Pace Richard Hatch, but your message suggests that Persi Diaconis was the first to bring Prevost to the attention of English-speaking magicians. That credit is too broad. It is, however, fair to say that although many knew of the book, few had much knowledge of its contents, given that to understand the text requires much more than a facility with French.
Richard Kaufman wrote:I don't believe that Mr. Diaconis would ever condescend to speak to an assembled group of magicians. I wasn't at the first History Conference, but it really seems so unlikely as to be virtually impossible.
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Not impossible. I was there. Persi's lecture was really good, an exhilarating peek at the largely unknown contents of that book. One slide in particular, along with its methodological implications, produced audible gasps.
Today, the Piper translation, annotated and published by Stephen Minch's Hermetic Press, has made this information easily accessible, but no less remarkable.