The Genii e-archives is a tremedous resource. But you kind of have to know what you are looking for. Otherwise it's information overload. The pages load relatively slowly -- too slowly for true browsing. Its like getting 50+ years of a monthly magazine all at once, one page at a time. BTW, Erdnase is on the site too. The Copyright must have expired.

I think this forum needs to seriously exchange information on our favorites from the past published in Genii to make this resource realize its true value.

I saw one post on this general subject, but only a few replies offered favorites. I'd like to encourage others to pitch in with their favorite effects from Genii through the years. I only recently started subscribing again since I was a kid, so I'm pretty useless for anything other than the last 3 issues. But I (and I'm sure just about every Genii subscriber on this forum) would be very very grateful to anyone who would lend some insight on the best tricks (and if possible the Genii issues in which they appeared) that are worth going back and studying and learning.

Anyone? Anyone?

Hi Ged,

When you reach 50 posts, you will have access to the area of The Café called the Banquet Room. There is a section called Secret Sessions. In that area I started a thread two years ago called "Classic Periodicals." (There is also a Book Gems thread too ). Anyhow, the idea of Classic Periodicals is for people to share effects and citations - but not actual methods - so that the community can find cool stuff. There are a few there from Genii. The thread has grown and, I hope you'll contribute.

As for the Genii archive, it is part of The Conjuring Arts Research Center which is a GREAT resource. They are working on the search engine, etc., but they don't have a large staff or bottomless pots of money. The page at a time prevents wholesale downloading of complete runs of these periodicals. That said, CARC has made some available as complete downloads, the latest two being Precursor and Hugard's Magic Monthly. I have asked Richard repeatedly if he would consider releasing the Genii archive on DVD. This has been done for other huge collections such as The Gen, The Sphinx, The Magic Wand, The Tops, and The New Tops. He feels however that there is not a market for it. I disagree but, Genii is his baby and it's his right to disseminate it any way he chooses.

Actually, the CARC interface isn't that bad; you just need to learn how to refine your search criteria in the Advanced Search area. Loading times are getting better too. The onky thing that is a glaring problem is the use of frames in the HTML coding as the frame itself is a bit intrusive - it needs to be narrowed a bit. Richard Kaufman stated here recently that they are working with CARC to improve it all.

Even though it's not perfect, it's really a hell of a resource and I am overjoyed that Kaufman and Co. and CARC have Genii available.

Lastly, in Secret Sessions is a splendid thread by Hideo Kato called Today's Finding. You will find a mountain of Genii references there. So, get posting Ged!

Namaste,
Vlad

PS: Erdnase has been in public domain for quite awhile.

Thank you Vlad_77 for responding. I didn't have any trouble with the Genii interface, given my limited expectations of it. I understand they don't want people downloading the entire database. The problem is there is no real way to search for the really great tricks and the interface by design makes true browsing slow. What are the strongest effects is to a great degree subjective anyway, and requires practice and reporting from the magic community. Hence my thought that one really needs to know what you are looking for in advance -- you cannot just search for card tricks and expect anything less than a deluge. I guess I'll have to wait until I reach 50 posts and can get to the Banquet Room. I did search back in the Genii threads in this forum and found several posts along he same lines as mine and compiled a list of some of the effects other people identified as ones they particularly liked over the years. I'll try to put that up on your page when I can access it. Thanks again.

Ged, it sounds like you're looking for a commentary on the Genii archives. Cool idea. If you're looking for a specific trick, review, or person, the CARC search engine is pretty good. But it's a search engine, not a commentary.

It would be awesome if someone released a "Best of" volume containing the best tricks and articles from Genii's run. It would be a lot of work to put together, but I bet you can't say there is no market for it. You could release an entire book that was nothing but indexed book reviews from Genii and I'm pretty sure there would be a market for that too!

Hi manananmaclir,

I am on your side! I believe that there are many markets out of Genii alone. Many of us were waiting on Magicana but, since it is available in its entirety on CARC, I was told by a few folks that the Genii archive it was felt made Magicana rather redundant.

Again, I respectfully disagree with Mr. Kaufman concerning making the Larsen years of Genii available as a DVD set. Chris Wasshuber, the late Martin Breese, and Todd Karr have released DVD runs of Tops, New Tops, The Gen, The Wizard, The Magic Wand, The Sphinx, Blueprint, Minotaur, Cardiste, Mahatma, all of the Goldston journals, Stanyon's Magic, etc.. Harry Loryane has allowed the complete run Apocalypse to be sold digitally. CARC has released Precursor and Hugard's Magic Monthly. The Jinx and Pabular are also available digitally as is The Phoenix and many more.

Chris Wasshuber took a huge risk in 2002 by releasing The Sphinx - and it wasn't a mere 40.00 item, but magicians bought it. Eleven years later Chris, Todd Karr, and many other vendors are still at it so unless they are collectively insane, the market does exist. I would gladly pay 1000-1500 USD for a digital run of Genii; in fact I have begged Mr. Kaufman to consider it and even put the idea out there for people, but, it is his baby and I have to respect his wishes. (Note: I am a grad student which means I am poorer than poor, but somehow, someway, I would scare up the dosh for Genii).

Perhaps in a parallel universe I am perusing it offline instead of writing this post.

Namaste,
Vlad

I knew about some of the CARC resources, but not a lot of the others. I should go do some digging and see if I can find links.

The selling point of a best of or complilation is in the fact that it's either all gems or all the resources of a particular type. If Mr. Kaufman could be convinced to take a much smaller risk on something like that and it did well, perhaps he could be called upon to release the other. Just a thought.

It's a good thought but I would offer that doing such a thing would be a gargantuan task and also, Mr. Kaufman would have to identify a target audience. Genii has everything from small impromptu magic to full scale illusions. On top of that, the Larsen years - 1936-1998 - is a huge chunk of time and there are literally thousands of effects. So let's say Mr. Kaufman decided to do a best of on cards. I can't even begin to imagine the criteria for inclusion let alone the staff months it would take to do such a thing.

That said let's keep brainstorming! Maybe we can wear Mr. Kaufman down.

Yes, I am delusional but, stranger things have happened.

Best,
Vlad

PS: Mr. Kaufman, would it help if I told you that you are the greatest magic magazine publisher today? How about if I scored World Series tickets for you? Paid for a trip to the Hadron Super Collider? Mowed your grass for two years? Bake a cake and hire a band? What if I told you that I am personal friends with Sir Paul McCartney and that he would agree to write a song about you and your magic if you release a DVD set of Genii!!!! I mean come on Mr. Kaufman, we're talking MCCARTNEY here, not Bieber or other nonsense!

Is anyone else as upset as I am that current issues of Genii no longer go into the archive, and in fact a number of recent issues have been removed? I find it much easier to download a page or too that I want to keep handy from the archive, rather than scan it myself. The recent issues are still available in their online versions, but that doesn't allow download. I'd think that folks who pitch their paper magazines after a while, "knowing" that they will be available online, would be more than a little disturbed to learn that the comment on the Genii site about "Ask Alexander, where all back issues of Genii are stored" really means "all back issues except the ones we decide NOT to store, and the ones we decide to REMOVE".

Does anyone else fell that they're not getting what they bargained for when they subscribed, or am I missing something?

Murf

You're missing something.

ALL back issues of Genii are stored there. The issues for the last two years are available in their digital versions, while the 73 years before that are available as pdf files. We are giving you exactly what we advertise: online access to all 75 years of Genii.

We seem to have a fundamentally different understanding of "availability". I've been using the internet since before the days of Mosaic, and I've never run across anything quite as annoying to try to use as the "digital" version of Genii. That may be simply a matter of taste (and age), but the basic difference between the "digital" version and the pdf files is that I can donwlaod and save or print a page from the pdf files, whereas that capibility is either missing from the so called "digital" version, or I still haven't figured out how to use it. We most certainly do NOT have the same access to the last couple of years as we do to the eralier years. I believe the usual term for this kind of thing is "bait and switch"....

Murf

If you need help in narrowing your search the Genii Indexes can be quite helpful. If you look at the December issues for each year from 2000 onwards there is a guide to what appeared that year split into sections such as card tricks, coin tricks etc

As far as I know, you are referring to the indexes Bill Mullins made. However, these indexes were made from 2002 to 2006.

Another possibility to narrow any search consists in using this service http://www.genii.somee.com/ which indexes all issues from 2002 onwards.

Vlad, your chance has come. I have reached a historic agreement with Richard Kaufman and have digitized 55,000 pages of Genii. (It is a completely new and beautiful digitization.) The complete run of volumes 1-75 is available as an exclusive download only from Lybrary.com. And the best of it is that it does not cost you $1000-$1500. It is a mere $249. Given the massive amount of contents it is a bargain, about 27 cent per issue all fully searchable.

http://www.lybrary.com/genii-the-conjuro......309.html

Don't delay getting these PDFs and own them forever.

No.

Hi Chris,

This is terrific news, and I am certainly going to get it.

Are there any plans to update the collection over time, e.g. to add more years as time goes by? The collection is fairly current now, but will obviously get outdated as time passes. Would be good to be able to purchase annual collections (or five years collections or whatever). It could be made an offer available only to those who previously bought the entire back catalogue as I understand that Richard Kaufman does not want to sell single years - fair enough.)

What happens with the volumes 76 and up I don't know. That is Richard's decision. I would of course support an offering that bridges the gap. But exactly what will happen I don't know. For now I say enjoy the massive 75 volumes as a download. For the current volumes subscribe to Genii. At only $35 for the digital subscription you can't go wrong.

Thanks for the information, Chris. You're right, of course: Reading the 75 volumes will keep us busy for quite a while. (And I am subscribed, of course - it's a great deal indeed, and a terrific magazine.)

Thanks for your tremendous efforts in bringing this to us!

Chris - what year range does volumes 1-75 cover? I didn't notice it on your site and am not a current subscriber, so don't know what the current volume number is.

Thanks,
John

It covers everything from September 1936 - December 2012.