Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic
Posted: May 1st, 2017, 10:47 am
Over the weekend I obtained a book that I never had before, but heard of, Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic. It is packed with very old magic from the day when magicians could cut or drill holes in the stage to make tricks work. Many forerunners of tricks we know better now such as 2 Card Monte and many more.
From the dates I've seen online, I think Dunninger was already dead. And does anyone know who Hugo Gernsback was who published.
Was the contents originally a newsletter later bound like Hugard's Magic Monthly or the like ? These are questions going through my mind.
I had a book as a kid, illustrated by a Bob Dunn that seems to have taken tricks from the must be earlier work and re-told and re-illustrated (and the whole thing edited down to get rid of so many tricks using holes in the stage.
I'm wondering if Dunninger was that into magic, or was he just lending his name. (We tend to think of Dunninger as a Mentalist) I'm always almost shocked when I learn of a book I didn't know about after being pretty involved in the field of study this long.
From the dates I've seen online, I think Dunninger was already dead. And does anyone know who Hugo Gernsback was who published.
Was the contents originally a newsletter later bound like Hugard's Magic Monthly or the like ? These are questions going through my mind.
I had a book as a kid, illustrated by a Bob Dunn that seems to have taken tricks from the must be earlier work and re-told and re-illustrated (and the whole thing edited down to get rid of so many tricks using holes in the stage.
I'm wondering if Dunninger was that into magic, or was he just lending his name. (We tend to think of Dunninger as a Mentalist) I'm always almost shocked when I learn of a book I didn't know about after being pretty involved in the field of study this long.