![]() ![]() ![]() Copious photographs help flesh out Houdini's robust, larger-than-life personality and underscore the range and audacity of his exploits. How did he walk through walls, escape drowning, and shatter iron chains that were tightly wrapped around him The rare photos in this book might help you. One gets the sense that the author delved into his subject for his own enjoyment, and brings readers along for an entertaining ride. A "teenage conjuror" and former vaudevillian himself, Fleischman brings an insider's sensibility to Houdini's story (after Houdini's death, he came to know Bess, who "became a sort of den mother to us young enthusiasts"). The author actually met Houdini's widow and has included many pictures that she personally shared with the the author so the book has a unique feel to it. Reveal Houdini's secrets." Fleischman neatly sorts out facts, speculation and legend as he traces the performer's career, from his early stints in vaudeville, with a circus and traveling medicine show and even, along with his wife and on-stage sidekick, Bess, "a part-time career as ghost wranglers and mind-reading fakers." A savvy self-promoter, Houdini made headlines through such successful challenges as breaking out of a Chicago jail cell, yet, Fleischman wryly notes, his "sudden fame was written in vanishing ink." After securing a solid reputation in Europe, the "monarch of manacles" became a stage sensation and financial success in this country as well, with some of his more famous feats, such as escaping from a straitjacket while suspended upside-down from a building. The Story of the Great Houdini Sid Fleischman Harper Collins, 2006, 215 pages, 8.99 Biography ISBN 9780060850968 This biography gives an in depth look at Harry Houdini's magical life. The author sets an affectionate and humorous tone, beginning with his subject's most famous feats, and then declaring, "As a devout magician, I am able to reveal only that I may not ) colorful, anecdotal biography of Harry Houdini (1874–1926) offers an accessible portrait of this master of magic and escape.
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