On 2009-05-03 12:42, Lawrence O wrote:
A bit of history

In working on this material, it has become clear that there were two particularly interesting and productive eras in the 19C for books edited in English. In the fifteen years from 1857, there appeared about a dozen books in the US and the UK: The Magician's Own Book (1857); Parlour Pastime, by "Uncle George" (1857); The Sociable (1858); The Boy's Own Toymaker, by Landells (1858); The Book of 500 Curious Puzzles (1859); The Secret Out (1859); Indoor and Outdoor Games for Boys and Girls (c1859); The Boy's Own Conjuring Book (1860); The Illustrated Boy's Own Treasury (1860, but see below); The Parlor Magician (1863); The Art of Amusing, by Bellew (1866); Parlour Pastimes (1868); Hanky Panky (1872); Within Doors, by Elliott (1872); Magic No Mystery (1876), just to name those that I know. Most of these are of uncertain authorship and went through several editions and versions. The Magician's Own Book, The Book of 500 Curious Puzzles, The Secret Out, The Sociable, The Parlor Magician, Hanky Panky, and Magic No Mystery seem to be by the same author(s). I own a number of previously unseen versions sometimes two editions of the same title are essentially fairly different! This is particularly true between US and UK editions. Many of the later UK editions say 'By the author of Magician's Own Book etc., translated and edited by W. H. Cremer Jr.' From the TPs, it is claimed that they were written by Wiljalba Frikell (1818 1903) and then translated into English. However, BMC and NUC generally attribute the earlier US editions to George Arnold (1834-1865), and some catalogue entries explicitly say the Frikell versions are later editions, so it may be that Frikell produced later editions in some other language (French or German ??) and these were translated by Cremer. On the other hand, the UK ed of The Secret Out says it is based on Le Magicien des Salons ou le Diable Couleur de Rose, for which I have several references, with different authors! -- J. M. Gassier, 1814; M. [Louis Apollinarie Christien Emmanuel] Comte, 1829; Richard (pseud. of A. O. Delarue, a magic publisher), 1857 and earlier. There was a German translation of this. Some of these are at HPL but ??NYS. Items with similar names are: Le Magicien de Société, Delarue, Paris, c1860? and Le Manuel des Sorciers (various Paris editions from 178?-1825, cf in Common References). It seems that this era was inspired by these earlier French books. To add to the confusion, an advertisement for the UK ed. of Magician's Own Book (1871?) says it is translated from Le Magicien des Salons which has long been a standard in France and Germany. Toole Stott opines that Frikell had nothing to do with these books -- as a celebrated conjuror of the times, his name was simply attached to the books. Toole Stott also doubts whether Le Magicien des Salons exists (I own several editions of it), though it may not have been the direct source for any of these works, but see below.

Christopher 242 cites the following article on this series.
Charles L. Rulfs. Origins of some conjuring works. Magicol 24 (May 1971) 3-5. He discusses the various books, saying that Cremer essentially pirated the Dick & Fitzgerald productions. He says The Magician's Own Book draws on Wyman's Handbook (1850, ??NYS), Endless Amusement, Parlour Magic (by W. Clarke?, 1830s, ??NYS), Brewster's Natural Magic (??NYS). He says The Secret Out is largely taken, illustrations and all, from Blismon de Douai's Manuel du Magicien (1849, ??NYS) and Richard & Delion's Magicien des salons ou le diable couleur de rose (1857 and earlier, ??NYS).

Christopher 622 says Harold Adrian Smith [Dick and Fitzgerald Publishers; Books at Brown 34 (1987) 108-114] has studied this series and concludes that Williams was the author of Magician's Own Book, assisted by Wyman. Actually Smith simply asserts: "The book was undoubtedly [sic] written by H. L. Williams, a "hack writer" of the period, assisted by John Wyman in the technical details." He gives no explanation for his assertion. He later says he doubts whether Cremer ever wrote anything. He suggests The Secret Out book is taken from DeLion. He states that The Boy's Own Conjuring Book is a London pirate edition.

This Hotel Room is a mess: I will have to get back there and try and put a bit of order into this.

On 2009-06-05 07:01, sleightly wrote:
...."Ethics" hold no legal basis and if you wish to protect your property you first have to establish sound legal grounds that it has independent value that should be protected. This requires cooperation and coordination, something the magic industry has not been very successful accomplishing, despite all the fraternal and professional organizations.