Signed Houdini Books & Ephemera
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GUEST:
I brought a letter that we found at my father's house to my grandfather from Harry Houdini. And my favorite part of the letter says, "Waited for you last Sunday, but evidently our appointment must have been overlooked," which means that he was blown off by my grandfather. And then a couple of days later, we found this book that was autographed to my grandfather from Houdini. And then a little while later, in another box, we found another book that was also autographed to my grandfather from Houdini. And then sort of the final part of the story was a note that we found in another Houdini book from Houdini's wife, thanking my grandfather for his sympathy extended after Houdini's death. Evidently they were friends, from the inscriptions in these books.
APPRAISER:
And these were just sitting up in the attic?
GUEST:
They were. My grandfather was an author and a critic in New York around the same time that Houdini was working, so they must have had professional connection. And my family likes to keep things for a very long time, so they were saved for me to find.
HOST: Harry Houdini books are collectible. One of the things that's really hard about his books, though, is the dust jackets are rare. Another interesting thing about Houdini is he also wrote books about spiritualism. The book you have over there, A Magician Among the Spirits, was very much against spiritualism, trying to show all the tricks that the supposed spiritualists used. Miracle Mongers and Their Methods, essentially getting onto the same ideas. The book you have closer to you, The Magician, the dust jacket has a little bit of a separation on it, which... it's there. The dust jacket is there. There's not a lot of pieces missing. And then, of course, as you said, it's signed and inscribed. If you could open that up again. It's a very nice inscription. You know, it wasn't just signed "Harry Houdini." It was inscribed with a little bit of a note.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
This book was also signed, "To my friend, Houdini," in 1924. The sympathy card is very nice. I mean, that sort of adds to the whole package.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Your grandfather blew Houdini off. I mean, you know, when you think of this...
GUEST:
Yes, I know.
APPRAISER:
You don't really know what happened in all of that. But it's really interesting. I mean, how many people now, "Gee, let's get together," how many people would say, "No, Harry, see you later"? The Houdini note is very nice, and on its own, just by itself, is probably in the $500 range. That's just the note. The sympathy card is nice, probably another $100 or so. It sort of goes with everything else. “The Magician Among the Spirits”, the dust jacket could be repaired fairly easily. You're probably talking in the $4,000, $5,000, maybe even $6,000 range.
GUEST:
Oh! (laughing)
APPRAISER:
“The Miracle Mongers”, again, this dust jacket is particularly hard to get, and signed. And again, you're talking in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. All of these are retail prices. You've got over $10,000 possible in the retail.
GUEST:
But we're not going to sell it, but that's good to know.
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