Books in the Dover Magic Books series

Clear diagrams and step-by-step instructions for performing 18 simple feats of prestidigitation: Strength Test, Untangled, Elastic Lock, Mystic Spinner, Rollaway, Heavyset, The Great Escape and many more, using such ordinary objects as coins, rubber bands and string.

Covers every significant aspect -- from palming to clairvoyance, vanishing and producing an object, etc. Explains hundreds of astonishing tricks -- with coins, cups and balls, handkerchiefs, cards, more. 57 illustrations.

Outstanding collection of nearly 200 crowd-pleasing mental magic feats requiring no special equipment. Author offers insider's tips and expert advice on techniques, presentation, diversions, patter, staging, more.

To the magician and to most audiences, card manipulations are the most fascinating type of card trick. Since the manipulator's skill is the only determining factor, once a degree of card dexterity is acquired the performer can go on to learn tricks sure to entertain, at any time, with no further preparation, using any available deck of cards for the performance. In this five-book series, Jean Hugard, master performer on stage and with small groups, teaches the passes, palming methods, shuffles, arm spreads, color reverses, sleights, flourishes, set-ups, and tricks in the best professional versions. After showing the basic manipulations, he develops a number of exceptional tricks where the manipulations are used. A number of illustrations and step-by-step explanations teach each detail as the trick would be given in a performance. By working through these tricks, from the simple to the complex, the magician learns his skills in a professional manner and also gains a wide repertoire of specific tricks. Throughout the book a great number of manipulations and over a hundred tricks are explained. The keys to these tricks are not well known outside professional magicians' groups. But to the advanced beginner or semiprofessional who has some degree of card skill, the manipulations and tricks developed in this book will add to the dexterity of the performance, give hours of rigorous skill-developing practice, and help build a professional, well-rounded repertoire with cards. Unabridged, slightly altered, republication of the original (1934-36) series.

In the first decades of the twentieth century magicians filled the magic journals with articles on card tricks, giving improvements on classic tricks and inventing new ones. If you could put together a collection of these magazines you would have almost a complete course on card tricks, by some of the world's greatest magicians. But where could you find these journals now that they are probably collector's items? And even if you could find them, how much would such a collection cost? Not very much. Because all the best of these tricks are available in this one monumental book, containing nearly every practical card trick produced, invented, and improved by magicians over a span of forty years and more. A truly staggering collection, this book explains how to perform over 600 professional card tricks: impromptu card tricks, spelling tricks, "you do as I do" tricks, diachylon (a paste for gluing cards together) tricks, calculation tricks; tricks using key cards, slick cards, double-backed cards, reversed cards, short cards; tricks based on a one-way pack, prearranged pack, Svengali pack, Mene-Tekel pack, stripper pack; special packs; miscellaneous tricks including Everywhere and Nowhere, The Case of the Four Kings, Card in the Orange, The Buddha Whispers, and Inseparable Aces; and a final chapter on tricks using the famous Nikola Card System. In addition, a chapter on technique explains the most important sleights―the overhand shuffle, riffle shuffle, false cut, palm, simple pass, double lift, glide, and force. Based on a volume compiled by Dr. Wilhelm Von Deusen and Glenn G. Gravatt, this collection was thoroughly revised by Jean Hugard and completely rewritten. It is easily the finest single compendium of classic card tricks, and the clear style makes the instructions easy to follow. An indispensable book for the professional or amateur magician, it is a magnificent source for anyone who wants just the right tricks to mystify his friends or delight his children. Unabridged, corrected republication of the 1937 edition.