Houdini, Adam Begley
Houdini, Adam Begley
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Houdini
The Elusive American

Author: Adam Begley

Narrator: Barry Abrams

Unabridged: 6 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/17/2020


Synopsis

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an exuberant biography of the world's greatest escape artist.

In 1916, the war in Europe having prevented a tour abroad, Harry Houdini wrote a film treatment for a rollicking motion picture. Though the movie was never made, its title, "The Marvelous Adventures of Houdini: The Justly Celebrated Elusive American," provides a succinct summary of the Master Mystifier's life.

Born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, Houdini grew up an impoverished Jewish immigrant in the Midwest and became world-famous thanks to talent, industry, and ferocious determination. He concealed as a matter of temperament and professional ethics the secrets of his sensational success. Nobody knows how Houdini performed some of his dazzling, death-defying tricks, and nobody knows, finally, why he felt compelled to punish and imprison himself over and over again. Tracking the restless Houdini's wide-ranging exploits, acclaimed biographer Adam Begley tells the story of a mystifying man's astonishing career.

About Adam Begley

Adam Begley is the author of Updike and The Great Nadar. He was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, and for many years the books editor of The New York Observer. He lives in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Eleanor on March 05, 2023

Sometimes I feel like a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer. Other times I don’t. I promise to hold a seance in your honour x......more

Goodreads review by Carolyn on August 31, 2021

A short biography of Houdini focusing on why he performed his escape acts rather than the techniques he employed to escape from jail cells and water tanks. The book was most interesting when it focused on Houdini's overseas tours and placed him in the context of his times. The European tour in the e......more

Goodreads review by Deke on July 25, 2024

Great, short biography by @jewishlives - even though I have known the name Houdini forever, I didn’t really know anything at all about him. And it honestly wasn’t until a few years ago, that I even knew he was Jewish! But I also learned that he is the first person to fly in airplane in Australia? As......more

Goodreads review by Harry on January 09, 2025

Begley's biography of Houdini covers all the literature to date (2020), including psychological inferences to his character, especially his intense love of his mother.......more

Goodreads review by Jason on June 16, 2024

Short, but excellent biography!......more