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Exceedingly rare Book: Ted Lesley (ed.), The Meyer / Hugard - Letters, 1938-1964, (sic:) For Mr. Alfred Czernewitz, Berlin (by the editor) 1993, ca. 50 unnumbered pages, softbound.

Very good condition.

Ex-libris of Don Alfredo (pseud.: Alfred Czernewitz).

It seems that this book was produced only ONE time by the editor to his friend. This indicates the dedication in the title. If t were more produced for other persons on demand (or gift) t should be other names as part of the title!

The first two pages are of red lacquered paper. Ted Lesley writes: "Dear Friend Alfred, it was about 15 years ago, that I purchased from the late Orville Meyer a complete, bound file of the famous magazine HUGARD´S MAGIC MONTHLY. As I had received the volumes I found to my surprise and delight original letters from the late Jean Hugard bound in them. I had all these letters photocopied twice on parchment paper by my good friend Manfred Bacia and a bookbinder bound them in red leather. One of these very special books I sent to Orville Meyer as a Christmas present and the second one went to my good friend PUNX. Orville Meyer became a great friend of mine and we exchanged a lot of letters until his death in June 1992. He asked me, not to publish Hugard´s letters until he was gone and I kept my promise. The following copies of Jean Hugard´s letters will never been published again. Please, keep them as a memory to two of the greatest American magicians, inventors and writers: ORVILLE MEYER and JEAN HUGARD. Berlin, March 30th, 1993. (Ted Lesley: Signed by the editor).

Those letters are very intriguing, written by Hugard to Meyer and they talk about magic tricks, problems and the magicians too, e.g.: "Mulholland does something after this style but I have bever seen his program. He works it through the lecture bureaus and he´s wise for I am sure he could never get any engagements in any other way. I don´t know if you have ever seen him work but he´s just about as far from my idea of a magician as you could get, yet he has worked up a publicity reputation that is astonishing. (...) He has cultivated some close up stunts which he works on every possible occasion, works the high and mighty magician business and gets away with it. I believe in reality he has an inferiority complex. You may note he never really gives a worth while criticism of a book. It´s always merely general terms, "up to his usual standard" and so on. I no longer send him any copies. Also he doesn´t mix with us poor ordinary mortals."

I think this is an unusual item with considerable interest to american magicana collectors.

MAGIC MAGIE CONJURING CONJUROR CONJURER ESCAMOTEUR PRESTIDIGITATEUR PRESTIDIGITATION ZAUBERKÜNSTLER TASCHENSPIELER LIBRE LIBRO BOOK BOEK LIVRE BUCH STORIA HISTORY HISTOIRE GESCHIEDENIS

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