Magic Explained-Walter Gibson-Vista House Publ-1958-Signed-Dust Jacket-v.FINE-Af

Description

Magic Explained-Walter Gibson-Vista House Publ-1958-Signed-Dust Jacket-v.FINE
(No Reserve-Bid & the Item Will Sell)
ITEM:  Hard cover book with original dust jacket,
Magic Explained
, by Walter Gibson, a Vista House Publication, NY, 1958.  Book is signed on front half title page:
"
To Jerry & Ann Fields
from
Walter Gibson
"
The first few chapters have easy tricks to do at home. Rest of book is an exposure of the secrets of favorite tricks and illusions performed by the world's greatest magicians.
From Magicpedia, courtesy of Genii Magazine:
Walter Brown Gibson
(September 12, 1897 - December 6, 1985) was an American author and a professional magician best known for his work on The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote Shadow stories at an amazing rate to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s.
He was married to Litzka R. Gibson, also a writer, and the couple lived in New York state.
Gibson wrote the first Shadow story in 1931, creating a character around the narrator of the Detective Stories radio drama. He was very prolific, writing 282 out of 325 Shadow novels, at a top rate of two novels per month.
Gibson is recognized as the creator of much of The Shadow's mythos, although his tales frequently conflict with the better-known radio version. For example, Gibson's Shadow is, in reality, Kent Allard, an aviator who sometimes posed as playboy Lamont Cranston. On the radio, The Shadow really is Cranston, a "wealthy young man about town." Similarly, Shadow companion Margo Lane arose not from the pulps but from the radio program; she was added to offer a contrasting female voice.
Magic and other non-fiction
Gibson wrote more than 100 books on magic, psychic phenomena, true crime, mysteries, rope knots, yoga, hypnotism, and games. He served as ghost-writer for books on magic and/or spiritualism by
Harry Houdini
,
Howard Thurston
,
Harry Blackstone
, and
Joseph Dunninger
. Gibson also introduced the famous "Chinese linking rings" trick in America, and invented the
Nickels To Dimes
trick that is still sold in magic stores to this day.
With his wife Litzka R. Gibson, he co-wrote The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences, (Doubleday, 1966), a 404 page book which explains how to practice many popular forms of divination and fortune-telling, including astrology, tasseography, graphology, and numerology. Litzka Gibson, who sometimes used the pen-name Leona Lehman, also wrote her own books on topics as diverse as palmistry, dancing, and personal hygiene.
SIZE:  6 by 9 1/8  inches, 188 pages, plus blue cloth hard covers, original dust jacket.
COND:  Dust jacket has small edge tears and wear.  Frontis page with signature is beginning to come loose on bottom, but still attached. Book covers have corner bumps, minor use marks.  Interior pages have no writing, no dog-ears, no bends, etc.  All in otherwise very Fine condition. Please view the attached image to see the quality of this fine item.
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