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.
DeleteWalter B Gibson had access to HHs library, and in the early novels of The Shadow he frequently inserted details from his knowledge of the World of Magic and escapology, some unique exclusively to HH like the Gimmick X. In “Black Master” (1932) The Shadow is said to mark his messages for bona fides. Additionally, the assumption I’m reading hear is that the marks are visible to the naked eye. HH employed “scientific detection”, including use of Dictographs for audio surveillance, disguises, etc. The Scientific American crew made use of UV light for busting fraudulent spiritualists. It is not much of a stretch to imagine HH using UV ink, if only for a time, in select circumstances to mark items
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