Harry Houdini Boy Magician by Kathryn Kilby Borland and Helen Ross Speicher 1969 Childhood of Famous Americans Vintage Children's Book

This listing is for the vintage book "Harry Houdini: By Magician" by Kathryn Kilby Borland and Helen Ross Speicher.
Illustrated by Fred Irwin

Copyright 1969
200 pages
Hardback
Publisher - The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.

Measures about 5 3/4 inches across by about 7 3/4 inches.

During the early 1880's, seven-year-old Ehrich Weiss watched a magician perform and learned his first magic trick. On that same day he decided that he wanted to become a magician. Almost immediately he began to develop skillful acts for putting on mystifying acts.
The Weiss family lived in Appleton, Wisconsin where Ehrich's father, scholarly Rabbi Weiss, found it difficult to earn a living. All the Weiss children worked at odd jobs to help support the family. When Ehrich was nine years old, he performed for a week as an acrobat in a traveling circus of Appleton.
As a boy, Ehrich developed a special interest in locks and spent many hours taking them apart and studying how they worked. Finally he became an apprentice to a locksmith and devised a picklock, which he used the rest of his life, to open locks without keys. This picklock helped to pave the way for his career.
When Ehrich was twelve years old, he obtained a regular traveling job with a circus. All the while he sent money back home to his family. Meanwhile Rabbi Weiss moved to New York City, where he would have greater opportunities. Ehrich joined his father, and later, the rest of the family moved there.
In New York Ehrich worked as a necktie cutter, and put on magic shows on the side for clubs and other small organizations. He read a book about Rober Houdin, celebrated French magician, and decided to change his last name to Houdini. Then he chose Harry for his firt name, because he thought it sounded well with Houdini.
At sixteen, Houdini toured the country as a magician. In 1894, he married Wilhelmina Rahner, who changed her first name to Beatrice and became his stage assistant. For several years the two of them traveled about the country performing magic tricks and feats of dexterity in various places of amusement.
Gradually Houdini began to specialize in feats of miraculous escapes from shackles, handcuffs, ropes, and cells, as in prison. He practiced tenaciously to keep himself physically fit for performing these feats. Finally he became noted as one of the most talented escape artists who ever lived.


This is a former library book so it still has things on it that a library book would have.
Pages are wavy, like they got damp, but there isn't any staining.
Pages are still tight.
Covers and edges show signs of wear.
The dust jacket still has the plastic on it from the library. Both show signs of wear.
The spine of the dust jacket is faded.


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