talkmagic.co.uk

The Gardner book that I mentioned, "Confessor", has a very detailed description of a mental act.

Further on the subject of magic fiction, look out for Clayton Rawson's four books about "The Great Merlini"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Merlini

and also the H G Wells short story "The Magic Shop", reputedly based on an early incarnation of Davenports.

Barry

I bet you that "confessor" act was based on Jon Tremaine who was (and probably still is) a very fine mentalist in his day. Nowadays he writes books himself and does magic shows at children's parties.