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A revelatory account of the magus - the learned magician - and his place in the world of Renaissance EuropeAt the heart of the extraordinary ferment of the High Renaissance stood a distinctive, strange and beguiling figure: the magus. An unstable mix of scientist, bibliophile, engineer, fabulist and fraud, the magus ushered in modern physics and chemistry while also working on everything from secret codes to siege engines to magic tricks.Anthony Grafton's wonderfully original book discusses the careers of men who somehow managed to be both figures of startling genius and - by some measures - credulous or worse. The historical Faust, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa are all fascinating characters, closely linked to monarchs, artists and soldiers and sitting at the heart of any definition of why the Renaissance was a time of such restless innovation. The study of the stars, architecture, warfare, even medicine: all of these and more were revolutionized in some way by the experiments and tricks of these extraordinary individuals.No book does a better job of allowing us to understand the ways that magic, religion and science were once so intertwined and often so hard to tell apart.

The ultimate book of magic for kids from a world-famous magician, complete with photographs for easy to follow instructions. From one of the world's premier practitioners of classic magic, with years of experience instructing younger readers in the magical arts, comes this new revision of his complete guide to learning and performing fantastic feats of prestidigitation. Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as "the text that young magicians swear by," it's full of step-by-step instructions. More than 2,000 illustrations provide the know-how behind 300 techniques, from basic card tricks to advanced levitation, along with advice on planning and staging a professional-quality magic show.

Magical Mathematics reveals the secrets of fun-to-perform card tricks--and the profound mathematical ideas behind them--that will astound even the most accomplished magician. Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham provide easy, step-by-step instructions for each trick, explaining how to set up the effect and offering tips on what to say and do while performing it. Each card trick introduces a new mathematical idea, and varying the tricks in turn takes readers to the very threshold of today's mathematical knowledge. Diaconis and Graham tell the stories--and reveal the best tricks--of the eccentric and brilliant inventors of mathematical magic. The book exposes old gambling secrets through the mathematics of shuffling cards, explains the classic street-gambling scam of three-card Monte, traces the history of mathematical magic back to the oldest mathematical trick--and much more.

72 spectacular and entertaining tricks: card locations, coincidence tricks, mental magic with cards, tricks with double endings, tricks with two decks, predictions, tricks with borrowed decks, trick poker deals. Easy-to-learn, clearly illustrated, these tricks produce spectacular effects with a minimum of practice. 42 illustrations.

One of Neil Gaiman’s favourite scary stories for children.Set within a world of sorcery and wizardry, much like an 18th Century Harry Potter, Krabat tells the story of a 14-year-old beggar boy lured to a mysterious mill by a series of frightening dreams and apparitions.He becomes an apprentice to the master of the watermill where he joins the eleven other young journeymen who work there. Much to his surprise Krabat soon discovers that the mill is actually a school of black magic and he is expected to learn much more than just a normal miller’s trade.Krabat studies hard and becomes the master’s star pupil, but when he falls for a local village girl the depth of the masters evil and the darker secrets of the mill begin to reveal themselves. One by one his fellow classmates perish from mysterious, unexplained accidents and Krabat realises he must use all of the dark magic skills he has learned to secure his escape.Now a major motion picture starring David Kross (The Reader, War Horse).

My name is Joel Mawhinney, though I go by the name Joel M. You might know me from TikTok as @joelmagician.I’m a 23-year-old from Northern Ireland, who enjoys reading, playing the piano and eating as many burrito bowls as I can, but the most important thing to know about me is…Magic is my life.The world of a magician is an unusual one. Between the first and last pages of this little volume you will find stories, confessions and secrets that I hope will convince you that anything is possible.If you can keep a secret, I’ll even share magic tricks you can perform yourself. Inside, you’ll learn how to read minds, predict the future, make cards levitate and jewellery vanish. I’ll teach you how to perform to an audience and amaze your family and friends. I’ll also let you in on the magic of TikTok and reveal how I went viral and gainedmillions of followers.But, above all, I will show you that whatever happens in life, it’salways possible to…Make Your Own Magic.

My name is Joel Mawhinney, though I go by the name Joel M. You might know me from TikTok as @joelmagician.I’m a 23-year-old from Northern Ireland, who enjoys reading, playing the piano and eating as many burrito bowls as I can, but the most important thing to know about me is…Magic is my life.The world of a magician is an unusual one. Between the first and last pages of this little volume you will find stories, confessions and secrets that I hope will convince you that anything is possible.If you can keep a secret, I’ll even share magic tricks you can perform yourself. Inside, you’ll learn how to read minds, predict the future, make cards levitate and jewellery vanish. I’ll teach you how to perform to an audience and amaze your family and friends. I’ll also let you in on the magic of TikTok and reveal how I went viral and gainedmillions of followers.But, above all, I will show you that whatever happens in life, it’salways possible to…Make Your Own Magic.

From the back rooms of New York City''s age-old magic societies to cutting-edge psychology labs, three-card monte games on Canal Street to glossy Las Vegas casinos, Fooling Houdini recounts Alex Stone''s quest to join the ranks of master magicians.As he navigates this quirky and occasionally hilarious subculture populated by brilliant eccentrics, Stone pulls back the curtain on a community shrouded in secrecy, fueled by obsession and brilliance, and organized around one overriding need: to prove one''s worth by deceiving others.But his journey is more than a tale of tricks, gigs, and geeks. By investing some of the lesser-known corners of psychology, neuroscience, physics, history, and even crime, all through the lens of trickery and illusion, Fooling Houdini arrives at a host of startling revelations about how the mind works--and why, sometimes, it doesn''t.

'I immersed myself in magic. I read every book I could get my hands on and practised and practised, day after day and night after night. Magic became my world...some might say an obsession.'When you’re a kid life can seem tough; tougher for some than others. But the darkest of times can also be the most enlightening.When his late granddad showed him magic for the first time, Steven Frayne knew there was more to life than hiding from bullies. He had a destiny. A calling. In that moment Dynamo was born: the most exciting magician of the 21st century. Since then, Dynamo has shocked, thrilled and amazed men, women and children, from all walks of life, all over the world. With his mind-blowing illusions, he has catalysed a whole new era of magic. Now, in his very first book, Dynamo invites you to join him on a breathtaking journey across the globe. Be prepared to levitate Lindsay Lohan in Singapore, transform snow into diamonds in the Austrian mountains, and walk on water across the River Thames. Along the way, he reveals how to make the impossible possible, what it takes to pull off the greatest stunts man has seen, and why everyone needs magic in their lives. This is no illusion. This is Dynamo revealed.

This is the story of the Golden Age of magic and of the world's most legendary magicians: the eccentric personalities who patented the first ghost and competed fiendishly in the race to make things materialize, levitate and disappear.We meet Harry Kellar, the ruthless thief of secrets who was the model for the Wizard of Oz, and PT Selbit, the first man to saw a woman in half on stage.We meet John Nevil Maskelyne, whose Egyptian Theatre was a London institution for sixty years. Hiding the Elephant is the masterwork of a man who has dedicated his life to magic, who knows the tricks inside out, and still believes.

Dive into the wonderful world of Tommy Cooper!The perfect gift for anyone who loves to laugh, packed with side-splitting humour and classic one-liners from the legendary comedian, including:"My wife is a magician, yesterday she turned our car into a tree.""A big white horse walks into a pub. The barman says, 'we have a drink named after you.' The horse says, 'what? Eric?'""I said, 'waiter, what's that in my soup?' he said, 'I'd better call the boss, I can't tell one insect from another.'""I'm reading a book called 'Sex Before 20'. Personally I don't like audiences.""I said, 'it's serious, doctor, I've broken my arm in 20 places'. He said, 'well stop going to those places.'""I call my car flattery. It gets me nowhere."Bringing together his timeless wit and charm, the All in One Joke Book reveals why Tommy Cooper remains one of our greatest and most beloved comedians of all time.

Disappearing Tricks revisits the golden age of theatrical magic and silent film to reveal how professional magicians shaped the early history of cinema. Where others have called upon magic as merely an evocative metaphor for the wonders of cinema, Matthew Solomon focuses on the work of the professional illusionists who actually made magic with moving pictures between 1895 and 1929.The first to reveal fully how powerfully magic impacted the development of cinema, the book combines film and theater history to uncover new evidence of the exchanges between magic and filmmaking in the United States and France during the silent period. Chapters detailing the stage and screen work of Harry Houdini and Georges MÉliÈs show how each transformed theatrical magic to create innovative cinematic effects and thrilling new exploits for twentieth-century mass audiences. The book also considers the previously overlooked roles of anti-spiritualism and presentational performance in silent film.Highlighting early cinema's relationship to the performing body, visual deception, storytelling, and the occult, Solomon treats cinema and stage magic as overlapping practices that together revise our understanding of the origins of motion pictures and cinematic spectacle.

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an exuberant biography of the world’s greatest escape artist In 1916, the war in Europe having prevented a tour abroad, Harry Houdini wrote a film treatment for a rollicking motion picture. Though the movie was never made, its title, “The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini: The Justly Celebrated Elusive American,” provides a succinct summary of the Master Mystifier’s life.   Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, Houdini grew up an impoverished Jewish immigrant in the Midwest and became world-famous thanks to talent, industry, and ferocious determination. He concealed as a matter of temperament and professional ethics the secrets of his sensational success. Nobody knows how Houdini performed some of his dazzling, death-defying tricks, and nobody knows, finally, why he felt compelled to punish and imprison himself over and over again. Tracking the restless Houdini’s wide-ranging exploits, acclaimed biographer Adam Begley tells the story of a mystifying man’s astonishing career.About Jewish Lives: Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.More praise for Jewish Lives: “Excellent.” – New York times “Exemplary.” – Wall St. Journal “Distinguished.” – New Yorker “Superb.” – The Guardian

As a juggler the author likes to finish his performances with a stunt that combines props and techniques from a variety of juggling disciplines. Imagine him idling on a giraffe unicycle, while balancing a spinning basketball on a mouth stick, and toss-juggling a sword, a toilet plunger, and a rubber chicken. As a mathematician he is also interested in the treasure trove of beautiful mathematics used to model the different activities in a juggler's repertoire. In this book he provides an intellectually stimulating collection of mostly self-contained mathematical essays that introduce the reader to many elegant results and techniques from a wide range of mathematical disciplines such as combinatorics, graph theory, knot theory, mechanics, differential equations, control theory, and robotics. "The Mathematics of Juggling" is the first comprehensive account summarizing and expanding the results in the literature on juggling tricks and skills, as well as the mathematics behind these tricks and skills. Anybody who is not put off by the word "mathematics" in the title of this book should have a good time reading it.

Famed puzzle expert explains math behind a multitude of mystifying tricks: card tricks, stage "mind reading," coin and match tricks, counting out games, geometric dissections, etc. Probability, sets, theory of numbers clearly explained. Also, more than 400 tricks, guaranteed to work, that you can do. 135 illustrations.

Over 100 tricks that can be done with any pack of cards — in their best professional versions. This rich collection has taught thousands of magicians how to perform dozens of eye-catching, yet really workable tricks. Over 200 illustrations. "Recommended." — Linking Ring.

This giant-sized collection explains how to perform over 600 professional card tricks, devised by the world's greatest magicians. The finest single compendium available, the book features a clear style that make the instructions easy to follow. An indispensable source for both professional and amateur magicians. 66 illustrations.

Sixty-seven sure-fire mental feats to delight and mystify: mind reading with cards, instant ESP, identifying the owners of objects given to you in random order, number prediction, magically reproducing drawings on slates, book tests, handwriting tricks, mind-reading done from a room away, much more. 73 illustrations.

Covers every significant aspect — from palming to clairvoyance, vanishing and producing an object, using essential apparatus, etc. Explains hundreds of astonishing tricks — with coins, cups and balls, handkerchiefs, cards, more. A book with an excellent reputation among professional magicians for teaching techniques. 57 illustrations.

The most complete treatise on sleight-of-hand coin conjuring, including best traditional methods and modern innovations. Guides you systematically from basic techniques, through integrated tricks to complete routined acts, 18 in all. 510 clear illustrations by Nelson C. Hahne. The best manual for amateurs, an encyclopedic source for professionals.

Clearly worded instructions, 251 step-by-step illustrations show novices, veterans how to seemingly pluck coins from the air, make a coin penetrate a tabletop, perform psychic tricks with coins and bills, much more. No special dexterity needed; no long hours of practice.

70 of the best rope tricks ever devised using overhand knots, slip knots and square knots. Dissolve knots, cut and restore ropes, make ropes magically shrink or grow longer, rope escape tricks, flourish knots. 423 illustrations and clear, easy-to-follow directions make performing these startling feats foolproof.

Clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing 18 simple feats of prestidigitation: Strength Test, Untangled, Elastic Lock, Mystic Spinner, Rollaway, Heavyset, The Great Escape and many more, using such ordinary objects as coins, rubber bands and string.