Death of the Magician: 100th Anniversary of Houdini’s Tragic Death

Harry Houdini died 100 years ago this Halloween, the master magician shuffling off this mortal coil on Oct. 31, 1926. But his real final act — the Prestige, in the parlance — was that he never really disappeared. He bequeathed to the Library his astonishing collection of books on magic, witchcraft and spiritualism, about 4,000 books in all, going back to 1489, ensuring that the nation would always have access to his world of the mystical. He remains, after all this time, firmly embedded in pop culture.

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