Magic Without Apparatus - Camille Gaultier

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A sleight-of-hand reference work for cards, coins, billiard balls, and thimbles.

Magic without Apparatus is the first English translation of La Prestidigitation sans Appareils, which has been recognized by authorities on magic as the world's greatest treatise on legerdemain with cards, coins, billiard balls, and thimbles. The French edition elicited such comments as these:

Leo Rullman (Connoisseur of magical literature): "The greatest work on pure sleight-of-hand in any language."

Professor Hoffmann (Author of Modern Magic, More Magic, Later Magic): "A contribution of the first rank to the literature of the subject. … The book may fairly claim to contain the best sleights of the most finished performers, many of them never, till now, described in print. … To the serious magician, the man who aims at becoming a master of his art, the information here given should be of the highest possible value."

George Johnson (Editor of The Magic Wand): "A magnificent volume on sleight-of-hand. … Here we find the beautiful sleights of de Kolta, Carl Herrmann, Fusier, Duperrey, Bertram, Hellis, Devant, Downs, Houdin, and scores of others, carefully and lucidly explained by one who is both an enthusiast, an expert, and a competent literary craftsman. … It has only to be known to be appreciated."

Among the well-known performers whose sleights are explained in detail in this book are Howard Thurston, Harry Houdini, Robertson Keene, Arnold de Biere, Burling Hull, Charlier, Roterberg, Alexander Herrmann, Clement de Lion, l'Homme Masqué, Cazeneuve, Caroly, Melot-Herrmann, Erdnase, J. Warren Keane, Imro Fox, Nate Leipzig, Allan Shaw, Trewey, Ellis Stanyon, Selbit, Chung Ling Soo, and the author himself.

This is the one work on pure sleight-of-hand to which the term "encyclopedic" is applicable. It presents written and visual instructions on how to perform the choicest specialties of the outstanding experts in card, coin, ball, and thimble manipulation. The sleights are not only explained with admirable clarity but they are analyzed critically and their points of strength (and weakness, if any) are emphasized. The thoroughness with which the author has performed his task is indicated by the fact that he explains five methods of false shuffling with cards, eleven for making the pass, fifteen for avoiding the use of the pass, four ways to force cards, eleven methods of card-palming, and seventeen "color changes" with cards. Sleights with coins, balls, and thimbles have likewise received exhaustive treatment.

With this volume in his possession, the student of sleight-of-hand will have at his disposal the finest methods that have ever been devised for performing feats of legerdemain. Though Magic without Apparatus is, first and foremost, an encyclopedia of sleights, it contains also a substantial number of complete tricks and manipulative routines which will prove a revelation to all who have not read the book in the original, French edition. Special attention has been given to the basic principles and variations of the back and front palm with cards, coins, thimbles, and even billiard balls. Never before have the possibilities of this important sleight been so thoroughly explored.

In the field of pure sleight-of-hand, Magic without Apparatus will certainly be the book of the year, probably the book of the decade, and possibly even the book of the century. No magician who relies upon the magic of his fingers can afford to be without it.