I am doing the history of magic project in my English class and I was wondering if anyone had anything that might help. Anything that has to do with the history will be helpful. Thanks
Smagic

According to my sources, magic appeared sometime last week. It came through some sort of quantum tunnel from elsewhere.

Along with its sentimental component, it brought with it artifacts of a history which would lead some to imagine it had been with us much longer. Fortunately according to magic we know it is a recent arrival and the stories in books appeared with it so that the more easily frightened might more readily accept magic into their belief systems.

Personally I suspect that magic is just on of the things that have been creeping into our reality after the mishap with the "Philadelphia Experiment" first opened a quantum tunnel back in the 1940s.

Cute, Jonathan, but I wasn't born yesterday in spite of your theory. Anyway, here's where it all began, at least the written down part of magic history:

http://www.conjuror.com/archives/discoverie/discoverie.html

Go to your local Library and search the Author listings (I almost said in the Card Catalogue!) for Milbourne Christopher. He wrote several books that will be of value for your project.

... in English.

-Jim

Since he said it was for an English class project I was hoping he wanted story ideas.

:)

I guess I should have asked first.

Is there a particular aspect of magic that you wish to do your report on? Topics that come to mind are Houdini, origins of magic, general history of magic, modern magic and how it got that way, etc.

Narrowing down the subject matter will help narrowing down the search.

I appreciate all the reponses that I have received. I am doing the general history of magic. Like,where it started, who the main magicians were that made magic popular in the beginning, etc.
thanks again
smagic

How far back do you want to put the beginning?

It really doesn't matter, however far back I can find information for.

How far back have you found so far?

The books by "Hoffmann" and ... Expert at the Card Table, The Art of Magic and Greater Magic document magic at the turn of the last century (1900) pretty well. That might make a good start.

I really have not found much yet.
Thank you, I will have to look for those

DStachowiak is right. Milbourne Christopher's "Illustrated History of Magic" is the most comprehensive book of its type that I've ever read. Another one to put on my shelf as a "must have".

Have you tried The Learned Pig Project Web site yet? I have just begun cataloging the indices to the first three Learned Pig CD volumes of old books on my site, but even if you don't get the CDs, there's a wealth of historical information on-line free for the searching.

Spellbinder has confirmed this problem for me. Every time I go to The learned pig website and click that I want to be a member, it gives me a 404 page not found error. I have tried, in the past, to email the owner of this site, but never got a response. So what is going on? Does anyone know?

I just went to the Learned Pig Site and found it has a virus attached to it. I also would like to know what is going on with that site.

Hi gman,

What fo mean the site has a virus attached? How did you know or find out? Anything you can share in regards to this would be appreciated, I use the site a fair amount.

Thanks in advance, Mark

It is true. You should NOT go to the Learned Pig Web Site listed above. The site immediately flagged my virus software with this information:

Virus: Downloader
Type: Trojan Horse
Infection Length: varies
Systems Affected: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Me
Downloader connects to the Internet and downloads other Trojan horses or components.

Sombody changed a sows ear into a virus?

Here is a Mirror Site of the Learned Pig Project that seems to be virus free:

http://sky.prohosting.com/fizbin/athenaeum/magos/mirror.html

Yes, Jonathan, I know... why would a pig ever want a mirror? Answer: To make a mirror box for changing a sow's ear into a silk purse.