Magic Is Dead: My Journey into the World's Most Secretive Society of Magicians

including Davenport’s, London’s oldest magic store, which was founded in 1898 and is still in operation.

For the proceeding 3,500 years, magicians were largely viewed as people with supernatural powers, not performers. “When guys back in the caveman days figured out how to make a stick disappear, they didn’t do it to make money; they did it to foster a belief in the supernatural, or to be perceived as godlike, to deceive people and make them believe t

I had always looked up to Anthony: his adventurous, no-holds-barred approach to life, his understanding that profound moments could be found just about anywhere, his endless quest for wonder in a world that sometimes can feel so unforgiving.

It transforms into a rock that must be carried in the pocket of his son, a ghastly thing that never seems to go away. And, despite being in my pocket for many years, I have never touched that rock. I do not know its grooves and crevices, its bumps and ridges. I know only its weight and its inability to be removed. To this day, despite this phantom

Max Malini, a stout Polish sleight-of-hand artist from New York City, operated with a sense that magic only existed as a moment—something that just was, with no explanation of why. He wanted his magic to blend seamlessly into everyday situations—bending, but not breaking, the objective reality so many people were quick to accept as fact.

“A great trick, like a great song, should be an inspiration,” Jim Steinmeyer told Esquire in 2012. “It should lead you to other things that are also wonderful. That’s what happens in literature, and it happens in music, and it happens in art. But in magic, they don’t do that. They just take it. You would hope that what you do inspires, but instead

One of his most famous mechanical inventions was the Marvelous Orange Tree. The effect began with Robert-Houdin

Hearing how my friends had come to invent their tricks fueled my ambition. My goal at the start of this entire adventure had been to understand the mind of a magician, someone who sees the world through the lens of deception—people who strive, as a career choice, to hack the concept of reality for the entertainment of others.

For much of the 1970s, Doug Henning was North America’s best-known magician. He was a charismatic and comedic entertainer, and he connected with large audiences because of his personal brand. He was a straight-up hippie: fuzzy mustache, long Allman Brothers–style hair, bell bottoms, and tie-dyed shirts. His image fit snugly into the trendy, New Age