“There can be no doubt that Houdini possessed supernatural powers; how other way could he have got out of a locked prison?”
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“There are only three names familiar to readers of the civilized world: Sherlock Holmes, Jesus Christ and Houdini.”
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——George Bernard Shaw

“Whether he was handing upside down from a skyscraper or telephoning from a chest in water, his career was an icon of modernity, inseparable from skyscrapers, from front page headlines, planes, the radio, cars, submarines…”
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——Kenneth Silverman

★Foreign sales previous author’s books: USA, Brazil, Spain, Hungary, Esthonia.
★English sample available.

　　The greatest magician of all times, the man that no prison could hold, the sworn enemy of false mediums and charlatans: Harry Houdini was all this and more. It is the extraordinary story of a child, who emigrated from Hungary to the United States who, from the streets, where penniless he performed as a magician for a few cents, became the first real international superstar at the beginning of the 20th century. The story of an eclectic man full of contradictions, but who was able to establish himself in a wide variety of fields, from the theatre to the cinema to aviation, and despite his limits imposed himself as an essential figure even on the highest milieus. His life only lasted 52 years, but it was so full of adventures and twists and turns as to seem a novel. It is not surprising then, that Houdini, whose name everybody still known even a century later, has succeeded in the greatest feat of all: becoming immortal.

Massimo Polidoro writer and journalist, cofounder and secretary of the Italian Committee for checking statements on pseudoscience, formerly a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Milan and a historian of illusionism, has collected in this book, the result of thirty years of research, which have led him to meet the greatest experts and collectors of Houdini all over the world.