talkmagic.co.uk

Working my way, slowly, through the Royal Road to Card Magic I really like the style set by the authors and I would be very interested to read more about them.

I'm assuming, perhaps wrongly, that they are now dead but surely there must be a biography or some more information on them somewhere...

I would be particularly interested in anything more that they had to say about performing. Its the style and the mindset they extoll that I find very interesting and I would love to know more about their approach to magic and how they performed.

Any suggestions where I should look either electronically or in paper form?

As you say, Alas neither of these gentlemen are alive.
Hugard ( 1872 to 1959), and his collaborator Frederick Braue ( no details available) must rank as the most prolific writers on the subject of magic from the last 100 years or so.
Jean also wrote many books as a solo project, and with other authors, but it appears that although each and every one of these publications are worth their weight in gold, the works penned with Braue are by far the more successful.

thir classic texts royal road to card magic, and expert card technique, being sited around the world as the seminal work on card magic.

However as can be seen below, Hugard also performed , and indeed had some success at the time with an act emulating that of Chung Ling Soo...




Dale

http://www.magicgallery.com/images/Hugapanel.jpg

an adition to above.
Hugards real name was John Gerard Rodney Boyce. No wonder he changed it
Braue died in 1962.

Many thanks for posting daleshrimpton.

John Gerard Rodney Boyce

He sounds like an episode of only fools and horses!

I believe that James B. Alfredson wrote a book about Jean Hugard. Although I suspect it is not widely available anymore. It was reviewed in the July 1997 Genii magazine.

Some possible links are here.
BookFinder
Barnes and Noble


Books written be Jean Hugard include...

HUGARD'S MAGIC MANUAL

Modern Magic Manual

Card Manipulations Series 1-5

The Encyclopedia of Card Tricks

More Card Manipulations

Expert Card Technique

Handkerchief Magic

The complete guide to card tricks and techniques

Card Magic for Amateurs and Professionals

Actually there are too many to list. Check out this fantastic list of second hand books.

http://www.joyalstack.com/Pages/DejaLu/ ... gardJ.html

I've got Hugard's two volume Coin Magic book...

The first 'Proper' magic book I got was called 125 Card Tricks and Stunts' which came with a deck of cards. It was pitched at beginners, but was actually a reprint of the first five Card Manipulations booklets (and as such, absolutely _not_ for the beginner).

Jeff McBride does 'Silas and the Slickers' from More Card Manipulations on one of his tapes.

Take care, Ian

bananafish wrote:

John Gerard Rodney Boyce

He sounds like an episode of only fools and horses!

LOL. I thought the same thing myself