The Diary of a Magician's Wife [*SIGNED*]

Portsmouth OH: Midwest Magic Service. Poor in Fair dj. (c.1941). First Edition. Hardcover. [CONDITION ALERT: this book had been permitted to get wet at some point in its history, with deleterious results: the covers are warped and wrinkled, as is the text block, and both hinges are split; the jacket, although it came unstuck from the book with relatively little damage, left behind quite a bit of white-paper residue on the book's covers; the front jacket panel, although somewhat wrinkled, is substantially intact, although the remainder of the jacket exterior is a bit of a mess, especially the rear panel, which is stained and surface-damaged enough to have obliterated some of the text thereon]. (cartoon drawings; B&W photo frontispiece) INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the front endpaper: "Best Ever / to / Charlie King / Magi-gal-ly Yours / Geraldine Conrad Larsen / 'Gerrie'." A humorous account "exposing" the suffering of a magician's wife -- more than a bit tongue-in-cheek given that the author herself was "a magician in her own right [and] also a puppeteer of note, a writer of magic, and the only lady editor of a magazine devoted wholly to the concerns of conjuring." Known as "Magic's First Lady," she co-founded the aforementioned magazine, "Genii," with her first husband, magician William W. Larsen Sr. (1904-1953), formed the first organization of women magicians in 1936, and performed as "The Magic Lady" on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles in the 1940s. And if the name Larsen is ringing a bell, it should: her two "live-wire boys," mentioned in the jacket blurb, were Bill Larsen Jr. and Milt Larsen, who grew up to be co-founders and proprietors of The Magic Castle in Hollywood. Adding a bit to the pedigree of this book is the Introduction by none other than Mrs. Harry Houdini. Additionally, laid in are three copies of the original advertising flyer for the book, all of which are age-browned and lightly stained. This original edition is a rarity indeed, although the condition of this copy, admittedly and alas, is on the deplorable side. Signed by Author .