‘Houdini’s Library: Inside the Spellbinding Collections of the Great Illusionist’ by Eric Colleary

A magician walks into a bookstore in Stuttgart. He asks if they have any magic books. The owner points to an entire wall of them. “I’ll take it,” Houdini says. 

​It sounds like a punchline, but the four crates that went to New York that day were no joke. Or the wheelbarrow of books he bought in Amsterdam. Or the four tons of Strobridge posters delivered to his cellar. Of all the aspects of Harry’s career that still fascinate us a century after his death—his incredible escapes, his genius for publicity, his war against Spiritualism, his exploits as a movie star, aviator, and writer—few endear him so much to the magic community as his passion for collecting.