Art of Magic: The Companion to the PBS Special

by Carl Waldman, Joe Layden, and Jamy Ian Swiss (who also appeared in and was consultant to the 1997 PBS special)

A beautiful coffee-table style book version of the PBS documentary, The Art of Magic, with a foreword by Siegfried & Roy and a preface by Lance Burton. This extensively illustrated book offers a general overview of the history of magic as practiced by shamans, court entertainers and stage illusionists. Especially useful as a Who's Who of contemporary magicians. A companion to the three-part PBS series which debuted in February, 1998. A nice book to show to non-magician friends, and also a beautiful gift item.

[Note from JIS: A notorious error in this book — the misattribution of an Alexander poster as Alexander Hermann, outraged Norm Nielsen, and I had to explain at the time that, the fault of one of the other authors, the book was rushed into print and I never got to review final copy before it went to the printer!]