hillcountrymagic
$435.00
Condition: New - still in shrink wrap.
AMAZING FIND
The Vernon Chronicles is a celebrated four-volume series published by L&L Publishing that documents the previously unreleased sleights, routines, and life stories of Dai Vernon ("The Professor"). Written by Stephen Minch from material compiled primarily by Bruce Cervon, Larry Jennings, and Keith Burns, the series captures "The Vernon Touch"—the psychology, naturalness, and subtle sleight-of-hand that revolutionized 20th-century magic.
Volume 1: The Lost Inner Secrets (1987)
Pages: 235
Focus: Fundamental sleights, foundational controls, card routines, and coin magic.
Volume 1 focuses on core techniques and classic card/coin routines that Vernon had kept closely guarded or shared only with his inner circle. It opens with a biographical profile by Elizabeth Wilson and transitions into deep dives on timing, handling, and misdirection.
Key Sleights & Concepts: Detailed breakdowns of the Turnover Pass, the Arthur Finley Diagonal Palm Shift, the Push-Through Shuffle, the Vernon Multiple False-Cut, side steals, palming, and break maintenance.
Notable Effects: No-Sleight Triumph, The Fingerprint Card Trick, and Vernon’s original handling for Cutting the Aces.
Volume 2: More Lost Inner Secrets (1988)
Pages: 245
Focus: Advanced card locations, packet tricks, silk/linking routines, and non-card close-up.
Volume 2 expands beyond playing cards into non-card close-up and parlor effects, highlighting Vernon's versatility across different mediums. It also explores Vernon’s variations on techniques from earlier master magicians.
Key Sleights & Concepts: Crimp locations, forced choices, packet trick constructions, and historical routines re-engineered by Vernon.
Notable Effects: Out of Sight and Mind II, The Peripatetic Walnuts (a routine using flying walnuts), linking ring variations, silk routines (The Daivergent Silk), and Vernon’s handlings of tricks by Nate Leipzig, Max Malini, and Henry Christ.
Volume 3: Further Lost Inner Secrets (1989)
Pages: 219
Focus: Specialized card work, coin finesse, rope magic, and platform/parlor material.
Volume 3 serves as the final installment dedicated strictly to trick mechanics and performance pieces. It covers intricate close-up items alongside routines designed for larger audiences.
Key Sleights & Concepts: Precision card controls, coin transpositions, false shuffles, and subtleties for parlor and stage settings.
Notable Effects: Variations on classical rope magic, coin-through-hand/table routines, complex packet effects, and platform card routines engineered to play strong across a room.
Volume 4: He Fooled Houdini: Dai Vernon – A Magical Life (1992)
Pages: 308
Focus: Anecdotal autobiography, magic theory, historical essays, and early NYC magic reconstructions.
Volume 4 pivots from technical instruction to an anecdotal history of Vernon’s life and artistic philosophy. Compiled with assistance from Keith Burns and Bruce Cervon, it reads like sitting down with Vernon at the Magic Castle as he reflects on his journey from Ottawa to Hollywood (1894–1963).
Theoretical Writings: Vernon shares his core principles on "The Attack on Magic," practice habits, shade/misdirection, authority, using trick cards, and what makes a performance legendary.
Historical Reconstructions: Includes an essay and reconstructions (collaborated on with William P. Miesel and Max Maven) of 1920s/30s New York avant-garde magic from contemporaries like Sam Horowitz, Ted Annemann, and Luis Zingone.
Stories & Figures: Covers his famous encounter where he fooled Harry Houdini three times with his Climax Card Trick, alongside stories of Nate Leipzig, Max Malini, J. Warren Keane, and colorful characters from his gambling/magic travels.
