Some of my favorite magic books were written by British magician Will Dexter, such as:
_Everybody's Book of Magic_
_101 Magic Secrets_ (retitled as _131 Magic Secrets_ when it was release in paperback)
_This Is Magic_
_The Riddle of Chung Ling Soo_

A search of askAlexander produced a Broken Wand announcement for November 5, 1985 and states that he "held editorial positions with four non-magic periodicals/newspapers. He also wrote two science fiction novels: _World in Eclipse_ and its sequel _Children of the Void_.

Does anyone know of other sources for information about this writer?

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Sorry, I don't have any additional information for you. Will Dexter's books were some of my earliest magic texts and I enjoyed them thoroughly. FYI, "101 Magic Secrets" was released in paperback in 1958 by ARCO Publishing in New York and had only 101 tricks. The cost was $1.00. The 131 trick version must have come later.

He wrote many articles on mentalism for The Gen.
And you can find some information about him here:

http://www.geniimagazine.com/magicpedia/Will_Dexter

I hadn't known about Will Dexter ghostwriring for Robert Harbin. Can you tell us the specific titles that Dexter wrote for him?

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

The info that Will Dexter ghost-wrote a book for Robert Harbin led me to search for a copy of that book. I found a copy at amazon.com and after I receive it will post a review.
I did find a jpeg of the cover of the book and posted it to the
IBM Ring 103 Norfolk
facebook page. Here's a link to the jpeg:
http://tinyurl.com/harbinbook

A few other books by Will Dexter:

Famous Magic Secrets, 1955, Abbey Library. Information on the magic community
Illustrated Book of Magic Tricks, 1957, Abbey Library
131 Magic Tricks for Amateurs, 1958 Abbey Library. Seems to be an updated version of "Illustrated Book", above, with 14 added tricks
Feature Magic for Mentalists, 1975, Supreme Magic
Sealed Vision, 1989, Magico Magazine (reprint)
Uncanny Power, The: 1979 Micky Hades.

I seem to remember that _Famous Magic Secrets_ was an abridged edition of _Everybody's Book of Magic_--IIRC minus the section of "Make-It-Yourself" tricks like "The Afghan Bands" and "The Crazy Compass." But what I really liked about both editions of the Dexter book was the history and information about magic organizations, famous magicians, books, etc.

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

One of my first magic books was 131 Tricks for Amateurs. A trick to make a match look used suggests painting it with Radium Leather Dye from Woolworths. Radium was even added to drinking water in the good old days. Anyway copies of the book are still available on Amazon and some sites have PDF and Kindle copies. It was originally published in 1958 with a second edition in 1965. Very nice illustrations.