The Genii Forum

I was excited to see that Tom Sawyer has announced on his Erdnase blog that his next work will be a substantial book about Edwin T. Sachs, the author of Sleight of Hand.

Given how much influence Sachs exerted on magic in general--and how his work continues to be acknowledged by magicians today--this will be an important work on the history of conjuring. It should also break much of the ice that has formed around Sachs as an individual, and hopefully give us a portrait of one of magic's great thinkers. I suspect that this will be a defining work of magic history.

Sawyer says "It seems highly strange to me that so little information about [Sachs] is readily available. Apart from the portrait of him in Stanyon’s Magic (June 1901), and one other photo where you can barely be certain who is who, I don’t know of any photographs of him."

The Stanyon's photo is the one in his magicpedia article.

I wonder if he knows of this photo.

Marty, thank you for your kind remarks. They are much appreciated!

Bill, yes, I already knew about that.

Your post doesn't indicate that your quotation was from a post I had originally written for a different blog. When I re-posted it, I indicated that I had written the post more than four years ago.

--Tom Sawyer

Congrats on the research project.

Jon, thank you! --Tom

Tom,
This sounds terrific, and please mark me down as a certain buyer.
Hope to see you Wednesday evening; it's going to be a full house!
Dustin

Dustin, thanks!

(And I am planning to be at the event Wednesday evening. See you there!)

--Tom

I expect to send the book to the printer in the fairly near future. (Likely title: The Late Mr. Edwin T. Sachs.) I am not accepting orders yet. Nonetheless, anyone who might be even remotely interested in purchasng a copy should probably consider visiting my S.W. Erdnase blog soon.

--Tom Sawyer

Mr. Theodore L. DeLand, Jr. has purchased a copy of Mr. Sawyer's book on Sachs, and a higher recommendation I cannot imagine.

Given that Mr. Deland has been deceased for 84 years, I hope his check clears!

Richard, thank you for the kind words!

Bill, that is a detail which I am not concerned about.

This sounds great - please put me down for a copy.
I've also emailed you.

Thanks, Tom!

Hi All,

In the course of reviewing the current layout of my forthcoming book on Sachs, I got to pondering a certain something that Sachs said, which I quote in the book.

Specifically, in The Bazaar, back in 1877 (not as part of the serialization of Sleight of Hand but in reply to correspondence), Sachs said in part:

It is never advisable to try to palm a number of coins single-handed by any method whatever, success is too doubtful.

And indeed, in the first edition, in Chapter I (Palming), Sachs describes four methods: “The Palm Proper,” “The Finger Palm” (“Field’s palm”), “The Thumb Palm,” and “The Reverse Palm.” It appears that none of these descriptions contemplate the palming of multiple coins. That’s consistent with the quotation above.

However, the “Palming” chapter in the second edition (first published in 1885) is somewhat different. Sachs adds a fifth method, which becomes the new “Method 4.” (In the Fleming version, this is called “The Thumb Grip.”)

The interesting thing about Sachs’s description of this Method 4 is Sachs’s mention of the palming of multiple coins:

Two, three, and four coins may be palmed by the first method, but the method shown at Fig. 5 is the safer.

So, I suppose that sometime between his note in 1877 and the publication of the second edition, Sachs changed his view somewhat regarding the palming of multiple coins.

The third edition (first published in 1900) adds a description of the back palm (under Method 5).

I thought this little evolution was kind of interesting.

Thanks to all of you who have expressed an interest in the Sachs book! I’m still encouraging people who might be interested, and who have not already let me know, to go to my Erdnase blog, which has some pertinent information.

--Tom Sawyer

Perhaps in the interim Sacks saw someone palm multiple coins and changed his mind!

Hi All,

This is a little update on the expressions of interest I have received regarding my forthcoming book on Edwin T. Sachs (author of Sleight of Hand).

Earlier in this thread, I asked for a showing of interest by those who might be interested in purchasing a copy of the book.

Probably some of you would be interested in knowing approximately how many people I heard from regarding the book, based on this thread and based on other factors.

To the best of my reckoning, about 23 people have contacted me because of this thread, and about 9 people have contacted me apart from this thread (though this thread was probably somewhat responsible for some of those). These figures are not necessarily precise, but they should be fairly close.

I don’t know whether that is considered (a) admirable, (b) pathetic, or (c) something else.

But “thank you” to those who have contacted me!

If you haven’t contacted me, I can’t guarantee that there will be enough copies of the first printing. (However, I DO hope that there will be future printings.)

It’s not too late yet to contact me regarding the first printing, but soon it will be. If you feel like contacting me about this, you can use this email address:

EdwinSachsBook@gmail.com

Thank you!

--Tom Sawyer

Richard just did what I was about to do: Facebook. I shared his post on my page as well as the Academy of Magical Arts page.

Dustin, I don't quite know what to say!

That is very kind of both you and Richard.

--Tom

No need to say anything. Just keep producing great books!

Dustin, thank you so much. --Tom

Tom, let me know if you see a little boost in your Sachs' book sales.

Hi Tom!
Sent you an email, as well, but please count me in. Looking forward to it!

Richard, I intend to report back in two or three days.

Evan, thanks!

It is true that he was really S.H. Caste?

Hi All,

This is my promised report on additional communications I have received based on the recent added publicity my E.T. Sachs book has received on this thread and elsewhere during the past two days.

Again, I very much appreciate what Richard Kaufman and Dustin Stinett have done in this regard. While I am at it, I should also say thanks to Marty Demarest for starting this thread in the first place and thus lending credibility to the project at the start, back in February.

Numbers below may not be precise, but they should be at least quite close.

As of now, I have heard from an additional 18 people regarding the Sachs book. So, within the past 48 hours the total went from 32 to 50!

I heard from 17 of the additional 18 during the first 22 hours or so of that 48-hour period. (In the subsequent 26 hours or so, just one.)

Understandably, this represents a relatively small percentage of the people who visited my Erdnase blog during this period. On December 9, I believe the blog nearly doubled the previous maximum one-day total of views!

--Tom Sawyer

The Genii can sometimes do good things.

Richard, indeed, and again, thank you.

Hi All,

This is an update regarding my book on Edwin T. Sachs (titled The Late Mr. Edwin T. Sachs). I am now in possession of the first printing. (You can see a couple of images of it on my Erdnase blog.) I hope to start shipping the Sachs book on or about March 22 to those who have pre-ordered.

Some of you might be interested to know that as of this moment, I have received orders for very close to 40 copies. Thank you to all who have ordered. I appreciate it very much.

Here is a factoid you might want to take notice of. As I have said on my Erdnase blog, the mere fact that someone has ordered a book from me does NOT by itself mean that I will be sending future marketing emails to that person. (I would love to be able to do that, but for various reasons I do not feel comfortable doing that.) At the moment, probably the best way to learn a little about my future projects is to visit my Erdnase blog from time to time.

At present, I do have plans for three separate books dealing heavily with Professor Hoffmann (Angelo J. Lewis). One is a general work, and one is kind of a study of Lewis in connection with the non-magic literary world, and one is a close look at his card-game booklets. (That’s all subject to change, but these are not pipe dreams. I have already done most of the work.)

Tom Sawyer