Another Houdini mystery? Or a bit of Ed Saint malarkly? Let us know if you've spotted any mysterious markings in any Houdini-owned books you might be fortunate enough to have.
Below is Houdini's copy of Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain (1635) in the Library of Congress. Certainly one of his rarest books. If you click the image you can see every page. I've paged through it and found no obvious marks.
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Thanks to Eric Colleary for providing the LOC link. Eric is currently organizing an exhibition and writing a book on Houdini's Library for the Harry Ransom Center.
I wonder how Saint got that information. When he arrived on the scene in the early 1930s, Bess didn't have the books. They were already in the LoC and a few more in Kendall's collection. Bess might have told Saint, but she didn't seem interested in that side of HH's life.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very good point.
DeleteAbsolutely! Most of HH's collection was probably crap to her. She only kept a few iconic cuffs and that silver punch bowl. The rest she disposed of like the sale to Kendall, or went to wherever HH willed it to like Hardeen and the LoC.
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