Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini was quite the collector, filling warehouses and his Harlem home with books, posters, newspaper clippings, and more. It probably shouldn’t be surprising that Houdini was a bit obsessive, but his collecting was next level. Some of his library was for the craft, and helped him build his act—he collected books on safes and prison architecture, as well as catalogs from lock manufacturers—but he also had an archivist’s eye. Houdini had a particular obsession with documenting and preserving items related to the history of magic, spiritualism, and theater, and by the end of his life had amassed impressive collections that rivaled those at Harvard and the British Museum.
Everywhere Houdini traveled he bought books, he had standing relationships with rare book dealers, and he took out ads in magazines asking for new materials and leads.The fixation was so extreme, according to the introduction to Eric Colleary’s new book Houdini’s Library, that in a moment of frightening airplane turbulence Houdini remembered, “Honestly I thought of my wife and theatrical collection.”
In addition to his book, Dr. Colleary has put together an exhibition of materials also called “Houdini’s Library,” on display through January at the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of Houdini’s death on Halloween, here are a few interesting books and items from the magician’s collection.
The Houdini Library Catalog
Houdini typed up a fifty-three-page document cataloging all of the current books in his collection, which included his thoughts on each volume. My favorite note is for a 1901 book called Entschleirter Magnetismus by Joseph Gregerowitsch: “This Doctor is the best that ever tried this game and he actually believes in it himself. This hypnotism is a wonderful thing for those who believe in the power of the hips.”
Harry Houdini, The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin
Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin was one of the first performers who inspired a young Erik Weisz to pick the stage name Harry Houdini, an homage to this early and important influence. But as Houdini spoke to Robert-Houdin’s contemporaries and collected more information, he began to realize that his idol was mostly exaggerating and plagiarizing from other performers. Houdini’s disillusionment became a book called The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, which Houdini paid to have translated into French, Robert-Houdin’s mother tongue.
First edition of the 1584, Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot
One of the earliest books in English known to have skeptically challenged the persecution of supposed witches. Houdini had this copy shipped from England during World War I, and paid an extra fourteen shillings for “insurance & war risk.”
The Sermons of Bernard de Clairvaux, with a forged letter claiming ownership by Martin Luther
Hermann Kyrieleis had a short, infamous career in 1893-96 forging fake documents attributed to Protestant reformer Martin Luther, including the letter included with Houdini’s copy of sermons by a 11th century abbot, mystic, and co-founder of the Knights Templar. The book is real, but Luther’s letter is not—Kyrieleis was unmasked, arrested, declared insane, and tossed into an asylum. It’s not clear whether Houdini believed the fake letter or knew this to be an example of a famous literary hoax.
Ephemera about Count Cagliostro and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace
An 18th century scandal around a necklace tarred the reputations of King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and numerous royals, but a magician known as Cagliostro was also at the center of the affair. Houdini’s fascination with the scandal led him to scour Cagliostro’s house in Paris and purchase troves of papers from London and elsewhere.
Ephemera on the history of magic
Houdini collected a ton of interesting items from magic’s history, from the 13th century’s Albertus Magnus; to the 19th century’s George Parker Bidder, the six year old “calculating boy” who would become a renowned engineer; to Henry Box Brown, who was born enslaved in Virginia, mailed himself to freedom, and became a lecturer and performer of magic in England; to Edwin Booth, a performer who was eclipsed in history by his brother, John Wilkes Booth. My favorite item from the selections in Dr. Colleary’s book are the playbills for an amazingly titled 1826 show called “Odd Sayings and Queer Doings,” which seems ripe for revival as the title of a podcast.
Information on a rival collector
Here’s an idea for a novel: Houdini had a rival in the magic librarian game named Dr. Saram R. Ellison, who collected over 2,000 books on magic and made scale models of illusions in his spare time. Houdini and Ellison were friends, but often jockeyed for the same items. Ellison’s collections were donated to the New York Public Library, or sold—though his wand collection ended up the Society of American Magicians.
“Grangerized” copy of Life of Edmund Kean by Frederick William Hawkins
Houdini’s library also had a number of one of a kind “super-illustrated” books, editions that had been rebound with added stuff: pictures, autographs, letters, and other historical ephemera to complement the original text. Houdini had a number of these editions, which amounted to a way for a collector to compile and show off what they’d amassed. This single volume about the life of Edmund Kean ballooned into a carefully edited, eight volume set that doubles as a history of theater told through the story of one figure.
Playbills and ads for automata
Long before your weird cousin fell in love with an AI chatbot, people were obsessed with automata and “talking machines,” which had a 19th century heyday on the stage. This included “Euphonia,” an 1846 talking machine invented by Joseph Faber and displayed in London. It “used a bellows for an air supply and intricate internal mechanisms to mimic the vocal tract.” It looks like a large loom, with a woman’s curly-haired head attached to the side. Freaky.
Information on imitators
Houdini also seems to have kept tabs on performers who were ripping him off, including the amazingly named “Cunning the Jail Breaker” who would, like Houdini, wrap himself in chains and wriggle free.
Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World
This 1862 book was in the library of Houdini’s friend Arthur Conan Doyle. Houdini had sent Doylea copy of this satanic panic defense of the Salem witch trials right before Harry and his wife hung out with the Doyles in Atlantic City. One evening’s entertainment was Lady Doyle performing a seance, claiming to contact Houdini’s mom—Lady Doyle had fallen into spiritualism after their son died from a wound at the Somme and a bout of influenza. Her trick deeply upset Houdini, and Doyle and Houdini had a very public falling out, embarking on rival lecture tours. Doyle traveled around defending seances and their supposed proof of immortality, while Houdini toured the world decrying the false promises of the practice.
Harry Houdini, A Magician Among the Spirits
Inspired by experiences like the one with Lady Doyle, Houdini wrote a book published in 1924 about the history of spiritualism and its “dangerous deceptions,” that drew from his extensive collections and personal experience with mediums and spiritualists. Houdini made a point of exposing fraudulent mediums who promised people connections with the dead, a practice that became especially predatory after the slaughter in World War I. Houdini’s crusade was inspired by a sense of public duty, but was also personal: Houdini’s father died when he was young and “his grieving mother took him to see a local medium with the hope of locating missing insurance papers.”
There’s lots more in the book and exhibition—if you’re in Austin, be sure to check it out at UT Austin.
Images from the Ransom Center’s Digital Collections
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