Magic's Most Prolific Writer

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Matthew Field
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Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 27th, 2012, 5:17 am

I had a great time yesterday at The Magic Circle's Collectors' Day, organized by Eddie Dawes and Peter Lane. I gave a 40 min PowerPoint-assisted talk on Magic's Most Prolific Writer, whom I believe to be the reclusive Karl Fulves. Anyone have a different opinion about this conclusion?

Margaret Steele gave a wonderful talk about Adelaide Herrmann, and had copies of her new book which includes the long-lost autobiography of the great magician. Trevor Dawson spoke about the magical side of Charles Dickens, Ian Barradell showed and demonstrated tricks from his collection of Tenyo material -- his is the second largest collection of Tenyo stuff in the world (right behing the collection of the Tenyo company itself), and Dean Arnold brought along the great grandson of Dr. Lynn, Geoffrey Bird, and spoke of the magical contributions of Dr. Lynn.

The Magic Circle Library had a ton of books for sale.

It was a fabulous day, even for this non-collector.

Matt Field

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby erdnasephile » May 27th, 2012, 7:10 am

Matt:

Your talk on the reclusive Mr. Fulves sounds really interesting. Do you think it might be made available for viewing at some point, or perhaps turned into a written article?

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Matthew Field
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 27th, 2012, 8:40 am

No plans at the present time. I've given versions of the talk three times in the UK.

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erdnasephile
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby erdnasephile » May 27th, 2012, 1:28 pm

Thanks, Matt.

Here's hoping that some visionary (LA Magic History Conference? Collectors Weekend?) might consider bringing you and your talk stateside.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Dustin Stinett » May 27th, 2012, 7:26 pm

The biennial Yankee Gatheringwhich is usually in early Novembershould be this year. With Matthew coming to the USA in October, perhaps he can stay a few extra weeks if the folks at NEMCA would like to see this talk.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 27th, 2012, 10:23 pm

Uncle Matt no stay.
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Matthew Field
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 28th, 2012, 4:55 am

Uncle Matt no stay.

Uncle Matt

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 28th, 2012, 10:04 am

There's an echo in this thread!
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Pete McCabe » May 28th, 2012, 1:38 pm

That's one way to become more prolific.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Brad Jeffers » May 28th, 2012, 3:03 pm

I always thought Magic's Most Prolific Writer was Walter Gibson.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 28th, 2012, 7:55 pm

The most prolific author who was also an amateur magician may have been Walter Gibson, or he may have been the most prolific writer in all subjects who was an amateur magician, or he may have been the most prolific writer of magic books for the public.

Take your pick.
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Brad Henderson » May 29th, 2012, 1:07 am

How are we defining prolific? Number of books, words, individual literary contributions?

I would have thought max maven a leading contender for the title, no?

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 29th, 2012, 5:11 am

Walter Gibson was a very prolific writer, especially if you include all his non-magic work (The Shadow et al) but check Genii Magazine's own Magicpedia to see 167 book and magazine titles (not issues!) by Karl Fulves.

Max is a very prolific creator of magic tricks, excellent ones, but no match for Karl.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Tom Ladshaw » May 29th, 2012, 11:04 am

I'd think Ian Adair would be somewhere near the top, also. 250+ books and booklets, hundreds of magazine articles, etc.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 29th, 2012, 1:03 pm

I mention Ian Adair in my talk. He claims 250+ items, but many are very slim pamphlets, and much of his stuff ("A New Trick Every Day" is his motto) is only tiny variations of what others, and he, have writtten before.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Jon Racherbaumer » May 29th, 2012, 1:52 pm

A FEW WORDS ABOUT PROLIFICACY

In general, prolificacy is about abundant production.

Historically, there are clearly a number of prolific producers of print media in the magic world.

That being said, shouldnt it be necessary to parse and more fully characterize what this abundance is and means? Shouldnt assayers also be prepared to quantify the size and number of these abundant productions?

Only then can one make comparisons and claims (bold or otherwise) that someone is the most prolific (by inches or miles) in any regard.

Later, if possible, then one can make value judgments about the merits and quality of whatever quantitative numbers have been ascertained and agreed upon. (Good luck here!)

So.

Perhaps the following QUANTITATIVE METRIC would be useful:

The analyzer must ascertain the

Number of words
Number of pages
Number of publications
Number of individual tricks by others
Number of individual tricks by the producer
Number of books
Number of articles
Number of photographs
Number of illustrations

Then

to get an accurate count or number, all of the productions would have to be scanned and then enumerated. As it stands, all one can do is intuit or make a guesstimate by examining the complete output. For example, one could examine Loraynes bound volumes of APOCALYPSE, Fulves bound volumes of PALLBEARERS, EPILOGUE, CHRONICLES (and other Fulvian pubs and booklets), Annemanns THE JINX, the two volumes of ALEX ELMSLEY, the complete files of GENII and MAGIC, and so on. Lets not overlook the huge file of ABRACADABRA (a weekly)

Meanwhile, there is no doubt in my mind that Karl Fulves has been a significant producer of CONTENTbut I dont think he has quantitatively produced more than other content-providers. Keep in mind that he, like myself and other producers of periodicals and books, has published and compiled the work of others. This is different thansay, Stewart Jameswho (thanks to Alan Slaight) published two huge volumes largely consisting of his own material. Marlos output also consists largely of his material. So does Max Mavens and Paul Harriss output.

It gets very tricky when you strictly examine word count.

For example, as Parade Editor of THE LINKING RING I put together, compiled, typed, and arranged 293 Parades over a decade and a half. Each Parade is the equivalent of a small booklet of 8-10 tricks, averaging about 12,000 words. That roughly translates into 2344 2930 tricks or over 3 million words. Thats a fairly large number.

If you add the number of words, tricks, and content I contributed to M-U-M, MAGIC, and GENII, you have another huge number. Thats also abundant production and doesnt include books and booklets.

Since Richard Kaufman took over GENII, his output of content has been enormous. So has Stan Allens. Lets not forget all of the books produced by Kaufman over the years, which clearly eclipse Fulves output.

All this is not meant to diminish or disparage Karl Fulves abundant output but to restore a sense of proportion and sensitize analyzers a means to make an accurate assessment.

By the way, I fully appreciate Karls legacy. It is indispensable and continues to exert a strong influence on my own work by providing stimulating material and counterpoint to the efforts. In fact, if it were not for PALLBEARERS and EPILOGUE KABBALA and HIEROPHANT might never have existed.

Meanwhile, future historians and critics will be the ones sorting out the QUALITATIVE nature this prolificacy.

P.S. I would have loved to have seen and heard Matts Power-Point presentation. He is one of our more significantly accomplished writers, editors, and pundits. More important, he caresreally caresabout our insular and mildly crazy world of magic. Also, his aesthetics are worth our attention and praise. He always nudges, probes, and scolds with a sly grin and a toast-in-waiting.

Onward

May 29, 2012

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Jonathan Townsend » May 29th, 2012, 2:29 pm

There was a character in a Washington Irving tale who judged cases by comparing weights rather than merits.

This generation already has both the knowledge and the tools to apply metrics to (our) technical literature.

Kudos to Matt for discussing Karl Fulves's contributions to our craft.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby MickNZ » May 29th, 2012, 8:34 pm

Are you speaking just about magicians who write books for magicians?

Not all of his books are written for magicians or mentalists, but search Amazon for "Richard Webster" and you may be surprised, he's written over 100 books and been translated into 29 languages.

He's sold more than ten million copies of his books.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 29th, 2012, 10:49 pm

We could turn this question on its head and ask this:

Who has written the least and been the most influential?

My bet is Erdnase.
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Jon Racherbaumer » May 30th, 2012, 1:02 am

Influential & Seminal:
Erdnase?
Houdini?
Hofzinser?
Tarbell?
Vernon?

Best sellers?
How about Lorayne on Memory?

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Matthew Field
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Matthew Field » May 30th, 2012, 6:25 am

I blush at my good friend Jon Racherbaumer's kind words about me.

I first raised my contention about Karl Fulves in 2009 at a talk I gave at the John Salisse Luncheon, a samll (12) gathering of rather distinguished collectors in London, and I asked for demurrals and other contenders. I gave it again at Eurocol in London last year, before an international group of scholars and collectors, again asking for feedback. In neither case were there are serious disagreements. Maybe they were just being nice to me.

Much of what Jon says is true but, all in all, I don't really think it matters what criteria one uses -- I believe Fulves wins the somewhat arbitrary title. The 167 titles in MagicPedia include books and magazine titles only -- not number of issues, nor contributions to other publications.

I raised, as other contenders, Mr. Racherbaumer and Mr. Marlo, as well as Henry Ridgely Evans, Max Maven, Jean Hugard, Harry Lorayne, Dr. A. M. Wilson (the Sphinx), Dr. Eddie Dawes and Ian Adair. I neglected to mention Walter Gibson, Stewart James and Richard Kaufman.

Karl's latest magazine, Prolix, has one more issue to go in the run of ten and currently runs to 630 pages, with another 72 in the accompanying 10 issues of "Xtra Credit."

My goal in this talk was really to raise the issue of so-called underground magic publications (including those of Jon), about which many (most?) collectors haven't the foggiest, and to draw attention to one of magic's treasures, and a most reclusive one at that, Karl Fulves. The title was my McGuffan to get people thinking.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby erdnasephile » May 30th, 2012, 6:33 am

Richard Kaufman wrote:We could turn this question on its head and ask this:

Who has written the least and been the most influential?

My bet is Erdnase.


I would agree with RK, but there are two other folks who I think if they had only written the thing they were best known for would also be in the disproportionately influential category.

Robert Houdin: his oft quoted aphorism is probably the most quoted description in magic (and perhaps the most often misquoted).

Rick Johnsson: his seminal "Too Perfect" essay kickstarted a debate that continues still (and it also inspired my favorite magic magazine article of all time).

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Bob Coyne » May 30th, 2012, 8:22 am

erdnasephile wrote:I would agree with RK, but there are two other folks who I think if they had only written the thing they were best known for would also be in the disproportionately influential category.

Robert Houdin: his oft quoted aphorism is probably the most quoted description in magic (and perhaps the most often misquoted).


You could also argue that part of Houdin's written legacy is his name itself -- leading to Houdini's appropriation of his name and the subsequent neologism "houdini".

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Jon Racherbaumer » May 30th, 2012, 9:28 am

A quick postscript to what Matt added to clarify matters: An aspect hinted at by Matt and not fully described is the "underground" aspect of the Fulvian periodicals. He, like Annemann and a few others before him, was a kind of outlier, a writer with a niche audience in mind and maybe (at first) 300-900 adherents...including the smaller cabal loosely known as the "underground." His publications also had a distinctive look, a prose style, and special "voice" that was different and unique...Readers could find arcane principles and off-beat approaches...and it was more cerebral...with early emphasis of mentalism, mathematics, and cards. Everything, including the titles of tricks and the type of paper used, were different. Besides, how could you resist a magazine titled THE PALLBEARERS REVIEW? Add the element of reclusiveness to the mix and you have all the ingredients.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Pete McCabe » May 30th, 2012, 3:51 pm

Did Scot write anything other than Discoverie? He might get my vote over Erdnase (in the influence/output category) just on the basis of longevity.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 30th, 2012, 4:41 pm

Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin wrote at least four books I can think of offhand:
Secrets of Conjuring and Magic
Secrets of the Greeks (Card Cheating)
Secrets of Stage Magic
Memoirs

That puts him way ahead of Erdnase in terms of output.
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Brad Jeffers » May 30th, 2012, 5:03 pm

For an insight into just how prolific a writer Walter Gibson was, read this ... http://www.mysticlightpress.com/index.php?page_id=131
Does anyone else mentioned, even come close to these numbers? If there is a caveat that the numbers be limited strictly to the writing of magic related items, then prehaps someone else heads the list. Otherwise, Magician + Writer + Prolic = Walter B. Gibson

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Richard Kaufman » May 30th, 2012, 5:15 pm

No, it has to be based strictly on Gibson's writings on magic.
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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Brad Henderson » May 30th, 2012, 6:19 pm

I'm ashamed to admit I know very little about Gibson - at least not as much as I should. I recall an article in magic or genii that was interesting. He would make an interesting topic for a history conference talk.

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Andrew Pinard » May 30th, 2012, 7:38 pm

Brad:

Thomas J. Shimeld (one of the SYM student leaders when I was involved with Assembly #1) wrote a wonderful book on Gibson with emphasis on The Shadow. T.J. performed with the Le Grand David show for eight years and was a student of Wendel Gibson, Walter's nephew. Wendel was the maker of quality close-up pads and trailblazer for the SYM. Gibbie and I shared a space in Nashua and his products served as my initial inventory when I owned New Hampshire's last magic shop.

T.J.s experience as a magician comes through in the writing and there is chunk of the text dedicated to Gibson's magic history.

You can find his book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Gibson-Sha ... =8-2-fkmr1

ajp

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Gordon Meyer » May 30th, 2012, 9:48 pm

With 24,695 posts (and counting) at the Magic Cafe, it's clearly Jonathan Townsend. :)


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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby mrgoat » June 6th, 2012, 9:00 am

Gordon Meyer wrote:With 24,695 posts (and counting) at the Magic Cafe, it's clearly Jonathan Townsend. :)


But to be fair, only 24,694 of them were understood by more than 2 people.

:)

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Re: Magic's Most Prolific Writer

Postby Jon Racherbaumer » June 6th, 2012, 12:17 pm

Several of my critics (echoing and paraphrasing a remark Truman Capote made regarding the works of Jack Kerouac) said this about my output: "Racherbaumer really hasn't written that much...but he sure has done a lot of TYPING!"
Another friend added: "If he typed with both hands and used more than one finger he would have typed even more words!"

It's nice to have friends!


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