Houdini: His Life Story

The greatest escape artist in history was also one of the most complicated men America ever produced. This biography, drawn from Houdini's own autobiographical fragments, diary entries, and the vivid memories of his wife Beatrice, strips away the legend to reveal the hungry immigrant boy who reinvented himself as a god. We see the brutal training, the years of failure, the obsessive perfecting of each illusion, and the clever mechanics behind the tricks that stunned the world. But we also see the man who craved respectability, who befriended presidents and detectives, who fought Spiritualism after his mother's death, and who knew his body would eventually betray him. Kellock gives us not just the secrets of the Chinese Water Torture Cell and the Milk Can, but the private anguish of a performer who could escape anything except time. This is essential reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know how the magic was actually made, and what it cost.