Just finished "The Last Greatest Magician" by Jim Steinmeyer. In two words, "highly recommended" !!

This is a new and exceedingly well-researched biography of Howard Thurston, who was one of America's greatest magicians but is now mostly forgotten by the general public. The book presents the best and worst sides of Thurston, including his hardscrabble roots and his sometimes less-than-perfect ethics in "borrowing" ideas from other magicians (and then complaining when other magicians stole his own ideas!).

If you've ever wondered what it takes to put on a big magic show and then stay on top year after year, or exactly how a professional peformer "pays his dues," this book shows you. It's obvious that Thurston knew how to handle an audience, and how to squeeze the last drop of drama from a trick -- and that he didn't learn these skills overnight.

Steinmeyer's writing is excellent. And with his extensive research, which included primary sources, he has managed to correct much of the PR puffery and misinformation that Thurston generated about himself during his lifetime. He also was able to fill in a fair amount of missing information. For example, he discovered what became of George White, who was Thurston's principal assistant for many years and then worked for Dante as well. In Marion Trikosko's 2006 book "Trouping With Dante," that trail went cold after Dante's death. Now we know the rest of the story.

A minor quibble: Steinmeyer refers in passing to T. Nelson Downs and his Miser's Dream vaudeville act as a "one-trick pony." While he is certainly entitled to his opinion, I think that's sort of like calling Christopher Columbus a "one-hit wonder." After all, Tommy Downs basically revolutionized coin magic in the early 1900's by inventing the Downs Palm, among other things. He took an old trick known as the "Aerial Treasury," turned it into a modern classic, and made a darn good living in the process. I suppose Jim's point was that Thurston was able to continually update and revise his act, while Downs could not. But that doesn't diminish Downs' ability or his place in magic history, at least in my view.

Anyway, buy this book; you'll enjoy it and learn from it. Click HERE for more info. SETH

I have read the entire book from cover to cover. One of the best, if not the best, biographical story on a magician that I have ever read. Extremely honest, carefully researched, and holds your attention throughout with an interesting and carefully woven historic narrative. What life experiences- incredible. I felt a sad pathos in the final chapter- sorry to see it end. A+

Available now on Kindle......FYI

I bought it the day it was released and read it within 2 days. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Just a question for those that also read "Carter The Great", or the wonderful, and very sad, Leroy book.
I will certainly read the lastest of Steinmeyer's works, the previously mentioned would be very hard to match, in my opinion.
Just curious for those who have read the above mentioned.
Ted L

Ted, I did read the biography of Servais LeRoy. It's a wonderful book, and well worth getting if you are a student of magic history. Same quality graphics and solid text that we've come to expect from Mike Caveney.

And the ending IS sad, but it's something we can all learn from. While nobody can control things beyond their control (like LeRoy's automobile accident that basically ended his career), you can and should be responsible for things that ARE within your control. LeRoy's disastrous final show in the 1940's was primarily a result of his failure to rehearse and practice. He had been off the stage for a decade; although he knew his effects well in his mind, he didn't have the presentations worked out on a practical level. And that's probably something we've ALL been guilty of at one time or another.

I've learned from sad experience that no trick is ready to be presented publicly until you can do it in your sleep and the moves/patter are automatic. Otherwise, the energy that should be going into your presentation and "putting it over" is going instead into trying to remember how to do the trick and what comes next. Also, you don't have the freedom of mind to deal with the unknown element -- your audience. Even then, the trick still has to be performed many times and polished further, perhaps even reworked, until you get the effect and reactions you're looking for. When you don't do that, you get the same result that LeRoy got. SETH

Ted, I've read both of the books you referenced (Carter the Great and Servais Leroy: Monarch of Mystery) as well as Steinmeyer's new Thurston biography. While the Thurston book doesn't at all compare with the abundance of full color artwork, quality binding and materials, etc. of the Carter or Leroy books (each of which had a significantly higher purchase price than what's being charged for the Thurston book), it more than holds its own vis-a-vis the writing, research and literary scholarship.

As an aside, my hunch is that the Thurston book was targeted for a larger, more mass-market audience than the Carter and Leroy books. If so, that would explain the price differential and the production choices that were made to allow for the lower price. I believe the Thurston book had a significantly larger initial printing, which would also support my mass-market theory. By contrast, the Carter and Leroy books each had a limited, numbered printing, sold out relatively quickly and now go for several hundred dollars each at auction or in the resale market. I wouldn't be surprised if a paperback version of the Thurston book is eventually released but, in any case, I don't believe that the Thurston book will sell for more--or much more--than its original retail price when it goes out of print, and as a used book it might likely sell for less.

I believe it's largely--but not entirely--a matter of two different business models: print and sell more books at a lower price versus print and sell fewer books at a higher price.

T. Nelson Downs did NOT invent the Downs Palm. He stole it from L'Homme Masque. This was detailed in the Genii issue on "The Masked Man" quite a few years ago. Those who subscribe can find it in the online archive.