The Great Illusionists, by Edwin Dawes [1979 HC]

David & Charles, 1979. Hardcover. Like New. GIFT QUALITY 1979 hardcover with dust jacket. APPEARS UNREAD with unmarked, well-bound pages. Clean, bright, glossy jacket. Nice copy! 216 well-detailed pages, including endnotes. Illustrated. "Conjuring has a venerable history. It started long ago when primitive medicine, magic, science, and religion were all mysteriously together. Illusionists became itinerants during the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan Era, emerging with a new dignity in the eighteenth century. From tavern and fair ground they moved into small theaters, and in the nineteenth century into the new music hall. There, magic flourished, reaching a height of pupularity in the first decade of the twentieth century. Today television has added a new dimension to the conjurer's art. Using splendid and unique prints, playbills and memorabilia with entertaining narrative, this book tells the story of magic through the lives of magicians, many of whom have become legend. The author, himself a magician and a scientist, goes into scientific mysteries used by enterprising magicians such as the solar microscope and electromagnet. This book about magic and magicians gives us a look behind the mirrors to the ways people were baffled for centuries and takes us into the lives of magicians from the earliest days to the present.