The Effect
Dai Vernon: A Biography
Artist - Magician - Muse
David Ben
Cost
Available from: http://www.squashpublications.com/PD208.html
Price: £28.75( Including International Delivery) From Publisher
Amazon :£47.12 (excluding p&p)
Publisher's blurb
Dai Vernon was born in Canada but moved to New York in 1915. Miracles flowed from his fingertips - effortlessly. The source of his secrets? The underworld and the gamblers, husters and con-men that roamed back-room dens of iniquity, bunked in jail cells and walked the streets of America. Vernon sought them out, befriended them, and made their work, their covert methods, his.
This book is the first in-depth examination of Vernon's life, traces the first half of his remarkable journey - through Ottawa, Coney Island, Chicago, Manhattan, Kansas City and Colorado Springs - and the celebrities - Houdini, Billy Rose, and Roosevelt, that Vernon encountered along the way.
Dai Vernon: A Biography also details the evolution of magic in the 20th century. From the stages of London and Paris to the back rooms of magic emporiums where secrets were bought and sold, Vernon's life and work escort the reader through vaudeville, Broadway theaters, grand magic spectaculars, New York nightspots and the dawn of television. Here, cornerstones of the craft have finally been laid bare for all to see.
Hardbound, 370 pages with over 40 rare photographs and a full-color dust jacket.
Difficulty
N/A Magic History
Review
What can be said about Dai Vernon that has not already been said. His reputation and influence on Magic and Magicians in the 20th Century is un-debateable.
This is the first Volume that traces the first half of Dai Vernon's life. A second book is being written by David Benn due to be released in 2009. If you want a book about his magic then there are other books available. However, if you love stories about magicians and learning about the experiences that formed them and made them the interesting characters that they became you will LOVE this book.
David Benn has done a suoerb job in researching letters and basicaly using the transcripts of an audio interview with Vernon to let us inside the life story of maybe the second Father of "modern Magic."
David Benn has taken a scholarly approach to this Biography. For the outstanding contribution that Vernon has made to magic then this book will be a classic worth 10 times the price.
My Rating 10/10