I was just able to purchase “Greater Magic” By John Northern Hilliard, Illustrated by; Harlan Tarbell, Carl Waring Jones Minneapolis, Red Hardcover- good shape at what I thought was a great price of $22.00 shipping included. Then I see the Kauffman Edition selling for $145 and up, way up.


What is the big difference, is the information in the new book better or is like the some of the “NEW TRICKS FOR SALE” that are just slight (no pun intended) changes to old tricks with new and improved catch phrase names?

These are similar books. In the long run, your earlier copy may have more collectors value than the more recent one.

For many years, Greater Magic was almost unobtainable. When a copy came to market, it fetched a price of $185 to $250, or more. One of the estates, either Jones or Hilliard, had objected to having it reprinted. Then, Richard Kaufman managed to get permission to republish it, and he got hold of the notebooks of John Northern Hilliard. He added a section about 300 pages long that has some notes and other information not found in the original book.

Much of this has to do with the selection of the material that was used in the original work. There is also some historical data.

You did fine getting a copy of this for such a low price.