Wow.Imagine how you would feel when you looked behind the curtain and learned that the wizard was a fraud.

Stripped of his self-woven veil of romance, Robert-Houdin stood forth, in the uncompromising light of cold historical facts, a mere pretender, a man who waxed great on the brainwork of others, a mechanician who had boldly filched the inventions of the master craftsmen among his predecessors.' The pen of his most devoted student and follower would awaken new interest in his history.Īlas for my golden dreams! My investigations brought forth only bitterest disappointment and saddest of disillusionment. By research and study I would unearth history yet unwritten, and record unsung triumphs of this great inventor and artiste. Then, when Fate turned kind and the golden pathway of success led me into broader avenues of work, I determined that my first tour abroad should be dedicated to adding new laurels to the fame of Robert-Houdin. I asked nothing more of life than to become in my profession “like Robert-Houdin.”īy this time I had re-read his works until I could recite passage after passage from memory. When it became necessary for me to take a stage-name, and a fellow-player, possessing a veneer of culture, told me that if I would add the letter “i” to Houdin’s name, it would mean, in the French language, “like Houdin,” I adopted the suggestion with enthusiasm. To my unsophisticated mind, his “Memoirs” gave to the profession a dignity worth attaining at the cost of earnest, life-long effort. What Blackstone is to the struggling lawyer, Hardee’s “Tactics” to the would-be officer, or Bismarck’s life and writings to the coming statesman, Robert-Houdin’s books were to me. I accepted his writings as my text-book and my gospel.

From the moment that I began to study the art, he became my guide and hero. My interest in conjuring and magic and my enthusiasm for Robert-Houdin came into existence simultaneously. 'This book is the natural result of the moulding, dominating influence which the spirit and writings of Robert-Houdin have exerted over my professional career. First, I will let Houdini speak from Beyond ~~

Robert houdin