Brand New Houdini, Harry. (1874-1926) "a Magician Among The Spirits" - Signed Tool [wNS1aH0K]

Hardcover. Octavo, xxi, 294 pages. Signed and inscribed to the front free endpaper by the famed magician and escapologist to the Pittsburgh, PA attorney Charles Frederick Covert Arensberg (1879 - 1974),  "To C.F.C. Arensberg / Best wishes / Houdini / Pittsburgh Pa / 3/4/1925 and alls / well". Frontis portrait of Houdini with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; several other illustrations throughout. Shorter height errata page tipped between x-xi. Bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering and decoration to spine and front board,  no dustjacket. Minor soiling to cloth, corners  bumped, toning to endpages and later ownership signature to inside front board pasteover. A very good copy overall.

A Magician Among the Spirits, like a good magician revealing a secret, invites us behind the scenes, educates us, and then allows us to find mystery in the countless questions that may develop. Houdini explains how mediums utilized props as well as the power of suggestion to convince people that the dead are among them. He does not ridicule Spiritualism but rather treats it with respect and sympathetically explains that it gained popularity after the unprecedented loss of life from World War I and the influenza pandemic. Houdini writes earnestly from the perspective of a professional magician, and, as he tells us in the Introduction, approaches his research scientifically, systematically, and with an open mind.