Description:

Harry Houdini Boldly Signed Letter Re: Questionable Mediums Like John Slater: "he…is very slick…it really requires an expert to detect him"

A 1p typed letter boldly signed by American illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926) as "Houdini" at lower right. Houdini's signature, with its decisive underline, measures approximately 2.625" x 1.625" alone. June 28, 1926. [New York, New York.] On watermarked paper with Houdini's address embossed at the letterhead as "Houdini / 278 West 113th Street / New York, N.Y." Expected wear including flattened transmittal folds and a few extra gentle wrinkles. Double hole-punched at left, and with isolated discoloration near the top of the left edge. Else near fine. 8.375" x 10.875."

Harry Houdini wrote this letter to German writer Carl Graf von Klinckowstroem (1884-1969). Houdini's correspondent was an independently wealthy intellectual from Munich. Von Klinckowstroem was a historian of science, technology, and culture. He was intrigued by the occult, especially the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, but he also showed a receptiveness to Houdini's scepticism about false mediums.

Houdini wrote in part:

"Am gathering all my Slade material for you and will send it as soon as my secretary finds where it is all filed.

What do you know about Frau Silbert and Franz Kluski?

As you may know, I am on the Committee for the Scientific American and when Mr. O.D. Munn spoke of Kluski I offered to pay his expenses to come here to America…

Enclosed notice [not included in this lot] regarding John Slater [who] is very important as he is the best known medium in America. He has made an enormous fortune and is very slick with his letter reading as he resorts to from eight to ten methods for success.

He has a wonderful system and it really requires an expert to detect him. He, having a wonderful memory, relies on same for many of his spirit messages. Mr. Harry Kellar who past [sic] away several years ago, had a system of memorization - he could tell a man the number of his watch thirty years afterwards. No doubt it is a valuable thing to have a memorizing system without needing any notations…"

Houdini's letter illustrates the truly international nature of early 20th century spiritualism, for, he was writing to a German occult enthusiast about notable mediums and magicians in the United States, Austria, and Poland. Houdini mentions five important contemporary figures in the field of psychical research and illusionism: Dr. Henry Slade, Maria Silbert, Franek Kluski, John Slater, and Harry Kellar. Of the four mediums mentioned, three are listed in "Hartmann's Who's Who in Occult, Physic and Spiritual Realms…in the United States and Foreign Countries" (New York: Occult Press, 1925).

Houdini's comparison between John Slater and Harry Kellar in our letter is especially interesting as it encompasses the essence of Houdini's critique of charlatan mediums. While both Slater, a self-proclaimed medium, and Kellar, a magician, used the same memorization-based system of message reading and data recollection, Slater represented it as supernatural, while Kellar did not. This was the all-important difference: the bona fide magician did ingenious tricks without attributing them to any power but himself, while the spurious medium attributed them to the dead, angels, God, etc.

Some of the important figures that Houdini refers to include:

- "Slade"

Dr. Henry Slade (1835-1905), a false medium who perfected the parlor trick of "slate writing," that is, producing messages supposedly inscribed by the dead. Dr. Slade quite successfully conned people on both sides of the Atlantic by using double slates, swapping slates, and even scrawling in chalk with his toes until he was exposed in a series of fraud investigations in the 1870s. Dr. Slade was before Houdini's time, but Houdini learned extensively about him and his methods through Remigius Weiss (known theatrically as Remigius Albus) (ca. 1852-1941), a former Philadelphia medium.

- "Frau Silbert"

Maria Silbert (1866-1936) was an Austrian medium who claimed to have the ability to psychically influence her environment. Silbert is best remembered for producing cigarette cases which she is believed to have crudely engraved under the séance table using only her feet. She was exposed by spiritualist investigators Harry Price in 1925, Walter Franklin Prince in 1927, and Theodore Besterman in 1928.

- "Franz Kluski"

Franek Kluski (1873-1943) was a Polish medium who conjured up fabric phantoms and paraffin-molded hands and animals. Kluski's most notorious instance of fraud involved pressing his buttocks into hot wax, hoping to convince a séance attendee that it was a facial imprint.

- "John Slater"

John Slater (1861-1932), known as the "millionaire medium," was a longtime itinerant medium affiliated with the National Spiritualistic Association. Slater performed for over 50 years before huge crowds eager to see him "psychomotrize" sealed letters, whose contents were helpfully provided to him by the deceased.

- "Henry Kellar"

Henry Kellar (1849-1922) had died about four years before Houdini's letter. A world-renowned illusionist and magician who preceded Houdini, Kellar had trained under Robert Heller. Kellar was celebrated for several sensational illusions: the floating head, the vanishing lamp, and the "Levitation of Princess Karnac."

Houdini's letter also refers to "Mr. O.D. Munn." This was Orson Desaix Munn II (1883-1958), the grandson and namesake of the original publisher of the "Scientific American," who later served as its editor.

During the last half of his career as a celebrated illusionist, stuntman, and entertainer, Houdini emerged as one of the world's preeminent psychical researchers. After over 30 years of applied study, Houdini had built up a massive archive of relevant scholarship, and his expertise on the subject enabled him to routinely lecture at American universities. Houdini actively investigated fraudulent mediums, in his view thus preserving the real art and craft of explicable magic. In the 1920s, Houdini had famously sponsored a $30,000 cash prize (drawn from numerous sources) to be presented to any genuine medium. Houdini's investigations into mediums had resulted in dozens of convictions.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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