Titles by Jim Steinmeyer
The Magic of Alan Wakeling: The Works of a Master Magician
Carroll & Graf
September 2006
ISBN: 0786718072
Alan Wakeling’s acclaimed magic has for years been the “secret source” for leading professional magicians. His career featured stage magic, illusions, close-up and stand-up effects, including several complete acts. This book contains professional material developed by Wakeling and used by magicians. Fully illustrated, beautifully and clearly described, this book is a treasure for any aspiring magician. Just ask the magicians, designers, and producers of today, who continue to integrate Wakeling’s routines into their acts. Such people include the authors of this book’s brief introductions: Mark Wilson, Steve Dick, Don Bice, Mike Caveney, Norm Nielsen, Earl Nelson, Ricky Jay, and Channing Pollock.
Art & Artifice
Carroll & Graf
September 2006
ISBN: 0786718064
From the author of Hiding the Elephant and The Glorious Deception comes a collection of five essays that shows how the great stage illusions were integrally products of their time, based on the traditions and fashions of the people, and the offspring of the incredible, inventive personalities who brought them to the stage. Like no other author, Jim Steinmeyer gives us insight into the timeless appeal of magic. His human subjects include such characters as Steele MacKaye, Maskelyne, David Devant, P.T. Selbit, Horace Goldin, and Charles Morritt. Illusions he discusses include: The Mascot Moth, Sawing a Lady in Halves, and Morritt's Disappearing Donkey.
Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
Carroll & Graf
September 2003
ISBN: 0786712260
Harry Houdini was the greatest escape artist in history, yet known to his contemporaries as a terrible stage magician. Nevertheless, in 1917 he performed a single illusion that has been hotly debated ever since: Under the bright spotlights of New York’s Theatre Hippodrome, he made a live elephant disappear. Where did he learn this amazing trick and how did it work? The answers lie in magic expert Jim Steinmeyer’s chronicle of illusionary innovation, backstage chicanery and espionage, elevated showmanship, and keen competition within the world of magicians. Steinmeyer has captured the cultural history of magic during its “Golden Age” in America and abroad. Readers will learn the secrets and life stories of the fascinating personalities behind optical marvels such as floating ghosts appearing onstage and interacting with live actors, disembodied heads, and vanishing ladies. The people and events surrounding each step toward “The Vanishing Elephant” reveal how simple principles, mixed with ingenious psychology, can entertain and deceive. Houdini’s great feat of invisibility was based on a secret passed onto him by Charles Morritt, and the trick remained their secret for more than eighty years. In this book, Steinmeyer reveals Houdini’s mystery and more.
Author Bio
The New York Times calls Jim Steinmeyer the “celebrated invisible man—inventor, designer and creative brain behind many of the great stage magicians of the last quarter-century.” Recognized for his extensive, innovative creations in magic, a recent profile concluded that Jim was “the best living originator of stage illusions,” noting his many creations as the “defining illusions in contemporary magic.” Jim Steinmeyer has worked with virtually every leading magician around the world, produced magic on television, and written extensively on his illusions as well as his research into the history of magic.
