OH WHAT FUN-- It's December 26, and some 899 magicians around the world are doing what I am today -- dipping into their marvelous two-volume study of of Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser, Non Plus Ultra, by Magic Christian. Most, I suspect, are temporarily postponing their reading of the extensively illustrated Volume I (Magic of the 19th Century, Hofzinser's biography) for the secrets of Volume II (Hofzinser's Card Artistry). Skimming through its many pages (470), I am not sure which impresses me most, Hofzinser's creativity or Magic Christian's scholarship.

The former is certainly without parallel. Was Hofzinser truly that inventive, or was he a time traveler returning to the 19th century with the most potent of 20th- and 21st-century card methods? Combined with nontrivial sleight of hand, he certainly makes extraordinary use of gaffed cards, including double facers, double backs, split indexes, the transparent card, flap cards, card boxes, card indexes, a metal tray that serves as a card index, and more.

Consider: In The Ace of Hearts - The Lonely Card, five spectators select a card from a shuffled deck. The ace of hearts is removed and one by one changes into each spectator's card, finally returning to its ace of hearts state with no funny business at all. Behind this is an amazing employment of a mental subtlety, a bottom change, split indexes, and the transparent card. Brilliant.

Or consider: Among the chapter "The Card Etudes" is an extended routine involving the Magnetic Cards, Diminishing and Growing Cards, and a Sewn Deck (19th century Electric Deck) used as a secret device. The sequence would kill today.

New kids on the block.

Or: The Thoughts allows the magi to place a card face down on the table. The spectator chooses any card from a second deck. With a three of clubs from a third deck, the original card is flipped face up. It matches the spectator's selection.

Or, amazingly: With the Wonderful Deck, several spectators select a card which all turn out to be the eight of diamonds. They then do so even more fairly, but all select the ten of spades. This is impossible, because all cards in the deck are shown to be the jack of clubs. No--they are all the king of hearts. The deck is shown to have all 52 values, placed into a pocket, and then any three named cards are produced on demand.

Or, a final example, this extended routine: In Three Thoughts, three selected cards jump from the deck in an outer breast pocket. The deck vanishes and reappears. Three more cards rise from a glass. A queen of hearts is marked by tearing off a corner. A portrait is shown of the famous dancer Pepita de Oliva. The deck is thrown at the portrait and the cards, including the torn queen, appear under the glass. The corner matches. Finally, a card is stuffed into a pistol and fired at a candle. The card takes the place of the flame. Ah, a perfect routine to go viral on YouTube.

But then there is Magic Christian's research. He not only rescued much of the material from obscurity, but from an old form of German cursive. The magic discussed was distilled from some 280 written documents, private collections, letters, and some 2700 newspaper articles. The work must have been staggering, and the results are a privilege to hold. The research continues: the author promises many questions to be answered, a description of Hofzinser's salon magic, and newly discovered information in a third, largest volume.

The present volumes are physically handsome jumbo books (Volume I was 392 pages), slipcased. The layout is admirable, with Hofzinser's witty, urbane patter in a thin left column and the trick instructions a thin column on the right. Text quoted from other sources stands out nicely against a gray background. Volume II is illustrated with vintage line drawings and a wealth of clear photos, Volume I with many portraits and reproductions of other documents. A must buy for all interested in the history of card magic. Written by Magic Christian, translated from German by Dave Shepherd, jointly published by Hermetic Press an the Conjuring Arts Research Center. $249 plus postage.

Food for thought: I notice that the lifespans of Charles Dickens and Hofzinser were rather congruent, yet I know of no awareness of Hofzinser on Dickens' part, even though he had an interest in magic. Perhaps the language barrier prevented what might have been a happy meeting for both.

GHOST STORY -- In 1999, Jim Steinmeyer printed up 150 copies of lecture notes on Pepper's Ghost, for presentation in Chicago. Being the only extensive source on the history of the illusion and on its technical requirements, it quickly became a sought after document. Fortunately, Jim has just re-issued the notes in a swell hardback edition under the original title, The Science Behind the Ghost! The volume also contains Jim's 2001 lecture notes, Discovering Invisibility, a history of how mirrors have been used to make someone or some thing vanish, or to conceal them prior to a production.

The Ghost returns in a new hardback.

Jim carefully traces the origins and evolution of Pepper's Ghost--credits were contentious--with Pepper being more its promoter than its inventor. Even more fascinating were the various arrangements of mirrors and glass and lighting to achieve the ghostly effects, leading up to such modern arrangements as (my favorite) Disney's Haunted Mansion and to a Spirit Lodge exhibit at the Vancouver World's Fair in 1986. The latter featured Holavision, a name that may have misled its viewers. The most amazing use of Pepper's Ghost that I have personally witnessed is in the Lincoln Library, in Springfield, Illinois, and it also uses Holavision. Check it out here.

"It's all done with mirrors" is the public explanation of everything that can't be explained by "it went up his sleeve," and the second half of the book tips just how true that is in some cases. The most impressive is of course The Million Dollar Mystery, adequately covered here and covered at much greater detail in the recently reviewed Caveney book, detailing how Caveney and Steinmeyer brought the illusion to life. Newest to me in the second half of the book was Ragtime Magic, in which four men show four empty boxes atop a table and eventually produce a lady from each. As with many things Jim Steinmeyer's books have revealed to me over the years, I wouldn't have had a clue.

A fine book in Steinmeyer's usual clean clear prose with many illustrations that convey the sometimes extraordinary lengths magicians will go to to fool the eye. Hardback, 190 pages, $65 from Hahne (www.jimsteinmeyer.com).

GIFTS FROM CHRISTMAS PAST -- One of the true delights in life is to uncover some forgotten treasure from your own childhood. It is literally like time travel. Such was my good fortune back in '06. My siblings and I were going through my mother's things after she had passed away, when one of them asked, "What's this?" Protected all these years in its own felt carrying case was none other than a Ken Allen Tricky Tray, a gorgeous black lucite tray useful for switching in, say, a sizable bill in a Bank Night routine. I was astute enough to have purchased the larger size tray ("winner of the Award of Merit") at a professional 7 by 12 inches (it was $6.50 while its smaller cousin was $4.50), and it would work perfectly today in any Bank Night routine, such as John Archer's.

The perfect Bank Night utility.

This note sent me back to Ken Allen's Catalog of Modern Magic, and what a delight that was. Ken sold fabulous tricks made of plastic (Jumping Gems, The Pin-Up Paddle, On the Square, Frame Fantastique) along with such personal favorites as Chinatown Quarter, Scoop, and Robot Coins in Glass. All were illustrated (by Dick Briefer and Ed Mishell) with sexy cartoons of buxom ladies, the perfect lure to my teenage magical desires. The only ads that affected me more were Richard Himber's in Genii.

The perfect Bank Night utility.