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Magic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock, and amazement. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility - whether invoking spirits, reading minds, or inverting the laws of nature by sleight of hand. Long before science fiction, virtual realities, video games and the internet, the craft of magic was the most powerful fantasy world man had ever known. As the pioneers of special effects throughout history, magicians have never ceased to mystify us by making the impossible possible.|This book celebrates more than 500 years of the dazzling visual culture of the world's greatest magicians. Featuring over 1,000 rarely seen vintage posters, photographs, handbills, and engravings in one 650-page volume, it traces the history of magic as a performing art from the 1400s to the 1950s. Combining sensational images with lucid and incisive text, Magic explores the evolution of the magician's craft, from medieval street performers to the brilliant stage magicians who gave rise to cinematic special effects; from the 19th century's Golden Age of Magic to groundbreaking daredevils like Houdini and the early 20th century's vaudevillians.

Author and actor Ricky Jay (Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women) gathers four years of his quarterly Jay's Journal of Anomalies in one volume of the same name. An expert on the improbable, Jay trains his curiosity on unusual forms of entertainment and recorded history, and entries include A Compendium of Giant Children and A Verbally Challenging Bestiary. He has unearthed gems like an advertisement for Miss Silvia, Skandenavian Ceiling Walker and a centuries-long fascination with the public spectacle of nose amputation. Jay's new one-man show, Ricky Jay on Broadway, opening this spring, and his role in Mamet's forthcoming movie Heist promise publicity for this witty and bizarre collection. Color illus. (Publishers Weekly)