FIRST EDITION OF HOUDINI'S MAGICIAN AMONG THE SPIRITS, 1924, INSCRIBED BY HIM IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION

HOUDINI, Harry. A Magician Among the Spirits. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1924. Tall octavo, original gilt-stamped blue cloth, original dust jacket. $12,500.

First edition of Houdini's controversial attack on fraudulent mediums and psychics, in the rare original dust jacket, inscribed, "To Percy Hammond all good wishes. Houdini. May 12/24."

"Houdini, whose real name was Erik Weisz, was one of the most famous magicians and escapologists of all time… In this book, published in 1924, he described the mediums and psychics whom he revealed as fraudulent, exposing the tricks which had convinced many notable scientists and academics… The book is a fascinating account of superstition and gullibility" (Cambridge Library Collection). "No phase of Houdini's career created more controversy and furor than his attacks on fraudulent spirit mediums and psychic swindles… The wave of spiritualism that followed WWI had been fanned to the proportions of a tempest by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he toured America affirming his belief in spirit communication…. In taking the opposite side of the question, Houdini automatically plunged himself into something more than a controversy; namely, a full-fledged career" (Gibson & Young, Houdini on Magic, 121-22). Houdini described A Magician Among the Spirits "as his 'monument…. Once again the title had that brash irony that Houdini had made his trademark. A magician could never be among the spirits; the spirits were precisely what the magician dispelled" (Phillips, Houdini's Box). Copyright page with "First Edition" and code "C-Y" indicating publication in March 1924. With 16 photogravure plates, including frontispiece of Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and numerous in-text illustrations; with errata leaf supplied twice. Recipient Percy Hammond was a journalist and theater critic in Chicago and New York.

Book with mild toning and wear to spine, fragile dust jacket with chipping to spine head, one small tear and shallow chip to front panel, seam along front panel and spine splitting. Very desirable inscribed.