Stewart James in Print and The James File are two of the largest magic books ever published (the James File is actually two volumes, but I consider it a single work). They comprise over 2700 pages and over 1000 tricks.

Stewart James was an incredible magic creator. Tricks like Miraskill, Further Than That, Sefalaljia, the Love-sick Tennis Ball, and Jamesway Poker Deal indicated a mind that did not work like most others.

If you are one of the vanishing breed of magicians that likes to read, you should immediately mortgage your house, rent a truck with a dolly, drive down to your local magic shop, and haul both Stewart James in Print and The James File to your house.

Who is Stewart James and why does Allan Slaight keep putting out books of his material? The answers to these questions will already be obvious to many, but if they are not yet obvious to you, Mr. Slaight now offers an easy point of entry to the work of the remarkable magical creator, Stewart James.

Dai Vernon is in some senses one of the greatest magicians who ever lived. That this fact is unknown to virtually all of his countrymen has always struck me as a great and sad shame, and David Ben, with this book, is doing everything he can to redress it.

A fascinating and fast-moving biography….the reader experience a similar thrill, the sense of passing into a realm of secrets….Ben takes care to present the story here to appeal to insiders and laymen alike.

A detailed, humanizing portrait of a genius and the age that hailed him as its conquering hero. Dai Vernon remains the towering figure of 20th-century magic. 

This book is a compelling read and an example of scholarship that will likely survive as the Vernon biography. It surely ranks among the very best of magic biographies and autobiographies given us to enjoy.

See full photo gallery

Photos by David Linsell, courtesy of Magicana.