Five Foot Shelf of Card Magic???

[Lisa Cousins]

I don't see any indication that the idea of a "Five Foot Shelf" was borrowed from elsewhere.

But then again, as we all know, "Originality is remembering what you heard, but forgetting where you heard it."

(I forget where I heard that.)

My guess is that Mr. Annemann was riffing on the idea of these volumes, which were likely looking impressive and gathering dust all over America at that time.

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Originally posted by Lisa Cousins:
But then again, as we all know, "Originality is remembering what you heard, but forgetting where you heard it."

(I forget where I heard that.)

Sounds like Einstein's quote...

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein

-Jim

[Tabman]

Lisa Cousins noted:
My guess is that Mr. Annemann was riffing on the idea of these volumes, which were likely looking impressive and gathering dust all over America at that time.

thanks for taking the time to check that out. it seems pretty obvious that ted annemann got the idea for the five foot shelf from this, the original five foot shelf. so, are there five feet of books???
-=tabman

[Jamy Ian Swiss]

I would suggest that one can "see" every indication that Annemann's inspiration was the Harvard Classics, by the simple fact that he used the phrase, "five foot shelf of books." In my lecture manuscript, "Theories," published in 1987 and updated several times since then (currently available as "Theories II"), there is a lengthy book list of 200 recommended titles, entitled "The Swiss Classics, a five-foot shelf of magic books." I believe the inspiration is obvious -- as was Annemann's. He would have known of the Harvard Classics.

[Bill Mullins]

Note that the Harvard Five Foot Shelf is online HERE

[Tabman]

Jamy Ian Swiss suggests:
. . . that one can "see" every indication that Annemann's inspiration was the Harvard Classics, by the simple fact that he used the phrase, "five foot shelf of books." In my lecture manuscript, "Theories,"

i dont remember him (annemann) mentioning the harvard classics in the jinx anywhere and being a fan of the "five foot shelf" thats the kind of detail that would have caught my mind. i don't doubt that the jinx readers in the day would have known about them and would have gotten ted's joke. it would be interesting to know if any of the jinx style was captured from this set of books????? what was his age when they were published??? 10 or 12 years old????

[Tabman]

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:
Note that the Harvard Five Foot Shelf is online HERE

Yee Haww!!! thanks for that. :whack:

"The Five-Foot Shelf, with its introductions, notes, guides to reading, and exhaustive indexes, may claim to constitute a reading course unparalleled in comprehensiveness and authority."

[Lisa Cousins]

My tape measure tells me that my five-foot shelf measures sixty-eight inches. So either there was a brow-slapping moment of "Oh CRAP - we forgot Machiavelli and that whole Voyage of the Beagle thing," or the editors were confident that the intellectually ambitious family members would continuously have several volumes off the shelf.

What year did Annemann propose the five foot shelf of magic books?

[Tabman]

Lisa Cousins reports:
. . . my five-foot shelf measures sixty-eight inches.

thanks for doing that. i wonder if we could safely say that a five foot shelf of books could actually measure out to be 68 inches. annemann came up with it in the 1930s or thereabouts. now i wonder if his five foot shelf was 68 inches???? or 58 inches like mine!
-=tabman

[Richard Lane]

If you were also curious about Dr. Eliot's original Five-Foot concept, the list and all of the texts are online.

http://www.bartleby.com/hc/

Here's the introduction to the 1930 edition.

http://www.mensetmanus.net/inspiration/ ... ndex.shtml

[Tabman]

thanks for the information on the harvard classics five foot shelf. im curious if any magicians actually have a five foot shelf or if its a metaphor. maybe ill make myself a nice oak five foot shelf and start putting my card magic books on it. what the heck??!?

[Gene B]

It would seem that with the passage of time, everything changes in value. Look at the cost of a loaf of bread; a gallon of gas!

A five foot shelf just does not seem apropos any longer!

My own library now consists of five 3 foot shelves for fifteen feet of books! This does not count manuscripts, lecture notes, softbounds, etc.

Videos and DVD's are a whole 'nother department!!

Perhaps, in keeping with these inflated times we should be looking at a much longer "shelf", especially in light of some of the recent but valuable tomes such as Berglas, Collected Almanac, Al Baker, etc.

Just my thoughts.

Gene

[Gene B]

Whoops! I just noticed it's a shelf of CARD magic---Well perhaps we change it to 10 feet!!

Gene

[Tabman]

thanks to the contributors to this thread: Pete Biro, Steve Vaught, Noah Levine, Jeff Haas, Richard Hart, Chris Aguilar, Chris Wasshuber, Friday, Dave Shepherd, Jim Maloney, David Groves, Jonathan Townsend, Mark Jens, pchosse, Jon Racherbaumer, Ryan Matney, Bob Kentner, Bill McFadden, Bill McFadden, Lisa Cousins, Jamy Ian Swiss, Bill Mullins, Richard Lane and Gene B ive got a pretty good start on updating my card magic library. thank you all very much for your consideration.

here's the list as it stands:

Royal Road to Card Magic
Giobbi Course
Expert Card Technique
Expert At The Card Table
The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings
21st Century Card Magic
Miracles with Cards
The Complete Works of Derek Dingle
Jennings 67
Stars of Magic
Vernon Inner Card Trilogy
Vernon's Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic
By Forces Unseen
Card Fictions
Paul Curry World's Beyond
The Card classics of Ken Krenzel
everything by Ortiz, Cummins, and Bannon.
Hilliard's Greater Magic
Goldstein's Focus
Magician Nightly
the Magic of Eddie Fechter by Jerry Mentzer
The Magic of Matt Schulien by Phillip Willmarth
Bannon's Impossibilia and Smoke and Mirrors
Close's Workers series
and Closely Guarded Secrets
Kaufman's Cardmagic
Englund's Gaffed to the Hilt
ALL of Simon Aronson's books & pamphlets
The Card Magic of Edward G. Brown by Trevor Hall
Simon Says and Son of Simon Says by Simon Lovell
Buckley's Card Control
Revolutionary Card Technique by Ed Marlo
Close Up Card Magic by Harry Lorayne
Any by Racherbaumer
Any by Fulves (Chronicles, Pallbearer's, etc.)
Any with Dai Vernon in the Title
Any with Slydini in the Title
Any with Ken Brooke in the Title
Any with Robert Harbin in the Title
Any with Billy McComb in the the Title
Any with Karrell Fox in the Title
Most written by Lewis Ganson
Tarbell Course
Greater Magic
Complete Mike Rogers
Workers series
The Commercial Magic of J.C. Wagner
The five Card College volumes by Roberto Giobbi
Carneycopia
The Book of Secrets by John Carney
Jennings '67 by Richard Kaufman
the Hofzinser books
the Al Baker book
all the Ron Bauer Private Studies
Vernon's ULTIMATE CARD SECRETS
Hartman's Cardcraft
Aftercraft
Trickery Treats.
More Ed Marlo (i.e. The Cardician, MINT Vol.1)
The Complete Walton
The Collected Almanac, Kaufman ed.
Secrets Draun From Underground, Kaufman
Solomon's Mind, Burger
Pit Hartling's "Card Fictions"?
Variations, Earl Nelson
Versatile Card Magic, Frank Simon
frank garcia's red book, million dollar
frank garcia's green book, super subtle
Wesley James's "Enchantments, Vol. 1"
"Drawing Room Deceptions" by Guy Hollingworth

ill try to organize this a little better, check for duplicates, etc.

but i wanted to say thanks again,
-=tabman

[Guest]

-=tabman
Tomorrow, when I see other posts on other forums asking which books are the best, I'm going to quietly chuckle to myself and remember your list.
Not only do you have the most comprehensive list of works I've ever seen, you also have your work cut out for you. Have fun!

Also...even though Alex Elmsley's books didn't make your list, I hope you enjoy them anyway...perhaps you could consider building two five-foot shelves.

Uh-oh...here we go again...forget I said that, please... :rolleyes:

...Patrick

[Richard Lane]

What price an education?

Ignoring the "any" and "all" & "most," a very cursory, no comparison shopping search of the titles gives you a starting price of $2432.33, before postage or any tax.

This also ignores a number of the out of print items. The Edward Brown book can cost more than the Tarbell or Giobbi series. So could Cardcraft.

Lets say there are 75 titles there. If each book has the width of By Forces Unseen or Cardshark, you'd be over by a four and a quarter feet.

Now, mutliply number of books by the time it takes to read...

[Tabman]

friday, you and richard both make excellent points, thank you. ill be adding at least elmsley vol 1 since im working my way through that now a few evenings a week. hopefully the genii forum card book list can be refined somewhat as i look it over and start working with it and get it down to 60 inches!!!! thanks again to the genii forum!!!! if theres anything ive left out please write.
-=tabman

[Guest]

Of the list you have, I weeded out some things and got it down to the five feet you asked for. The following are my selections from the list you have:

Royal Road to Card Magic
Giobbi Course
Expert Card Technique
Expert At The Card Table
The Complete Works of Derek Dingle
Stars of Magic
Vernon Inner Card Trilogy
Vernon's Ultimate Secrets of Card Magic
By Forces Unseen
Everything by Ortiz
Hilliard's Greater Magic
Magician Nightly
The Magic of Eddie Fechter by Jerry Mentzer
The Magic of Matt Schulien by Phillip Willmarth
Bannon's Impossibilia and Smoke and Mirrors
Close's Workers series
Closely Guarded Secrets
The Card Magic of Edward G. Brown by Trevor Hall
Simon Says and Son of Simon Says by Simon Lovell
Buckley's Card Control
Revolutionary Card Technique by Ed Marlo
Close Up Card Magic by Harry Lorayne
Any by Racherbaumer
Any by Fulves (Chronicles, Pallbearer's, etc.)
Any with Dai Vernon in the Title
Any with Slydini in the Title
Any with Ken Brooke in the Title
Any with Billy McComb in the the Title
Most written by Lewis Ganson
Tarbell Course
Complete Mike Rogers
The Commercial Magic of J.C. Wagner
The Hofzinser books
The Al Baker book
All the Ron Bauer Private Studies
More Ed Marlo (i.e. The Cardician, MINT Vol.1)
The Complete Walton
The Collected Almanac, Kaufman ed.
Variations, Earl Nelson
Versatile Card Magic, Frank Simon
"Drawing Room Deceptions" by Guy Hollingworth

I'll try to organize this a little better, check for duplicates, etc.

but I wanted to say thanks again,
-=tabman [/QB]

Best, PSC

[Tabman]

pchosse told tabman:
Of the list you have, I weeded out some things and got it down to the five feet you asked for.

looks good. ill be looking it over and making a decision on which ones to get first. my favorite booksellers whould be expecting an email from me soon!!! thanks for your help in weeding it down.
-=tabman

[Lisa Cousins]

I would suggest making a priority of the Ernest Earick "By Forces Unseen," even though absolutely everything in it is a crazy pipe dream. It's such enjoyable science fiction.

[Guest]

I believe the pruning shears of the esteemed Mr. Chosse may indeed have slipped. The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings should certainly displace my own quirky contribution on such a shelf.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Lisa Cousins:
I would suggest making a priority of the Ernest Earick "By Forces Unseen," even though absolutely everything in it is a crazy pipe dream. It's such enjoyable science fiction.

I disagree, Lisa. Although I'm not going to suggest that I can perform the material myself, Denis Behr performs some of it flawlessly, as does Ernie, I'm sure (although I've never seen him).

Here are a few videos of Denis performing the Earick material.

" Claptrap "

" House Guest "

" JackSyna(ps)ces "

Cameron

[Guest]

Originally posted by Ernest Earick:
I believe the pruning shears of the esteemed Mr. Chosse may indeed have slipped. The Classic Magic of Larry Jennings should certainly displace my own quirky contribution on such a shelf.

No slip, the shears were sharpened before any pruning took place...

Best, PSC

[Jonathan Townsend]

Perhaps we need an alcove to house the basics before the specialty stuff.

Somewhere nice for books like Discoverie of Witchcraft, Greater Magic, The Tarbell Course etc.

Then the card shelf can have a full five feet of card stuff.

Does the Alex Elmsley stuff have a place? ***
** oops, Is there room for the Elmsley stuff. IMHO he's one of the field's better thinkers.

You are setting up a coin shelf below that, right?

Perhaps a similar shelf for misc closeup?

What is the distinguishes Almanac and Apocalypse contents for card magic?

BTW, Bravo Denis! Wonderful videos. Great taste in material.

[Guest]

Mr. Chosse would you mind sharing your reasons for leaving Jennings off the list? Just curious.

Noah Levine

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Originally posted by Jonathan Townsend:
You are setting up a coin shelf below that, right?

Unfortunately, a five foot shelf of coin magic would be largely under-stocked, I think.

-Jim

[Guest]

Originally posted by Jim Maloney:

Originally posted by Jonathan Townsend:
[b]You are setting up a coin shelf below that, right?

Unfortunately, a five foot shelf of coin magic would be largely under-stocked, I think.

-Jim [/b]

Bobo - New Modern Coin Magic
Ramsay - the Trilogy
Farelli - Coin Magic
Futagawa - Introduction to Coin Magic
Roth - Coin Magic
Kaufman - Coin Magic
Kort - Kort
Marlo - Bullseye Coin Tricks, Convincing Coin Magic
Vernon - Book of Magic
Bertram - both Books
Robert-Houdin - Secrets of Conjuring and Magic
Sachs - Slieght of Hand
Stars of Magic
Mohammed Bey - Okito Coin Box
Ellison Poland WROM and Addenda
Mike Borstiens Money Magic Series
(this is with bills, but seems to fit the theme of money magic)
Ganson - Art of Closeup Magic 1&2, and Routined Manipulation Series
Slydini books
The Downs books
Scotty York material


This is a start of books that deal primarily with, or have a significant portion of thier contents devoted to, magic with coins...

Since this is off the top of my head, I'm sure I've missed things. There are many small pamphlets that deserve mention. For instance, Scotty York on Coins is an important cotribution to the literature. I know I could easily develop a five foot shelf, but this is all must-have stuff. Not sure how it fills out a shelf, but clearly we could come up with five feet without too much trouble...

Best, PSC

[Tabman]

Lisa Cousins suggests:
. . . making a priority of the Ernest Earick "By Forces Unseen".

ok, thanks for the suggestion. since it made the list ill give it a shot even though im not familiar with mr earick i do know mr minch from years ago and know he writes very well. i just placed an order with hatch and randall for it. im looking forward to seeing and learning some new material. thanks again.

[Lisa Cousins]

An observant Forumite might notice my location at the bottom of my posts, and compare that with Ernest Earick's, and perceive that I was teasing a friend. I have witnessed and can attest that Ernie can do that stuff, so when you factor in Denis Behr, you get a minimum of two guys. I myself can do "Covered Flippant" as much as 75% of the time, and it is so surprising and magical when it works. The trouble with it is that when it fails, the cards go flying all over the place and I spend more time retrieving cards from just-out-of-reach places than I do practicing the move.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by Lisa Cousins:
An observant Forumite might notice ...

Yes, and after checking Denis's videos... left it to coincidence or good taste.

Most impressive.

[John Pezzullo]

Paul,

If my memory serves me correctly, "Convincing Coin Magic" was written by Victor Farelli, and the two Ed Marlo titles should be "Bullseye Coin Tricks" and "Coining Magic".

[Jonathan Townsend]

Originally posted by John Pezzullo:
Paul,

If my memory serves me correctly, "Convincing Coin Magic" was written by Victor Farelli, and the two Ed Marlo titles should be "Bullseye Coin Tricks" and "Coining Magic".

The book on David Roth's magic, Expert Coin Magic was written by Richard Kaufman.

For better and worse, we could add Totally Out of Control to the list of books with significant coin material. The backclip recovery, the coins across, the use of stic-tac on coins and the one handed vanish are quite useful. Might also want to add the Kurtz book, as it has great routining.

[Guest]

Right on the titles, John. I was writing from memory, in the middle of a very boring business meeting, couldn't check my shelves...

Best, PSC

[Tabman]

just got the first addition to my new five foot shelf of card magic _by forces unseen_ which i ordered YESTERDAY from richard hatch down in texas. holy smoke!!! their new shop must be next to the humble post office. ill try to get a new book every few weeks until ive got them all. whats next i wonder??? those _card college_ books look interesting not to mention a couple of old books on ebay i just bid on. also, not on the list is the new genii publication the _jn hillard lost notebooks_. hay, you guys really are the best and i appreciate your feedback. magic is fun!!!
-=tabman

[Tabman]

just got the first addition to my new five foot shelf of card magic _by forces unseen_ which i ordered YESTERDAY from richard hatch down in texas.

ive spent the past two days reviewing the book and have zeroed in on "thought manifest" as an effect that ill add to my "act." i can see why this book was suggested for the five foot shelf of card magic. i hear that the author will be at fechters this year. it would worth a trip to buffalo to see him perform. -=tabman

[Danny Archer]

Close-up Card Magic by Harry Lorayne seems to have been overlooked ...

[BlueEyed Videot]

Silly me, I neglected to mention files of Ibidem and Pabular! How could I be so forgetful!

Please excuse the oversight, Tabby.

[Tabman]

thanks richard. i printed the list out and have it tacked on the wall in my office here. remember back on the "old days" when we were all on MAGIC! BBS??? i bought a copy of FOCUS from Phil when it came out and he was kind enough to autograph it to me "to tabby, across the great computer network!" i was so blown away that i put it up and since it made the list i pulled it out a few days ago. what a great book. im glad i waited to read it. im already working on the first two effects and am looking forward to reading more. what a great book!!!