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Summary
Summary
"Noyes makes history accessible and irresistible . . . Excellent." *
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 seances, 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.
* School Library Journal ,starred reviewof Ten Days a Madwoman
Author Notes
Deborah Noyes writes nonfiction and fiction for young readers and adults. Her books include One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals, The Ghosts of Kerfol, Ten Days a Madwoman: The Daring Life and Turbulent Times of the Original Girl Reporter Nellie Bly, and Encyclopedia of the End: Mysterious Death in Fact, Fancy, Folklore, and More. She has also compiled and edited the short story anthologies Gothic!, The Restless Dead, and Sideshow.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Spiritualist movement swept the nation. Noyes (Ten Days a Madwoman, rev. 1/16) uses Harry Houdinis attempts to discredit the movement as her entry point into this intriguing phenomenon. Starting with a population reeling from loss of life during a period of high mortality and large-scale events such as the Civil War, WWI, and the flu epidemic, Noyes sets the context for a vast group of people eager to contact deceased loved ones. She provides brief background on Houdinis life and work (briefly diverting readers attention with Houdinis escapist feats) before exploring her main topics. These include his friendship with Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, a staunch believer, and Houdinis attempts to unmask flimflammers who used a myriad of methods to trick their customers, including seances, spirit writing, knocking sounds, and visual illusions. Noyes ends on a chilling note, showing that the glamorization of the afterlife may well have led to a spate of suicides. Most chilling of all is Noyess (and Houdinis) conclusion that humans, no matter how smart or educated, will, despite scientific evidence, believe in those fictions they wish to. Appended with chapter notes, a bibliography and webliography, and an index. betty carter (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Plenty has been written about Houdini's iconic escape routines and stage magic, but in this biography, Noyes focuses on a lesser-known facet of his career: his mission to debunk spiritualists. After his mother died, Houdini wanted to believe in the possibility of contact from beyond the grave. But his career gave him singular insight into tricks mediums deployed during seances, and, angered by the thought of mediums swindling grief-stricken people, he became determined to reveal the fakery of spiritualism. While describing Houdini's campaign to unmask fraudulent mediums, Noyes offers compelling tidbits about the many ways spiritualists performed their tricks, and helpful historical context for the popularity of spiritualism. Houdini's feud with avowed spiritualist Arthur Conan Doyle is particularly fascinating, though the details of their clash get a bit lost. Still, there's plenty of intriguing information here, often in eye-catching inset boxes with additional background, and Noyes' attention to Houdini's outsize personality a key component of his campaign against spiritualists adds compelling depth. A worthwhile addition to any nonfiction section, and ideal for kids intrigued by historical oddities.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2017 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-Harry Houdini is best remembered as a magician and escape artist, but he also spent more than half his life tirelessly investigating mediums and séances-charlatans in disguise. Noyes's narrative blends the history of the spiritualism movement in the early 20th century with a biographical account of Houdini. Early in Houdini's career, between 1897 and 1899, he and his wife Bess performed as mediums and mind readers, but he later wrote that he regretted "trifling with the hallowed reverence which the average human being bestows on the departed." Influenced by the loss of his beloved mother in 1913 and his ongoing debate with friend and avid spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Houdini embarked on a mission to debunk spiritualism, which by 1924 "had become a full-on crusade." Noyes stresses that Houdini believed in an afterlife and probably hoped that communication with the dead was possible but he never found legitimate evidence. Since magic acts and fraudulent séances made use of many of the same methods, Houdini was adept at discovering trickery, which he exposed most notably in a 1924 lecture tour. Houdini is portrayed as a likable figure, motivated by his compassion for grieving people and respect for the deceased. The title has an appealing layout with frequent sidebars, copious photographs and archival theater posters, and a page border that subtly contributes to the book's Victorian flavor and spooky mood. Although some passages are a bit dry, the read is overall intriguing and likely to hook students. -VERDICT Fans of magic, mystery, and debates on the supernatural will -devour -Noyes's take on Houdini.--Magdalena Teske, Naperville Public Library, IL © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
There was a time, not long ago, when many people believed that death was no barrier to staying connected with loved ones. The idea was enthusiastically embraced by none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the logically minded Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle saw nothing illogical in the ability of psychic mediums to connect the grief-stricken with their lost relations. A true believer and zealous evangelist for spiritualism, Conan Doyle believed such phenomena as automatic writing, frenzied trances, disembodied voices, levitating tables, ghost photography, and oral expulsions of ectoplasm were real and perfectly rational. Conan Doyle's friend Harry Houdini was dubious. The most renowned magician and escape artist of his time knew plenty about tricking audiences, and his investigations into these spiritual phenomena convinced him that mediums used trickery and illusion to dupe people like his friend. 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 sances. Sidebars take readers down numerous, entertaining detours. A compelling true story of magic, ghosts, science, friendship, deception, feuding, and sleuthing told with great flair. (photos, source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Introduction: Impossibility Commences Who was Harry Houdini? Almost everyone has a mental picture of this "mystifier of mystifiers," the most popular magician and escape artist of all time. Whether crouched over handcuffed wrists, liberating himself from a locked jail cell, or making an elephant disappear, he was a blaze of action--a force of mind, muscle, and will. His audiences gaped in wonder as he swallowed needles (or seemed to), bobbed upside down in a water-torture cell, or dangled topsy-turvy in a straitjacket from a tall building. Over the course of his career, Houdini went by many names. He made his public debut at Jack Hoefler's Five-Cent Circus in 1883, a year after his family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Billed as Ehrich, the Prince of the Air, the spry acrobat and contortionist was nine years old. People who saw him later, performing in dime museums, sideshows, and jails, and on the big variety stages of vaudeville, knew him variously as King of Cards, Projea the Wild Man, Wizard of Shackles, or the World's Handcuff King and Prison Breaker. As he was quick to advertise, he was an "eclipsing sensation" who left no challenge unanswered. He was known in "every country on the globe," defying "duplication, explanation, imitation or contradiction." And in a life dedicated to dreaming up dazzling tricks, stunts, and escapes, he was his own best invention. The public knew him by many names but rarely the one he started life with. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in March 1874, Erik Weisz (later Ehrich Weiss) was the son of an impoverished rabbi and a doting mother. Neither parent learned to speak English after immigrating to America, but young Ehrich grew into the picture of New World energy and optimism. He was competitive and ambitious, physically powerful, and powerfully present, all traits that would help shape his career as the consummate showman. What fewer people know about this most visible of performers is that for decades, Ehrich Weiss (who adopted the stage name Houdini early in his career and would one day autograph his books: "Houdini. That's Enough") was preoccupied with things the eye can't see. Like many people in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Houdini was intrigued (if not convinced) by the startling idea that spirits not only survive death but can also be contacted and can communicate with the living through a third party called a medium. This book is the story of a rational and relentless showman whose debunking of deception put him in touch with odd and fascinating characters: mediums who said they could converse with the dead, criminal hucksters, deluded scientists, and committees and investigators with job titles like "Honorary Secretary of the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures." It's also the story of a devoted son devastated by the death of his "Sainted Mother," who swore to investigate spiritual phenomena with an open mind and to uncover and defend truth until the end. In thirty years, Houdini concluded, in his 1924 book, A Magician Among the Spirits , "I have not found one incident that savoured of the genuine." But it was not for want of trying. Excerpted from The Magician and the Spirits by Deborah Noyes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
| Introduction: Impossibility Commences | p. 1 |
| 1 Harry and Bess Houdini, Spirit Mediums | p. 7 |
| 2 Dealings with the Dead | p. 17 |
| 3 The Mother's Boy | p. 29 |
| 4 The Torch Bearer | p. 41 |
| 5 "In the Light": Photographic Phantoms | p. 55 |
| 6 Manifestations!: Adventures with Ectoplasm and More | p. 69 |
| 7 A Menace to Health and Sanity | p. 85 |
| 8 Science and Sincerity: Houdini Explores the Limits of Rational Inquiry | p. 101 |
| 9 It Takes a Flimflammer to Catch a Flimflammer: A War on Deception | p. 111 |
| 10 The End (or is it?) | p. 127 |
| Notes | p. 132 |
| Bibliography | p. 144 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 147 |
| Picture Credits | p. 148 |
| Index | p. 149 |
