Description

Part of a limited-edition print run, this book was originally sold with its own padlock and key to protect curious magic-shop patrons from sneaking a glimpse at the superb material revealed inside. In this five-hundred-page first volume of the “locked book” trilogy, Goldston devotes chapters to both pocket and drawing-room tricks — what we’d now consider close-up and parlor effects — as well as stage illusions, quick-change methods and more. Special chapters are devoted to Houdini, who contributes a range of escapes, and Buatier de Kolta, whose ingenious Expanding Cube is explained in full. Goldston offers explanations of some of his contemporaries’ most celebrated effects, including Maskelyne’s revolutionary Floating Lady illusion, here credited to Harry Kellar. In his introduction, Professor Hoffmann writes that Exclusive Magical Secrets is the “latest and most up-to-date work” on conjuring ever published. Certainly, some of the finest magic of the late nineteenth century is contained behind the padlock that seals this book, and this is your chance to obtain the key — start reading today!