While Harry Houdini had little formal education, he was an avid book collector. His father was a rabbi who had a collection of learned, rabbinical books. Houdini’s father bequeathed these books to Houdini
While Harry Houdini had little formal education, he was an avid book collector. His father was a rabbi who had a collection of learned, rabbinical books. Houdini’s father bequeathed these books to Houdini. In 1903, when he was only about twenty-nine years old, Houdini declared that he possessed “the most expensive collection of books on the Art of Practicable magic.”^ Houdini about 1925 was claiming that he only worked five months a year and spent seven months a year in his library. His library was built into his home: “I actually live in a library.” Houdini then estimated that his drama library ranked fifth in size among drama libraries across the world. He ranked it behind only those of Robert Gould Shaw at Harvard, the British Museum, Henry E. Huntington’s library, 