A MAGAZINE OF INNOVATION WILLIAM P. MIESBL
PUBLISHED BY
unikorn magik
.
P R E C U R S O R
...
SPECIAL NUMBER TWO
This is the second Special Issue of PRECURSOR, and i t is being published in November 1986. PRECURSOR is edited by William P. Miesel, and the e d i t o r i a l offices are at 2215 Myrtle S t r e e t , Erie, Pennsylvania 16502. PRECURSOR is published at least three times a year, and regular issues always have at least twenty pages of m a t e r i a l . PRECURSOR is sold for $5.00 (U.S.) per i s s u e , or three issues for $13.00 (U.S.). Outside the United States and Canada, i t w i l l be sent Airmail for $6.00 (U.S.) per i s s u e , or three issues for $16.00 (U.S.). This Special Issue is being published for distribution at Yankee Gathering I, a "collection of collectors" in Salem, Mass., in November 1986. This gathering is sponsored by The New England Magic Collectors Association and is organized and chaired by Ray Goulet of Watertown, Mass. William and I are happy to be able to c o n t r i b u t e t h i s "MINI-PRECURSOR" to the c o l l e c t o r s attending t h i s meeting. As a matter of possible i n t e r e s t , the f i r s t Special Issue of PRECURSOR was published for distribution at the 1983 editions of "Ibidem Potpourri" in Niagara-On-The-Lake in Ontario and at "Close Encounters of the Magic Kind" in Rochester, NY. We wonder if that edition has become a collector's item. This one might . . . or at l e a s t we hope i t w i l l . This is October the Twenty-Fifth as Ellie and I are working on this issue. And the date brings mixed emotions for me. I like Eastern Standard Time, and I am not a bit happy with the onset of Daylight Savings Time ... when I lose an hour on an important weekend. I lose the hour on the FFFF Convention Weekend in Buffalo every April. I lose the hour when I'm with friends and when most every minute . . . or at l e a s t every hour . . . counts. And when do I gain the hour back? When I'm stuck alone in Beverly, Mass. Thinking about FFFF brings up the subject of The PRECURSOR Suite which is open to PRECURSOR subscribers and their friends at conventions that William and I attend. We set a record at Buffalo t h i s year when we closed up at 7 AM! At the S.A.M. Convention in L o u i s v i l l e t h i s year, William remarked t h a t at one point there were, I think, five distinct groups in the Suite, which is really only a room, doing their own things. Many of these people were young, and the talent that they displayed really makes people like myself feel very humble. Oh, there are a l o t of clever folks out t h e r e , and we like to think t h a t some of the material appearing in PRECURSOR will assist in elevating the technical s k i l l s of these students of Magic. I t ' s amazing when those older-timers of us think back to the material which was available when we were young and compare it with that available today. No wonder Magic is riding at such a high in the hands of so many of the young performers. Ed Eckl
YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CBAZY
It was Frances Ireland Marshall who introduced this thought into Magic in 1946 when her book by t h i s t i t l e f i r s t appeared. I have read t h i s book several times during the ensuing years, but I always said it didn't apply to me or most of my f r i e n d s . Now, I know that Ed Eckl is more than j u s t a l i t t l e zany, but then, he is just the exception to prove the rule. The rest of us are perfectly sane. Because of recent events, I have come to question the sanity of some of my friends. Alas, I am not really as sure of my own sanity as I once was. During mid July, the Associated Press widely d i s t r i b u t e d a photograph that showed an eighty year old California book collector who was suffocated in an avalanche when a part of his book collection caved in on him. This photograph was run in our local paper, and even though I s t i l l considered myself to be p e r f e c t l y sane at that time, I could see myself lying under a l l those books, and I chuckled to myself. A few of my non-magic friends commented on t h i s picture, but this didn't count because they weren't MAGICIANS. Now, Nick Trost is probably the sanest magician that I ever met, and he is one of the very best friends that I have. He is a very serious Card Man and takes the study of Magic as seriously as I do. No way is he crazy!!! Why then did I receive this picture from him a couple of days later? (See next page.) The day a f t e r Labor Day, Nick Trost arrived in Erie for a four day Card Session. He arrived Tuesday afternoon, and when he got out of the car, he did not have a deck of cards in his hand. He did not even have a s u i t c a s e . What he had was a "shopping bag full of books". There had been a "Library Sale" at the Columbus Public Library, and Nick intended to buy "just a bag of books" to bring along, but the library apparently cleaned out some old books from their Occult Section, and these are what he brought along. I c a l l my l i b r a r y a "Library of Trickery" because I not only have books on Magic, but I am interested in exposes of a l l the fraudulent psychic sciences, crooked gambling, and the work of con a r t i s t s . This library now contains more than seven thousand books and pamphlets, and, believe i t or not, I was happy with many of the books in t h i s "bag". There was a f i r s t e d i t i o n of Hereward Carrington's COMING SCIENCE; now I have a couple copies if t h i s book, but no f i r s t edition. There was also a copy of Hereward Carrington's PSYCHIC SCIENCE AND SURVIVAL. This book was completely unknown to me. I was also happy to get a copy of Alexander Cannon's THE POWER WITHIN. Needless to say, I have idded these books to those that I already had and am happy to have them. I think that I am going to amend Frances' t i t l e . but it does make it more fun."
"You don't have to be crazy William P. Miesel September 17, 1915