Dear Magicians,



I've been surprised to discover that most magic books don't have indices -- a nearly indispensable part of nearly any book of any length. At least I *think* I'm right about this; I don't have an enormous library, but it's big enough that I suspect I have a representative sample. The books of Henry Hay and Roberto Giobbi are notable exceptions, and there are others, but even the beautifully written, illustrated, and produced books of Richard Kaufman don't have indices. At least I don't think they do. After devoting much thought to this important issue, I've come up with four possible explanations of this strange phenomenon.




1. There really is such a thing as magic, and the indices are invisible. It takes years of practice to learn the spells, and intone them properly, to make an index visible.



2. There's no such thing as magic, but the books have read themselves and have learned how to palm their indices.



3. The indices will appear when you've worked hard enough to deserve them.



4. Magic books are OSS (Oh So Secret or Office of Strategic Services -- take your pick) that even their purchasers aren't meant to find anything in them.




Life is full of mystery.



With best wishes to all,



Bob

A 5th explanation is that the reader is a magician schooled in directed focus and misdirection and would not believe the index if offered.

This desired balance of expectation and surprised is enhanced by spending an hour studying an effect description only to find
that it uses a sleight not explained in that book or clothing not in my closet or gimmicks not in my budget,

I would love an index at the beginning of each description specifying the requirements before I decide to explore -
and the two pages of credits and historical minutia in an Appendix should I care to look.

The seven volumes of TARBELL are indexed.

This desired balance of expectation and surprised is enhanced by spending an hour studying an effect description only to find
that it uses a sleight not explained in that book or clothing not in my closet or gimmicks not in my budget,

So true and hilarious!

"A 5th explanation is that the reader is a magician schooled in directed focus and misdirection and would not believe the index if offered." A worthy addition!

Yes sir

I also never understood why magic books are not indexed. One thought is that many magic books seem to be published with economy in mind by not-the-first-rate publishers. Perhaps it takes a significant amount of work and money to create a detailed index.

With due respect Mr Oslund, I believe it is the 7th volume of Tarbell that is indexed, not all sevem (or eight). Also indexed is the Royal Road and Marlo's Revolutionary Card Technique.

"T.U.C. Appreciation" is indexed and ordered according to type of effect,
and has an appendix with all of the moves, sleights and subtleties cross referenced,
and each effect description begins with a descriptions of materials, moves and sleights involved.

It can be done - just takes a lot of work.

At the end of Tarbell #7, which I wrote, I included the index for ALL seven volumes. That was more difficult, took more time, I think, than actually writing the book. So far as I know, over the decades, everyone believes that index I "offered."

That's right Harry, that's why in my Tarbell collection I have jumped from Vols. 1-3 to 7 - to see what's doin' in the other volumes. You don't just write the good stuff, you even index it.