| Description |
1 online resource (216 pages) : illustrations |
| Series |
Jewish Lives
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Jewish lives (New Haven, Conn.)
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| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Prologue : the Chinese water torture cell -- A father's legacy -- From dime museums to vaudeville -- The Handcuff King conquers Europe -- Return of the hero -- Aloft Down Under -- The great dissolution -- Making movies -- Among the spirits -- Sucker punch -- Ever after. |
| Summary |
In 1916, the war in Europe having prevented a tour abroad, Harry Houdini wrote a film treatment for a rollicking motion picture. Though the movie was never made, its title, "The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini: The Justly Celebrated Elusive American," provides a succinct summary of the Master Mystifier's life. Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, Houdini grew up an impoverished Jewish immigrant in the Midwest and became world-famous thanks to talent, industry, and ferocious determination. He concealed as a matter of temperament and professional ethics the secrets of his sensational success. Nobody knows how Houdini performed some of his dazzling, death-defying tricks, and nobody knows, finally, why he felt compelled to punish and imprison himself over and over again. Must a self-liberator also be a self-torturer? Tracking the restless Houdini's wide-ranging exploits, acclaimed biographer Adam Begley asks the essential question: What kind of man was this?-- Provided by publisher |
| Biography |
Adam Begley is the author of Updike and The Great Nadar. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and for many years the books editor of The New York Observer. He lives in England. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Houdini, Harry, 1874-1926.
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Houdini, Harry, 1874-1926. |
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Escape artists -- United States -- Biography.
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Magicians -- United States -- Biography.
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BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Entertainment & Performing Arts. |
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Escape artists. |
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Magicians. |
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United States. |
| Genre/Form |
Biography
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Begley, Adam. Houdini. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2020] 9780300230796 (OCoLC)1112892183 |
| ISBN |
9780300252255 (electronic book) |
|
0300252250 (electronic book) |
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9780300230796 (hardcover) |
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0300230796 |
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