Last month I shared a 100 year old review [from the Feb. 14 1925 Magazine in my personal collection] of Houdini playing Zanetti at the Hippodrome Theater on February 9th, 1925.
Today, thought I would share a review from February 2nd,1925 found in the same magazine:
Last week, David Haversat shared with his subscribers that the COMPLETE Cancer of Superstition by Harry Houdini & C.M. Eddy, Jr is finally coming to print:
This is exciting news that a COMPLETE manuscript in the archives of C.M. Eddy’s grandson has surfaced.
Back in 2016, Potter & Potter sold an INCOMPLETE typed manuscript:
Collection of 31 leaves, paginated 1 – 10 [11 – 13 lacking] 14 – 34, being an unpublished manuscript of a work in progress on superstition, divided into the three sections, “The Genesis of Superstition,” “The Expansion of Superstition,” and “The Fallacy of Superstition.”
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Also in 2016, an unpublished handwritten dissertation on “THE CANCER OF SUPERSTITION” was for sale (for $65,000) on Abebooks.com:
Lovecraft’s handwritten outline (published in THE DARK BROTHERHOOD) and Eddy’s handwritten and typewritten drafts of the first three chapters are extant. This 19-page handwritten manuscript, edited, revised and copiously annotated by Lovecraft, is Eddy’s draft expanded from Lovecraft’s handwritten 4 1/2 page 12-part outline (held by Brown University). It is the version from which the typescript sent to Houdini was made (that typescript, missing three leaves of text, was sold at auction by Potter & Potter 9 April 2016 for $33,600).Eddy’s manuscript is divided into three chapters. Chapter I, “The Genesis of Superstition” (leaves 1-8 of this handwritten draft), published in a slightly altered version in THE DARK BROTHERHOOD (1966), pp. 250-61. Chapter II, “The Expansion of Superstition” (leaves 9-14) and Chapter III, “The Fallacy of Superstition” (leaves 15-19), currently unpublished, comprise the remainder of the manuscript. Part of the manuscript is written on the versos of various discarded drafts, several of which are of considerable interest: (1) verso of leaf 2 is a draft of a letter from Eddy to Houdini, 15 October 1926, asking if he had received “the synopsis of the proposed article on the origin and fallacy of superstition” and if “the requested advance check for $15.00 is on the way together with whatever you wish to offer in the way of annotations & suggestions” (2) verso of leaves 3 and 4 have an earlier draft of “The Cancer of Superstition” (3) versos of leaves 5-8 have discarded pages of a crime story by Eddy (4) verso of leaf 9 is a draft “Questionnaire — Oct. 19, 1926” directed to Houdini about the scope and direction of the “proposed article which you assigned me, while in Providence, on the origin and fallacy of superstition,” and requesting his input (5) verso of leaf 10 is an expanded draft of the “Questionnaire” (6) verso of leaf 14 has a long continuation of the text from leaf 14 in Lovecraft’s hand on a discarded earlier draft of leaf 13. The verso of leaf 1 has the beginning of a letter dated 12 October 1926 to the Boston Sunday Post; the versos of leaves 11-13 and 15-19 are blank.H. P. Lovecraft met Clifford M. Eddy, Jr., a native of Providence, Rhode Island, a published writer of popular fiction and student of mythology and the occult, in 1923 (their first face-to-face meeting, after an exchange of letters, was in Providence at Eddy’s home on 9 September 1923). Lovecraft, who met Houdini in New York City in 1924, ghostwrote Houdini’s “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs” (aka “Under the Pyramids”), published WEIRD TALES in 1924. In 1926 Houdini hired Lovecraft to write an article attacking astrology, for which he paid $75 (the manuscript of the article, which does not appear to have been published, was sold on eBay in April 2009 ). Then he commissioned Lovecraft and Eddy (who may have done work for him at an earlier date) to jointly ghostwrite a full-length book on superstitions. According to Eddy (handwritten statement dated 9 June 1962): “Back in the middle twenties both H. P. L. and I were doing ghostwriting for the late Harry Houdini. Shortly before Houdini’s death, he gave me an assignment to do a complete book for him on the subject of the origin, growth and fallacy of superstition. He furnished me with voluminous notes and ideas that he wanted incorporated in the book and suggested that perhaps H. P. L. whip them into some shape that I could use as a guide. I wrote the first three chapters of the proposed book. The first two were read and approved by Houdini, and the third was in the mail, addressed to him in Detroit, when he was stricken with the appendicitis attack which resulted in his death. About a month after her husband’s funeral, Mrs. Houdini advised me that she would prefer to have the work on the proposed book abandoned. Whatever became of the the three chapters that had already been completed, I never learned. Sometime later, at one of our get-togethers, Lovecraft and I were discussing the subject… Bookseller Inventory # 155672
Looks like 2025 is now the year of Eddy and The Cancer of Superstition!
Related:
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
Today I reveal that the Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads came from the back two pages of the extremely rare “Houdini Herald” in my collection.
It was 2014, when I first learned about a 4-page “Houdini Herald” [published as a supplement in Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly] and saw the front two pages via the following WildAboutHarry post:
Ten years later, I added a “Houdini Herald” to my collection and could see what was on the back pages.
HHCE Collection: Houdini Herald Back
HHCE Collection: Houdini Herald [front]
Related:
In January and February of 1925, Houdini played Zanetti at the Hippodrome Theater, New York, NY.
To celebrate, thought I would share a 100 year old review (from my personal collection) of the matinee that took place on February 9, 1925.
Related:
Bonus:
Below are 2 pages from the book, “The Zanetti Mystery Plus Candidates for ghostwriting the story”, that I first published in December of 2021.
The first year (Kinema Comic 1920) of the serial, The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI, is now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
Product Description:
The British Boys weekly “The Kinema Comic” ran a serial “The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI” (“Written by Houdini Himself” – or so it says) from April 24, 1920 to November 27,1926.
In these yarns, which no one should miss, the Master of Mystery chronicles his most amazing exploits.
Surviving copies are almost impossible to come by these days.
Joe M. Notaro and Arthur Moses have been tracking down these rare issues and are making them available to you in a book series by year.
In this offering, they have compiled the 1920 (Apr – Dec) weekly serials (36 issues) of “The Amazing Exploits of HOUDINI” into a single book (with original illustrations).
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
Related:
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
Today I continue my series of posts, where I share different Master Mystery Exhibitors’ Ads from my personal collection:
