Great deal and great news !!!! Did you pay already too much for the series?? Read "Prism
Hermetic Press 2005,
hard cover, 240 p.


Prism will be out of the printer on January 21. We expect to have it in stock on January 28.




While a sizable literature devoted to mentalism was produced in the past hundred years, little has stood the test of time. Among the scant amount that has is that of Max Maven. Writing under the name of Phil Goldstein, Maven has created one of the largest, cleverest and most influential bodies of work in the field, stretching from the latter part of the twentieth century into the twenty-first.

His star rose early, with the publication of five slim collections, each packed with innovative and performance-caliber mentalism. These booklets, which have become widely known as The Color Series, contained items such as Desire, The Spirit is Willing (to Write) and Four-sided Triangle. Maven produced the Color booklets in small quantities and, despite ongoing popular request, refused to reprint them. They have become highly sought after, fetching prices in the hundreds of dollars.

At last, after a quarter of a century, the entire Color Series is again available; all 53 effects, newly illustrated by Ton Onosaka."

The word I hear is that that have been knocking these out at the local copy stores and putting them on Ebay. I first heard about it two years ago or so. Be careful when buying the old ones.

Pewh!!!!
Good News!!
I ALMOST paid several hundred dollars for the Color Series a short while ago.
Believe me, I truly look foreward to Jan 28.

Sven

Any idea of a price?

Bev

Hi, acording to Hermetic press website, it will be priced at 40 dollars. Not bad for such a book.

g.

Price will be around 40$ US dollars, but go to joyalstack.com to get a deal.

This is very cool, though it would still be nice to own the originals and own a piece of magic history.

Anabelle

This is VERY cool, I will definitely try to pick this one up when it comes out.

Well,
I for one am glad. I can now get the series without getting sniped on ebay for a set.

Rick

You can find a good deal on the new book at

http://www.joyalstack.com/Pages/Prism0501.html

Just made my order of Prism from Hermetic Press, this is a must have.

Peo

I'll hopefully *crosses fingers* get around to ordering sometime this week, so Peo, right now, I am envious of you, haha.

very clever.

...lugging Grandma to the Pawn Shop as we speak.....

Prism NEW REPRINT Contents :
Prologue
xi
Epilogue
xvii
The Blue Book
1
Introduction
3

Desire
7

Burnt Offerings
13

Tephramantic Brainwave
17

’Tis the Season to be Lying
21

Pre-duck-tion
25

Dangerous Game
29

The Temperamental Guest
31

Geometric Coin
35

The Spirit is Willing (to Write)
37

Elemental
41

Double Undercurrent
45

Middle Telepathy
47

Chaos
59


The Red Book
63

Introduction
65

Four-Sided Triangle
69

Parallax
73

Disposable Color
75

Writer’s Cramp
77

The Happy Horoscoper
79

Satan’s Nightmare
81

Your Choice
85

Vision Version
87

Power Drain
93

Pscrabble
95


The Green Book
99

Introduction
101

Destiny
103

Combo
107

Old Math
111

The Psychic Bartender
115

Nucleus
119

Discretion
125

Predixion
127

Onstage Bender
131

Ranch Dowser
135

The Mind’s Eye Deck
137


The Yellow Book
143

Introduction
145

Windowshopper
147

Shuffled Impulse
151

Designation
153

The Armchair Bowler
157

Phona
163

Astro-Key
167

Quindex
169

Modern Dart
171

Resolution
175

Doubleview
177


The Violet Book
181

Introduction
183

Dowsing for Dollars
185

Kirigami
187

One Hand Clapping
191

Squarot
195

Rainbow Matrix
199

Karma
201

Indication
205

French Active
209

Psiangle
211

Racer’s Edge
217

This is great news for fans of Max's work who don't own the original Color Series, especially given the book's low price ($40!). However, when Max recently lectured in NYC I thought he said, in response to a question, that there were no plans to republish the series. Guess I heard wrong!
DaveS

Well, I wouldn't put it that way. There are two factors to consider when discussing the original set of the Color Series.

There's the content, which is excellent and worthy of studying. I can't imagine anyone seriously interested in magic -- and especially in mentalism -- who wouldn't want a copy of the reprint.

And then there's the collectibility factor. There were only so many of these booklets produced. Violet is the most rare of the five. As a collector, I have several versions of many magic books. I collect first editions of "Art of Magic" and "Greater Magic" -- even though I have later versions (which I am not as careful with as I turn pages.)

I have the original hard cover of "STUNNERS!" -- and subsequently purchased a copy of "STUNNERS Plus!" when it became available even though Larry sent to me a copy of the "Plus" stuff. I wanted both versions in my collection.

There are plenty of collectors of Phil Goldstein/Max Maven stuff who will want the original set in their collection. I doubt the prices will drop all that much as a result of the book being released.

I'm considering auctioning off my set on eBay later this evening for a Buy It Now of probably $295 (like many others, I take advantage of a Buy It Now when available to avoid the usual last-minute sniping on items like this.) I think that's fair for a collectible and I imagine at that price it will go pretty quickly, even with me stating very plainly and up front that Hermetic Press is releasing the reprint. But, we'll see.

John LeBlanc

I believe the new hardcover will actually increase the value of the original color series booklets.

Maven has stated more than once that he would not reprint the Color series.

In some way, he is responsible for increasing the desire for the Color series that lead to its underground and Internet selling. His refusal to reprint them basically told magicians that there was no other way to acquire these books.

The near legendary status these books have now achieved is in large part due to the high prices they were obtaining on the underground market. I have no doubt this free publicity will make Prism a record seller.

I guess the lesson to be learned from this is that if the magic community is demanding a book to be reprinted, you should first turn to the underground market. Then again, maybe the author should just indulge his target market sooner and not allow an underground market to develop in the first place.

Interesting point made by Mr LeBlanc- There is the content and there is the physical booklets themselves. By not reprinting the booklets themselves, they remain a collectible entity. By reprinting the contents, the forgers will have lost their market and the original booklets will float to a more realistic level. There is a certain cost-factor to the originals that is due to folks NOT knowing the contents. When this is removed, their trading level will be more realistic.

I would bet by Febuary last, the new book will be sold out, and the old originals will not fetch $150/set. Then...the cost of Prism will rise...and rise...and rise.

And I'll bet that there will be a flurry of last-minute eBayers who have paid much, learned (or copied) the contents, and who have intended to resell the originals to recoup their investment. Not collectors, just buyers/sellers, sort of like the trade in the Body Magic book or Al Mann's stuff. I would assume there will be gnashing of teeth in the hallowed halls of magicdom from this.

...got a good price at the Pawn shop for Granny, so the book will be on its way to me...

Pierre- How does one "not allow an underground market to develop in the first case."? And how many exist for how many products? Just curious.