Win Masters Of Mystery: The Strange Friendship Of Arthur Conan Doyle And Harry Houdini Depicted By Christopher Sandford Disseminated As Paper Copy
won this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program,
A meticulous study of the relationship between master illusionist Harry Houdini and the remarkable Arthur Conan Doyle, best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Both men shared a tremendous interest in Spiritualism, spending many years and much of their fortunes on trying to contact those who had passed on to the next world.
However, as time passed, their paths turned sharply in different directions, with Houdini bent on debunking fake spiritualists and Conan Doyle determined to support and spread the word of these same people.
I found it fascinating and a little sad that Conan Doyle, a doctor, prolific writer and obviously brilliant man seemed so sold on Spiritualism and its practioners, even when faced with evidence of fraud.
Conan Doyle suffered several family losses during World War I, including his son and his brother, It would be interesting to read more about the relationship between World War I and all of the families it tore apart and the rise of the Spiritualism movement.
The author presents many examples of false spiritualists, ranging from the comic to the truly sordid, This also piqued my interest in reading more about the Spiritualism phenomenom, A worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in Houdini, Conan Doyle, and/or the Spiritualism movement of the early twentieth century, Reading this now Another great find in the library's New NonFiction section,
I'm a fan of both Houdini and Conan Doyle and their respective works, I first heard about their friendship and philosophical disagreements at a presentation by Jamy Ian Swiss, the magician, lecturer, and mentalism myth buster, Intriguing! I heard about it again at the Houdini Museum in Scranton PA, . . Facinating!!
I've been eager to learn more and I hope this book will slant my thirst,
/Onlypages in so far but it feels pretty solid, . . Well researched, pads out the 'friendship' part with separate bios, but constructed to make them look more connected than they really were, actually pretty cleverly, This wasn't quite as entertaining a read as Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, but Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini by Christopher Sandford added dimensions to the era of spiritualism that the former book only touched on.
I had never known that Doyle and Houdini had corresponded extensively despite their differing views on spiritualism, Nor did I know that, Doylecreator of the scientificallyminded detective Sherlock Holmeswas an outspoken advocate of mediums, seances, spirit guides, and the afterlife, These aspects were fascinating, but I think I was able to appreciate them better because I had read Hiding the Elephant first, Interesting book with pluses and minuses, Plus: new information fr me on Houdini's Jewishness and antisemitic reactions to him, Use of different sources on familiar topics, Minus: the author doesn't seem to like Houdini and it shows the timelines of the two men are often unclear some really dumb statements and the usual "I can't help putting my Lefty views in a totally unrelated text, such as references to Margaret Thatcher and Abu Ghraib.
I absolutely loved this book, As a huge Houdini fan and, I suppose a slight fan of Sherlock Holmes I couldn't wait to read this book and when I started, I couldn't stop, It was fascinating and exciting,
As somebody who was raised with a spiritual belief, but who also allows myself to be somewhat sceptical, this book managed to satisfy my inner spiritualist as well as my inner sceptic on equal levels.
Loved it! Pretty dull, which is a surprise, based on the subject matter, The most interesting this ever got was in the early and later sections when the author went for a traditional bio on one of the two title subjects, On the surface you really cannot imagine Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle having much in common,
Christopher Sandford digs deep to show just how alike the two men actually were, Right down to their stubborn refusal to see things from anyone else's point of view, Which ultimately lead to them going from friends to rivals, one would almost be prepared to say, enemies, over Conan Doyle's belief in spiritualism and Houdini's disbelief in same.
The book tracks the ups and downs of both men's lives, and those of their families, Speaking of which, I have come away for the book wanting to know more about Houdini's wife, Bess, A truly amazing woman on a lot of levels,
This book holds great appeal to anyone interested in the history of spiritualism and stage magic, as well as the lives of two extraordinary men,
Highly recommended.
A thoughtful, detailed examination of the lovehate relationship between two giants of their day, the world's most popular magician/illusionist and the most celebrated author, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, and their falling out over the rise of Spiritualist movement.
Competent, wellresearched but ye gods did the second half get repetitive and boring, I really enjoyed this biography, but I love Doyle and Houdini, The fact that they had similar backgrounds and were both interested in the spiritualism religion, albeit from opposing viewpoints was fascinating, Sandford did a great job of not only giving readers an unbiased look into the lives of these men and their families, he also incorporated the world history of the time.
A really interesting read. Renowned mystery author Arthur Conan Doyle and famous illusionist Harry Houdini first met in, during the magician's tour of England, At the time, Conan Doyle had given up his lucrative writing career, killing off Sherlock Holmes in the process, in order to concentrate on his increasingly manic interest in Spiritualism.
Houdini, who regularly conducted séances in an attempt to reach his late mother, was also infatuated with the idea of what he called a "living afterlife," though his enthusiasm came to be tempered by his ability to expose fraudulent mediums, many of whom employed crude variations of his own wellknown illusions.
Using previously unpublished material on the murky relationship between Houdini and Conan Doyle, this sometimes macabre, sometimes comic tale tells the fascinating story of the relationship between two of the most loved figures of theth century and their pursuit of magic and lost loved ones.
I enjoyed this book tremendously, I was always aware that Conan Doyle was interested in the paranormal but this book gives a further depth of understanding on the man behind Sherlock Holmes, It was interesting to find out the relationship between Conan Doyle and Houdini, I recommend this book highly to fellow Sherlockians and fans of Conan Doyle, Mr. Sandford did a fantastic job,.Two because of all the primary and secondary sources you can find and enjoy in the notes and bibliography, The author clearly worked very hard to research his subjects, favoring Conan Doyle's story, a man he has written another book about, This fact should not be surprising,
But those are begrudgingly given, because the author's disinterest in and outright dislike of Houdini is so apparent that it sometimes makes Conan Doyle's devotion to psychic phenomena seem lighthearted.
The interpretations of historical events, letters, and actions are framed through this lens, to occasionally bizarre results, On top of this, the author fails to do any interpreting at significant moments that really do call for it, unless it favors Conan Doyle,
Let me start with this baffling quote from late in the book, referring to Houdini's penchant for photographing himself with mediums he debunked or otherwise went to battle against:
"and even to pose for a photograph with their tormentor, a ritual humiliation with almost an anticipatory touch of Abu Ghraib about it.
"
Okay. Putting aside the hyperbolic description which the author repeatedly chastises Houdini for using, . . in promo copy for this shows, using Abu Ghraib as a comparison is not just offputting, it's offensive, Coupled with his continuous assertions about Houdini's aggression, insecurity, and apparent cloutchasing oh, and he's short, especially compared to Conan Doyle, did you know, it's an uncomfortable analogy for an American Jewish man to face.
Unless you've already read some biographies on Houdini, or his own books I've read a couple of each, including Magician among the Spirits, you're not going to learn much about him.
His actions are going to appear selfserving in a malicious or trollish way, not in the way that is standard for showmen to behave, Oh, god forbid a stage magician use hyperbolic patter or copy or to talk themselves up, That's never been done before or since!
But where I really turned off completely was when the author asserted that Houdini probably had ghost writers because his English wasn't proficient enough.
Despite all of these letters the author himself is citing, Letters that sound very much like the text in his books,
Oh, and the fact that HOUDINI MOVED TO THE UNITED STATES AS A FOUR YEAR OLD BOY, You're telling me that you don't believe he
would be confident in English after FORTY YEARS of speaking it as his primary language Married to an English speaking woman With siblings that spoke English Performing in English across the globe
What
I guess it's attitudes like that that WOULD make Houdini selfconscious and insecure.
Way to go, guy!
The author also liked to frame Conan Doyle has a naive, sweet, but super intelligent and amazing person with few faults except his own generous mindset.
"Despite the differences in temperament, the one aggressive, the other composed, . . "
"But on another level, Doyle remained the most personally unassuming of men, "
"Such was Houdinis initial attitude to Conan Doyle: pleasure, perhaps a bit of possessiveness, mixed with the sort of ambivalent pride a backward boy might feel when he finds himself showing off a trophy that makes other people respect him.
"
"Conan Doyle was sixtyfive, and conspicuously lacked Houdinis allconsuming ego and driving energy, . . "
"All his life, Conan Doyle had been a man of the most extraordinary physical and intellectual energy, Whether dancing across Arctic ice floes, hurling himself down Swiss ski slopes, or abandoning medicine for the vagarious life of an author, he had always been ready for an adventure.
"
"the determination, selfdiscipline, and concentration he had to summon to deal with his commitments on the 'earthly plane' were still enormous, "
I'm just
The book is at a disadvantage from the start, When the author finds one of his subjects to be inferior to the other, how can you write about their relationship in any meaningful way
One of the moments I found really perplexing was the author glossing over the incident of the letter from Houdini's mother.
While often Conan Doyle is given the benefit of the doubt for believing in his spirit guide Pheneas's million predictions of end times, and his insistence in the fairy photos' authenticity, his suspicion that Houdini was being used by Catholics to destroy spiritualism, and his claim that Houdini had to be psychic in some way, when it comes to Houdini being upset by a letter that was a clear lie meant to manipulate him, and that lie was written by an apparent friend, the significance of this is given little grace at all.
It just kind of happens,
Sir Arthur's wife allegedly channeled Houdini's mother, entirely in English, with no specifics and no quirks, and the Doyles became offended when Houdini eventually stopped humoring them.
Houdini is not the irrational one here! He loved his mother dearly, and watching a friend manipulate you, then to act innocent and be touted as levelheaded afterwards, trying to frame you as a bull, would make anyone lose patience! It was exactly the sort of situation Houdini had, for years, since before Conan Doyle's full conversion to spiritualism, been opposed to.
Conan Doyle proved Houdini's point, And yet there's no meaningful discussion of this incident, Probably the biggest turning point, if not the biggest moment in their friendship!
Another weird issue is the author's desperation to make Houdini appear twofaced, Apparently, he has never heard of the idea of talking behind someone's back, It doesn't mean Houdini is wishywashy, It means he's humoring Conan Doyle, whose relationship he valued at the time, but whose beliefs were bonkers! Fully bonkers! And harmful in a world full of recent mass death! Merely glossing over this and not applying it to why Houdini would be so passionately antimedium, doesn't frame their connection well at all.
The impression you come out with is that Houdini was using Conan Doyle to look smarter and intellectual, and that Conan Doyle was just a genuine guy who wanted Houdini to believe.
Believe this
"Conan Doyle continued to communicate, through his wife, with the spirit guide Pheneas, whose warnings about a global apocalypse intensified during, "
“Everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon, ”
"'I expect in the next three or four years some definite messages will be received to prove the contentions of Spiritualists, I believe it sic will come through radio, I think it is along this line that we will get our evidence, '"
"'It was all a 'very deadly plot,' he wrote of one case, before complaining that Houdini was somehow being used by the Catholic Church to obstruct him.
"
And I didn't even highlightof the weirdest things he insisted were true,
I hope someone writes a better book about their relationship, .