What is the first magic book you remember reading? For me, it was a copy of Blackstone's "Modern Card Tricks and Secrets of Magic" from the St. Paul Public Library. I just acquired a copy of that same edition, and paging through it brings back memories of childhood days spent uncovering the mysteries of the universe. Which book does that for you?

Henry Hay's The Amateur Magician's Handbook.

The first books I remember getting from the library are...

Blackstone's Secrets of Magic
Mulhollands Book of Magic
Dunninger's Complete Encyclipedia of Magic

To this day I still love looking at the illustrations from the Dunninger book.

A friends father lent me his set of Tarbell books... At the time it put me into a magic overload; not until much latter could I really appreciate them.

My first purchased magic books were...

Amateur Magicians Handbook
Mark Wilson's Course in Magic (book and props)
Many of the dollar to 2 dollar pamphlet books at the back of my EZ Magic catalog

Take care,
Bruce

Joseph Leeming's _Fun with Magic_
Walter B. Gibson's _What's New in Magic_
Henry Hay's _The Amateur Magician's Handbook_

----- Amado "Sonny" Narvaez

Milborne Christopher's Illustrated History of Magic was the first I read from the library.

Royal Road to Card Magic

George -- you started with Royal Road? Wow! How were you introduced to this book as the place to start?

Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic

Introduced to this book during one of my many trips to the old Hollywood Magic shop near the Magic Castle. I was in my early teens and would take the public bus on a Saturday all by myself with money I earned with weekend jobs.

Sounds like a good time, George. Most folks start out on baby food and eventually move on to steak. You started with a classic!

They were great times. Eventually I moved on to Expert Card Technique (again from Hollywood Magic), but was very frustrated learning a perfect Faro till I read Ed Marlo's Faro Shuffle.

"THE MAGIC SHOW BOOK" by Alexander the Magician. (pub.: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York. copyright 1937.

It was a public library book. I learned some years later that Alexander was criticized by many magicians for his "exposures". (cf. SPHINX August 1936, page 169, and Nov. '36. Cf. also TOPS, (a Lloyd Jones review--I don't have the date, but it must have been about the same time as the SPHINX.

Many years later, Jay Marshall and I were discussing our "first books", over a cup of coffee in Frances' kitchen. I mentioned Alexander's book. Jay went to his library, and returned in five minutes with a copy! He said, "I have two copies. I only need one. This one is now yours!" It has a special place in my library!

Jospeh Leeming's Fun With Magic and More Fun with Magic from the library in the children's section, but when I saw Professional Magic Made Easy by Bruce Elliott in the Adult section, I longed for an adult card.

This is such a great thread, I'm a little surprised there aren't more contributions.

My first magic book was a beat-up paperback version of "Magic with Cards" by Garcia & Schindler:

http://magicref.tripod.com/books/garciaf......ards.htm

I had a much older cousin who kept amazing (and tormenting) me with his card tricks. After several months of me begging to know how he was pulling off these amazing feats of magic he gave me this book. I mostly just played with the self-working stuff as I was only about 10 years old at the time, but I completely loved it.

Fast-forward more than twenty years... and after a long hiatus from magic I wandered into a little shop a few blocks from my apartment called Magic Inc. and walked out with the book "Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic." After that there was no turning back.

I'll always consider those books to be my two special "firsts."

Well Jack! I just dropped in here and read your note about Joseph Leeming's "FUN WITH" books. I should have mentioned last summer, that I found "Fun With Magic" in the spring of 1945 in the library. IT HAD ADDRESSES FOR MAGIC DEALERS!

I sent for an Abbott catalog (#7) that week. First order a Brakawa Fan (($1.75) and a Mirror glass ($1.00). I still have that fan. The ribs are BRASS!. I've replaced the fabric!

Jay gave me a copy of Leeming that same day as Alexander!

The last books I'll sell are my autographed Tarbells, and Leeming, and Alexander!--Well, I'll most likely keep a copy of "DICK OSLUND--ROAD SCHOLAR", too!

My first book was Mark Wilson's Complete Course in Magic (or whatever it's called). When I asked around, everyone recommended that and Tarbell. I couldn't afford Tarbell's eight volumes, so Wilson it was.

The royal road to card magic bought for me by a magic buddy

My first all around magic book was "the Magic handbook" by Peter eldin

My 1st book on sleight of hand with cards, was Royal Road. It was given to me by my uncle, ventriloquist/magician Mike Robinson



Justin

Tarbell!

I leafed through several books, but Mark Wilson's Course was the first written work, I learned out of. It is essentially a condensed Tarbell. I would still recommend it to beginners.