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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.

Mike Caveney's Carter the Great may be the most detailed biography of a magician ever written. The book -- 375 oversized pages -- is beautifully produced, clearly written, and contains a wealth of material on Carter, his seven world tours, his illusions, his ownership of Martinka's, and the men and women who made up the world of magic from 1900 to 1936 or so. There are scores of photographs and illustrations, including 24 full color lithographs -- every Carter poster known to exist -- plus black and white illustrations of four posters that have vanished. [editor summary]

De Kolta was a contemporary of fellow French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Many of De Kolta's illusions, such as Multiplying Billiard Balls, the Expanding Cube and the Vanishing Bird Cage, are performed by magicians today. Spring Flower is also one of his creation.

De Kolta is known for his De Kolta Chair or Vanishing Lady illusion. A woman seated in a chair, covered by a large cloth would appear to vanish before an audience (large cloth included). Present-day magician David Copperfield has adapted this illusion in his own performances.