Lost Houdini Spiritualism scrapbook discovered in California
Today I’m thrilled to share news of a truly incredible find. A hitherto unknown Houdini scrapbook — which has possibly gone unseen for 83 years — was recently discovered by an antique dealer in Southern California.
This amazing book, which Houdini compiled and labeled as “IMPORTANT SCRAP BOOK – MISCELLANEOUS CLIPPINGS,” is jam-packed with newspaper clippings about Spiritualism and Houdini’s own spirit busting activities. Many of the clippings have annotations in Houdini’s own hand. The majority of the material is from 1925 with a few clippings from early 1926.
Of course, 1925 was the height of Houdini’s anti-spiritualism crusade, and it was also the year of his exposure of Margery the Medium. Therefore this scrapbook is filled with clippings chronicling Houdini’s most famous investigation. It also contains several clippings related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Read the full article and check out the amazing photos @ Wild About Harry.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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2 Replies to “Lost Houdini Spiritualism scrapbook discovered in California”
Thank you, Michael, for sharing this. It’s an exciting find!
Following up on this story, the scrapbook is coming up for auction on August 23rd 2014 in Chicago, as part of a Houdini-themed auction: http://www.potterauctions.com.
Here’s a direct link to the description and photos of the scrapbook:
Today I’m thrilled to share news of a truly incredible find. A hitherto unknown Houdini scrapbook — which has possibly gone unseen for 83 years — was recently discovered by an antique dealer in Southern California.
Thank you, Michael, for sharing this. It’s an exciting find!
Following up on this story, the scrapbook is coming up for auction on August 23rd 2014 in Chicago, as part of a Houdini-themed auction: http://www.potterauctions.com.
Here’s a direct link to the description and photos of the scrapbook:
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/28862186_houdinis-large-and-important-spiritualism-scrapbook