I'm having fun reading through The Phoenix, and especially enjoying Gibson's and Elliot's little war with Larsen's Genii. It got me thinking that a history of magic could be written solely about magic magazines and their inter-relationships with each other: who started what, who broke away from whom, who feuded with whom, which magazines ended up merging with others, and so on.

Does such a history exist?

Thanks,
Jack Shalom

Jack:

There is probably information of the type you are looking for, but alas, much of it is sprinkled through magic periodicals.

Some of the information you are looking for can be found in Jim Alfredson's and George Daily's A Bibliography of Conjuring Periodicals in English 1791-1983 (1986), a "must-have" for the collector and researcher. It is out of print, but copies come up every once in a while, and if memory serves, they cost in the $75 to $100 range, maybe a little more.

I can't tell you how many periodicals are listed, but I can tell you it has 395 pages in smallish type on large-format paper - a monster.

There is also a little pamphlet titled "The History of the Magic Wand," written and published in the 1940's (I think) by George Johnson, the editor of "The Magic Wand."

Hope this helps. If you PM me with your e-mail address, I can e-mail you information on another title that may interest you.

As in when Richard Kaufman was illustrator for Harry Lorayn then went and started Richard's Almanac? And did CoinMagic/Expert Coin Magic with his partner Alan Greeberg?

Jonathan: pardon my ignorance, but is this scandal or just some history - or both?

Jack: one of the compilers has a copt for sale for $75 - you might even get him to inscribe it if that is your thing.

You can reach George Daily at gs***daily[at]co***mcast[dot]net. Delete the "***" etc. (done this way to hide it from spam scrawlers.

Good luck in your searches, Jack.

Not much of a collector myself, but I am interested in the history of various performing arts, and thought what I suggested might spark some historian or some grad student trying to find an interesting topic for a dissertation.

In a creative art so based on verbal transmission, the tracking of "gossip" could be an important part of its history as well.

Jack

Actually the gossip and feuds are part of the development of magic. But beware the "manufactured" feud. Recently, a book about the card finesses of Walter Irving Scott was published. In it were some really juicy spats involving Scott, Vernon, Downs and Charlie Miller.

A friend of mine who is the current owner of some of the correspondence between a couple of these guys tells me that the editor of the book manufactured at least some of the spats to boost sales of the book.

On the other hand, the editorial sections of the Jinx have some great information of the development of the Devano rising cards and the Vosburg version, as well.

...and there're always the Burling Hull aka "Hurling Bull" wars