A previously unpublished writing by Harry Houdini published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death | Books

A previously unpublished writing by Harry Houdini, the world’s most famous escapologist and illusionist, was published on Saturday in the United States, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death.

In addition to being famous for his magical acts and his quest to expose false mediums and spiritualists before dying in 1926 at the age of 52, Houdini, real name Eric Weisz, was a prolific author, with more than two dozen books, short stories and plays to his credit.

One of them, an article titled An Interesting Scrapbook, was never published and appears for the first time Saturday in Strand magazine, a literary publication specializing in showcasing lost or hidden works by prominent writers and historical figures.

This is an in-depth look at some of the artists who shaped the beginnings of magic as a stage production and inspired the journey of Houdini, a Hungarian immigrant to the United States as a child, to become the best-known and one of the most creative and popular performers of his time in Europe and America.

It features images of many theater offerings from an era of growing public fascination with the supernatural, mixed with a growing appetite for unusual or fanciful acts. Houdini explores advertised performances, including “necromantic miracles,” “magical delusions,” and “the greatest wizard alive.”

“What makes this article remarkable is that it reveals a side of Houdini that has been largely overshadowed by his extraordinary fame as an escape artist,” said Strand editor Andrew Gulli.

“Here we have Houdini the historian, who painstakingly documents forgotten magicians, theater artists, old theater posters and the remarkable world of 19th century entertainment.

“There is something quite poignant about the world’s most famous magician devoting so much attention to performers whose names have largely faded from history.”

The article was preserved among many of the artist’s other papers in the Houdini Library at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, where a guided tour will mark the anniversary of his death on Saturday.

Houdini experts at the University of Michigan and online fan site Wild About Harry told Gulli they believe it has never been in the public domain before.

“(Finding) a published version of An Interesting Scrapbook has proven as elusive as the man himself, which raises an interesting mystery as to why,” he said.

“Houdini was an accomplished author and an extraordinarily effective self-publicist. He was also fiercely competitive and protective of his professional knowledge. Would he have deliberately withheld this material because he feared that rival magicians might benefit from his research? Or was it simply a project he never completed?

“We don’t know the answer, but the question itself adds another dimension to the discovery.”

Houdini was known to disdain spiritualism presented as anything other than entertainment, and he devoted increasing time in the years before his death to debunking artists whom he called “charlatans” because they claimed to read minds or possess supernatural powers.

Several commemorations are planned around the world on Saturday to mark the anniversary, including a gala and public events in Budapest, where he was born in 1874; and a session at his former home in New York.