WOW Blog Tour: Houdini’s Fabulous Magic by Walter B Gibson and Morris N Young

Posted on April 2, 2023 inBlog Tour, Review

Today I am helping end the WOW! Women on Writing Blog Tour for Houdini’s Fabulous Magic! I will be sharing my review and will be doing a giveaway of an e-book copy! This one was re-released this past January.

Book Description:

Incredible escapes, fantastic sleight-of-hand-Houdini’s most challenging performances are dramatically portrayed in Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. Walter Gibson, co-author, was in close touch with Harry Houdini for a number of years before his death and worked with the master magician in preparing material for the book. It is with the aid of Houdini’s own scrapbooks and notes that this book was written.

The spectacular highlights of Houdini’s career are described-and explained-here. Included are the famous escapes: escapes from a padlocked milk can filled with water; from locked jail cells; from a water-filled Chinese torture cell while suspended upside down; from packing cases weighted under water. Again, in this book, Houdini walks through a brick wall, vanishes a 10,000-pound elephant and is buried alive. Once more, Houdini and his wife Bessie mysteriously exchange places in a locked trunk-in three seconds!

And Houdini the man is not ignored. His impact on the world in the early years of the twentieth century was enormous. He was a public hero who, in his own way, helped sweep out the cobwebs of nineteenth-century thinking. While doing so, he distinguished himself as a patriot, writer, collector of magic, aviator, movie idol, philanthropist, and crusader against fraudulent spiritualistic practices.

This is a technical manual for magicians, complete with illustrations and diagrams, but it is also an astute analysis of the best of Houdini’s magic and a readable biography of a man who turned himself into a legend. It is a book for would-be conjurers, for professional necromancers, for those curious about the methods and means of one of the most enchanting men of the previous century.

Purchase a copy of Houdini’s Fabulous Magic on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list. **Don’t forget my giveaway!**

Houdini’s Fabulous Magic
Authors:
Walter B. Gibson
Morris N. Young
Originally Published: October 1, 1976
Re-published: January 17, 2023
249 Pages

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: March 12-14, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

THIS is the book to read if you are a fan of magic or Harry Houdini! It is a re-release of a much older version of the book. We have chapters and each are dedicated to one particular trick. We learn just how Houdini performed each trick in detail and it was never simple!  There are drawings, photos and images that enhance each chapter.  There is also a chapter that tells us about Houdini’s life.

At times it could be a bit dry, but it was still intriguing to learn things! Some of the chapters are his box escapes, the mailbag escape, the straitjacket escape, and of course the one everyone knows and also what the cover of the book showcases: the water torture cell. 

This is a book you could inhale quickly or just take your time learning with each chapter, depending on your interest in each trick that Houdini performed. I have a kindle paperwhite, so I feel I missed out with the pictures and illustrations. If you think you may want to read this book, buy a physical copy!

Many thanks to Wow! Women on Writing for letting me end the blog tour and share my review!

About the Authors:

Walter B. Gibson (1897-1985)

Walter, a graduate of Colgate University, was a prolific writer including The Shadow novels under his pen name Maxwell Grant. For a time he was Houdini’s personal secretary. Following Houdini’s death, the attorney for the estate permitted Walter to examine many of Houdini’s private scrapbooks and notes from which Gibson wrote Houdini’s Magic and Houdini’s Escapes. Houdini’s scrapbooks, papers and other documents form the background for Houdini’s Fabulous Magic. Also a magician, Walter toured with and wrote for magicians such as Blackstone (Sr.), Thurston and Raymond. He was a member of the Mystery Writers of America, the American Society for Psychical Research, the Magician’s Guild of America and the Magician’s Club of London.

Morris N. Young, M.D. (1909-2002)

Morris, a graduate of M.I.T., Harvard and Columbia University was Director of Ophthalmology at Beekman Downtown Hospital in New York City. Aside from his numerous professional memberships, he was a member of the Society of American Magicians (to which Houdini had helped him join as a young man), the International Brotherhood of Magicians and a member of the Inner Circle of the Magic Circle (London). He was a founder of the Magic Collectors Association including their publication MAGICOL. Along with his wife Chesley, he established the largest private holdings on memory and mnemonics which now resides at the University of San Marino. Along with his friend John McManus, in 1955 they established the McManus-Young Collections at the Library of Congress, The University of Texas, Austin and the University of California in Berkeley.  Morris’ other book publications include Hobby Magic, Houdini on Magic (with Walter Gibson), Presto Prestige, Bibliography of Memory, How To Develop An Exceptional Memory (with Walter Gibson), The Complete Guide to Science Fair Competition (with John Stolzfus) and Radio Music Live (with John Stolzfus).

You can visit the website created by Morris N. Young’s children, Charles C. Young and Cheryl L. Young by clicking here.

***GIVEAWAY!!!***

I am doing a giveaway of a e-book copy of the book! I’ll be running the giveaway through both my Facebook and Instagram accounts, so you can enter twice! You won’t have to do much, I promise! And if you win you can learn how Houdini performed!

Giveaway will run through Tuesday the 4th at midnight:

 

CLICK HERE to go to Instagram to enter!!

 

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