Houdini: The Elusive American

Hardcover, 232 pages

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.
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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. Tracking the restless Houdini��s wide-ranging exploits, acclaimed biographer Adam Begley tells the story of a mystifying man��s astonishing career.