A Magician Among the Spirits [Signed to Dr. William McDougall]
- SIGNED
- New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1924
New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1924. Good +. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1924. First Edition, stated with publisher's C-Y code (March 1924). Octavo (24.3cm); publisher's blue cloth with gilt lettering and border; [xxiv],294pp; photo plates and a few vignette illustrations, all present. Missing dust jacket. Decent bow to front board, with heavy chipping at head of spine and splitting to cloth along tail at joint; some scuffs and dulling to gilt, with spine lettering largely rubbed away; scratches and scattered soiling to cloth, mostly to rear board. Opens easily between gatherings but binding is holding soundly. Pages a touch toned, with a one or two dog-eared and a few with scattered light spotting or foxing, not obscuring text. Ownership stamp of Louisiana State psychologist T.L. McCulloch to rear free endpaper with his name penciled at top of front pastedown, else interior unmarked.
Signed by Houdini to friend and Scientific American Psychic Committee colleague Dr. William McDougall on front free endpaper with inscription "To my good friend Prof William McDougall. Best Wishes, Houdini. Dec 11-1925. Signed at Worcester Mass." In January of 1923, Scientific American issued a $2500 challenge to anyone who could give proof of psychic ability under controlled conditions, with Houdini and McDougall on board along with four other researchers to investigate the claims. Houdini briefly describes this committee and a couple of their early cases in this book’s chapter on Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes author and spiritualism true-believer having claimed that Houdini’s established skepticism necessarily biased the impartiality of the entire project.
The date of this copy's inscription coincides with a lunch meeting between Houdini, McDougall, and psychologist Carl Murchison at the Bancroft Hotel. Murchison writes, “Professor McDougall and Mr. Houdini, though the best of friends, did not seem to be in entire agreement concerning certain matters that have become of wide social interest because of newspaper emphasis. Half jokingly and half in earnest, I suggested that they and other representatives thrash out the entire matter in a public symposium to be held at Clark University. The suggestion struck both of them with great force, and the three of us worked together in the lobby for more than two hours, planning the form of the symposium as well as we could at that early date.” The symposium was held almost exactly a year later with Houdini slated as the closing night speaker, though, perhaps in a point scored for the skeptics, his death on Halloween ultimately prevented him from appearing.
Houdini's final book, chronicling his experiences debunking supposed psychics, spiritualists, and mediums. McDougall would go on to establish the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, now the independent Rhine Research Center.
[See Murchison's preface to The Case For and Against Psychical Belief (1927)].
Signed by Houdini to friend and Scientific American Psychic Committee colleague Dr. William McDougall on front free endpaper with inscription "To my good friend Prof William McDougall. Best Wishes, Houdini. Dec 11-1925. Signed at Worcester Mass." In January of 1923, Scientific American issued a $2500 challenge to anyone who could give proof of psychic ability under controlled conditions, with Houdini and McDougall on board along with four other researchers to investigate the claims. Houdini briefly describes this committee and a couple of their early cases in this book’s chapter on Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes author and spiritualism true-believer having claimed that Houdini’s established skepticism necessarily biased the impartiality of the entire project.
The date of this copy's inscription coincides with a lunch meeting between Houdini, McDougall, and psychologist Carl Murchison at the Bancroft Hotel. Murchison writes, “Professor McDougall and Mr. Houdini, though the best of friends, did not seem to be in entire agreement concerning certain matters that have become of wide social interest because of newspaper emphasis. Half jokingly and half in earnest, I suggested that they and other representatives thrash out the entire matter in a public symposium to be held at Clark University. The suggestion struck both of them with great force, and the three of us worked together in the lobby for more than two hours, planning the form of the symposium as well as we could at that early date.” The symposium was held almost exactly a year later with Houdini slated as the closing night speaker, though, perhaps in a point scored for the skeptics, his death on Halloween ultimately prevented him from appearing.
Houdini's final book, chronicling his experiences debunking supposed psychics, spiritualists, and mediums. McDougall would go on to establish the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University, now the independent Rhine Research Center.
[See Murchison's preface to The Case For and Against Psychical Belief (1927)].