R E V I E W S
6 2 S K E P T I C M A G A Z I N E volume 25 number 1 2020The Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdiniis an
overdue examination of the colorful
showman’s metaphorical afterlife; com-
bining Houdini’s story with a critique of
earlier biographies, interwoven with
thoughts about his life and legacy from re-
cent Houdini fans, critics, and the author.
The main text of The Life and Afterlife
of Harry Houdiniis divided into nine un-
numbered, named chapters with several
named subsections in each chapter. There
are a few black and white illustrations but
no plates. There is a “Selected Bibliogra-
phy” but no notes and no index. I realized
how skilled a writer Posnanski is when I
worried, about Houdini, whether he
would die without becoming famous. Pos-
nanski’s narrative continues with most
highlights of Houdini’s career and stratos-
pheric level of fame. For a book that is far
more than a biography, it is remarkable
that Posnanski includes one fact that does
not appear in any of the major Houdini bi-
ographies: he reveals the name of the man
who sold Houdini his first famous trick,
the Metamorphosis trunk. Posnanski does
not, however, highlight how special this
is, nor cite his source.
Even when discussing Houdini’s life,
Posnanski plays less the role of biogra-
pher and more the journalist. For exam-
ple, he doesn’t simply say that Houdini’s
claim of a U.S. birth is false, he discusses
other researchers’ investigation of the
question. With so much written about
Houdini, Posnanski’s integration of a cri-
tique of previous writers’ work is a worth-
while idea, but he does so unevenly. Why
did biographer William Lindsay Gresham
get several pages while most more signifi-
cant writers about Houdini get a few
paragraphs or less?
An even greater contribution of The
Life and Afterlife of Harry Houdiniis its pio-
neering discussion of several people who
currently live in the fandom that Posnan-
ski dubs “Houdini World.” From advance
publicity I wondered whom he would dis-
cuss, but mistakenly took it for granted
that one of them would be Arthur Moses.
Moses is the premier collector of books
about Houdini in all languages and edi-
tions, and author of Houdini Periodical
Bibliography(which includes citations to
Skepticmagazine), the first edition of
which is listed in Posnanski’s Selected
Bibliography. Modern Houdini fans who
are discussed by Posnanski are well cho-
sen, and they share some good stories and
shrewd comments.
Seventy something pages into the
book, Posnanski quotes a discussion he
had with Houdini blogger John Cox fret-
ting about a discredited Houdini anec-
dote. Posnanski then cheekily includes
the story, with variations. Later, he quotes
a Houdini researcher as saying that his
friend, who has also investigated Houdini
lore, is wrong in his belief that Houdini’s
legendary Scotland Yard escape never
happened. Though generally escaping the
trap of exposing Houdini secrets, Posnan-
ski does share several researcher’s theo-
ries on the methodology of three key
Houdini escape feats, and even offers his
own ideas.
Most interview excerpts, however,
are more stream of consciousness, such
as narration about Houdini’s father, lead-
ing to Posnanski’s quotation of a living
escape artist talking about her own fa-
ther, or an incident of Houdini’s cruelty
toward a competitor segueing to a lead-
ing magic historian arguing that this was
a key Houdini trait. This integration of bi-
ography and commentary can be helpful
but also repetitive. For example, though
all commenters agree that Houdini was
blindingly brilliant as an escape artist,
and most concede that he was a pioneer-
ing genius at self-promotion, these
remarks, as well as the comments by
several people that Houdini was not a
very good magician are scattered through-
out the book.
Most of the contemporary commen-
tators are magicians, and Posnanski’s proj-
ect of showing Houdini’s inspiring effect
on modern magicians is laudable. But
here too, his coverage is of varied rele-
vance. I found it odd that Posnanski de-
voted more space to profiles of magicians
specializing in card tricks than to the type
of modern daredevil magician that Hou-
dini is more often compared to, such as
David Blaine. In two chapters on the ex-
traordinary career of magician David Cop-
perfield, Posnanski said nothing new
about his massive Houdini archive. But
Posnanski does characteristically maketransparent his own process of research
and excitement at meeting Mr. Copper-
field.
The treatment of Houdini’s critical
relationship to spiritualist séances (in
which people would gather in an attempt
to communicate with the dead) is charac-
teristically uneven. I applaud Posnanski
for mentioning 19th century spiritual-
ism’s origin and dual influence on Hou-
dini’s early career. Later, Posnanski
abruptly explains how a séance shattered
Houdini’s friendship with Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock
Holmes and an ardent spiritualist, though
this is all he says on that much written
about relationship. I was even more sur-
prised that Posnanski somehow acknowl-
edges that Houdini investigated the
medium known as “Margery” without
mentioning that he did so as part of a
group of scientists for The Scientific Ameri-
can[see David Jaher’s The Witch of Lime
Street, reviewed in Skepticv21 n3, 2016].
In the final chapter Posnanski follows
recent research to the conclusion that a
headline-making claim of Houdini’s
widow being contacted by his spirit was
probably a publicity stunt.
Unfortunately, Posnanski refuses to
discuss Houdini’s extensive on and off-
stage spiritualist exposés, or even mention
his headline grabbing testimony before
the U.S. House of Representatives. This
omission is remarkable given Posnanski’s
admission that Houdini’s spiritualist ac-
tivism increased his fame, since Houdini’s
fame is, after all, a theme of the book. It is
similarly odd that Houdini’s syndicated
newspaper column (which continued
after his death) is ignored, while a justly
little-known short story by Houdini is te-
diously summarized and analyzed. Hou-
dini’s film career brought him a new level
of fame as well, but it is given only a page
(with a longer discussion of the recent
rediscovery of a Houdini film that some
feared had been lost). The coverage of his
more recent fame is also uneven. For ex-
ample, Posnanski talks about two Houdini
museums, but ignores the many tempo-
rary Houdini exhibits that have recently
toured in general interest museums.
My deepest concern with The Life
and Afterlife of Harry Houdiniis that, in