Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women

New York: Villard Books, 1986. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/near fine. Fine in a near fine jacket. 2 inch closed tear in upper left corner of front panel. Minor wear to extremities. A unique association copy. This copy is warmly inscribed on the first free end paper, "For Thomas with thanks for opening the doors of the Clark to me and introducing me to a strange new form of academic show-biz - Ricky Jay December 1986." Thomas being Thomas Wright, a librarian at UCLA's Clark Library and a former professor of English Literature. Ricky Jay wrote a considerable portion of this book while occupying a carrel desk in the rare book stacks of Clark. 

Additionally laid in are several ephemeral items related to Jay's role as a curator for the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts, which consisted of over 10,000 titles and almost all of Houdini's paper archival estate. During Jay's time as curator the collection nearly doubled in size. Laid in are two of Jay's business cards, one decoratively embossed and depicting a jester dressed in playing cards, and a trifold holiday card. The Mulholland collection was seized in a bankruptcy filing and ultimately sold at auction to David Copperfield for 2.2 million. Copperfield offered to keep Jay on in a consulting position which Jay turned down. A friend of Jay's who also knew Copperfield said, "David Copperfield buying the Mulholland Library is like an Elvis impersonator winding up with Graceland." Ricky Jay, a stage musician, actor, and writer, was considered by many to be one of the most gifted sleight of hand artists to ever live. He counted Steve Martin and David Mamet close friends, appearing in several of Mamet's films, Ths Spanish Prisoner among them. Jay wrote eleven books and countless articles on magic. Lerned Pigs and Fireproof Women, his second book, is an exceedingly well-researched history of some of the world's most extraordinary entertainers.