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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE MAGICIAN AND THE SPIRITS

Deborah Noyes

Harry Houdini and the Curious Pastime of Communicating with the Dead

A century ago, the curious idea that spirits not only survive death but can be contacted on the “other side” was widespread. Psychic mediums led countless séances, claiming to connect the grieving with their lost relations through everything from frenzied trance writing to sticky expulsions of ectoplasm.
The craze caught Harry Houdini’s attention. Well-known by then as most renowned magician and escape artist, he began to investigate these spiritual phenomena. Are ghosts real? Can we communicate with them? Catch them in photographs? Or are all mediums “flim-flammers,” employing tricks and illusions like Houdini himself?

Peopled with odd and fascinating characters, Houdini’s gripping quest will excite readers’ universal wonderment with life, death, and the possibility of the Beyond.

Deborah Noyes is the author of nonfiction and fiction for young readers and adults, including Ten Days a Madwoman, Encyclopedia of the End, One Kingdom, and The Ghosts of Kerfol. She has also compiled and edited the short story anthologies Gothic!, The Restless Dead, and Sideshow.
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Book

Published 2017-08-22 by Viking Books for Young Readers

Book

Published 2017-08-22 by Viking Books for Young Readers

Comments

Noyes' engaging narrative explores how Houdini's public crusade to expose spiritualism as bunk and mediums as frauds strained his relationship with Conan Doyle. The account is illustrated with archival material and densely populated with odd, outrageous characters such as D.D. Home, whose levitation acts saw him sailing out windows feet first, and Eva C. who expelled "ectoplasm" from her mouth during séances. Sidebars take readers down numerous, entertaining detours. A compelling true story of magic, ghosts, science, friendship, deception, feuding, and sleuthing told with great flair.

THE MAGICIAN AND THE SPIRITS is a Barnes and Noble Best Book of the Year 2017! Read more...

Magic, science, religion, ghosts, love, death, friendship, deceit, sleuthing - this book has it all! With flare and facts, Noyes tells the dramatic and moving story of Harry Houdini's friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle and the debunking of fake spiritualism. I loved it!

Readers will be unable to escape the appeal of Deborah Noyes's new book with such in-depth research and quirky characters.

THE MAGICIAN AND THE SPIRITS: Harry Houdini and the Curious Pastime of Communicating with the Dead is a Washington Post (95.4 million unique visitors/month) Best Children's Book of the Year!