunco Booth' / Extra-sensory Deception / The Magician as National Figure / The House of Cards / Come a Little Closer / England's Home of Mystery / 'All Done by Kindness' / Some Great Illusionists / The Selbit Mysteries / A Whirlwind of Wizardry / 'Sim Sala Bim!' / Some Suave Deceivers / The Menagerie of Magic / The Magical Farmyard / Conjuring at the House of Commons / A Magician's Best Friend / The Master Phantasist / 'It's All Their Own Invention' / Magic for a Special Occacion / The Ziegfelds of Magic / The Enigma of Chung Ling Soo / Houndini - the Magician as Mythical Figure / Myth or Magic? / Epilogue / index. Any image directly beside this listing is the actual book and not a stock photo. First Edition 1st Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good Plus/Very Good Plus. 4to - over 9¾" - 12".