The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini

By Ruth Brandon

Book Overview

For many performers, stage life and real life are separate identities. For master illusionist Harry Houdini, the two were inextricably linked. In this widely acclaimed biography, Ruth Brandon shows how Houdini's obsession with his own mortality drove him to create death-defying stunts that not only captivated the public but also subdued his own raging psychological demons. As Brandon relates Houdini's methods of escape, she asks: What was he trying to escape from? Her exploration of the psychic landscape of one of the most enduringly famous performers of the twentieth century makes for utterly fascinating reading. Brandon reveals much that is new: how Houdini invented a phantom son; why he wrote long daily letters to his wife, Bess, who lived one ?oor below him; his combative relations with mediums and spiritualists, including Arthur Conan Doy= and the ?rst full description of his fabled death. This de?nitive biography allows readers to peer into Houdini's psyche and understand him more deeply than ever before. From the Trade Paperback edition.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679424377
• ISBN13: 9780679424376
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A good book, but...

Overall, an enjoyable read, but I agree with prior reviewers -- too much Freudian analysis for my taste, and I don't care to hear the author's personal experiences.

Strongly Suggested Book

This book is good. It has many interesting facts about Houdini. It explains his life and career. I strongly suggest it.

Good but...

I've read every biography on Harry Houdini and this one is good...but it isn't the best. (The best is Ken Silverman's Houdini! The Career of Ehrich Weiss.) Here Ruth Brandon has mined information from older Houdini bios and created a skillful patchwork. Even her much publicized (and much maligned) "psycho-babble" comes right out of Bernard C. Meyer's Houdini A Mind in Chains (1976). Indeed, this excellent long out-of-print book seems to be Ms. Brandon's Deep Throat. Her chapter relating the events leading up to Houdini's death is taken almost paragraph for paragraph from the Meyer book. And do we really need to hear about the author's own childhood experiences with magic? Still, it's a good read, but for a serious and truly revealing Houdini bio, go with the Silverman book.

Interesting but Flawed

A very interesting book for the most part. I only gave it four stars, however, because of the author's intermittent psycho-babble ramblings.

a well-written biography of the master magician.

I have read a few books on Harry Houdini, and I have found Ms. Brandon's book to be very informative, interesting, and insightful. Since I purchased this book two years ago, I have read it over and over again. My husband usually asks,"haven't you finished that book yet?!" I really enjoyed it.