The Vernon Chronicles Volumes 1-3

Description

Excellent like-new pre-owned condition. Can’t find anything wrong to say about these three volumes.

Rarely are books recognized as a classic before they reach press. However, “The Vernon Chronicles Vol. 1: Lost Inner Secrets” was just that.

Volume 1: The Lost Inner Secrets

Volume One contains more than fifty sleights, tricks and routines with cards and coins including No-Sleight Triumph, The Fingerprint Card Trick, Vernon’s original handling for his classic Cutting The Aces, the Turnover Pass, the Vernon Multiple False-Cut, the Push-Through Shuffle, the Diagonal Palm Shift and so much more. While these are now classics of magic, they were explained for the first time in these pages.

The material is vintage Vernon, the magic that made him a legend among magicians; expert magic that has made one reputation and will make others. Also included are rich insights into the thinking and psychology that is known as “The Vernon Touch,” and historical anecdotes that are both entertaining and informative. Numerous rare photos and pieces of memorabilia from The Professor’s private collection have been added, as well as a biographical essay on him by Elizabeth Wilson.

Contents:

Foreword (Dai Vernon)
Introduction (Bruce Cervon)
Introduction (Larry Jennings)
Author’s Introduction (Stephen Minch)
A Visit with Dai Vernon (Elizabeth Wilson)

Chapter One: Sleights, Tips and Technique

On the Turn of a Card
On the Corner-Short
On the Scallop-Short
Enlarging a Break
Breaking at the In-jog
Rotating the Break
The Vernon All-Around Square Up
A curious Turnover-Pass
The Vernon One-Handed Shift
Glimpse from the Twirl Cut
Subway Transfer for Two
Hindu Transportation
The Hindu Double-Undercut
The Vernon Multiple False-Cut
The Vernon Simple False-Cut
On the Push-Through Shuffle
Three Loose Lifts
On Tabling a Double Card
On the Top Palm
Capping a Packet
Replacing the Top Palm
After the Bottom Palm
The Arthur Finley Diagonal Palm Shift
The Packet-Display Palm
Lightening the Load
On the Palm Change
On the Side Steal
The Strip-Out Addition
A New Peek Control
The Shuttle-Cut Control
The Perfect-Pitch False Count
The Transfer Force
The Breather Crimp
On the Second Deal
The “New Theory” Double Deal

Chapter Two: Among the Amaranths

No Sleight Triumph
The Second Campaign
In Uniform
The Ace Assembly
The Slow-Motion Aces – A Reassessment
Aces in Excelsis
The Fingerprint Card Trick
A Match Made in Cincinnati
The Aeroplane Card Trick
The Two-Thirteen Trick
The Unadulterated Cutting the Aces
Spellout with a Hitch
The Rising Sun
Oil Slick
Notes on the Three-Card Monte

Chapter Three: Dreams of Mammon

The Persistence-of-Vision Coin Vanish
Five Coins and a Glass
Silk and Silver
Slipping the Jit
Crossed Destinies

235 pages; hard covers with dust jacket, first edition, 1987

 

Volume 2: More Lost Inner Secrets

Unlike the previous volume, volume 2 is composed almost entirely of effects. Any tips on technique found in this volume are taught as part of effects rather than having their own section as in the previous book.

Like the previous volume and the one that followed, this book is filled with candid photographs of The Professor at work and play. You will feel as if you are sitting with Dai at the Magic Castle while he shares the stories and experiences of his lifetime. It includes over 50 Vernon routines, 27 historical photographs and 177 illustrations across 245 pages.

Contents:

Foreword – Bill Larsen
Introduction – Bruce Cervon
Author’s Introduction – Stephen Minch
Vernonana Historical Photography Portfolio or Rare Vernon Memorabilia – Robin Young

Chapter One: Lost and Found Department (card effects that revolve around finding a selected card)

The Challenge Locations
The Bridge
The Dual Crimp
The Scrape
The Wallet Punch
Dual to the Death
By Any Other Name
The Slap Trick

Chapter Two: The Garden of Forking Paths ( card tricks in which the final effect varies depending on choices made by the spectator)

Aces to Order
Out of Sight and Mind II
Four Options
Two-Six-Four Royale

Chapter Three: From Silks to Nuts (effects that do not involve playing cards)

The Tale of the Treasury-Worm
The Daivergent Silk
The Twirl Link
The Threadborne Link
The Peripatetic Walnuts

Chapter Four: Formal Exchanges (card transposition effects)

The Trick that Cannot be Reconstructed
The Loving Couple
Al ‘n’ Dai at the Hop
A Reblocking of “The Jumping Jack”
Out of Uniform

Chapter Five: Card Ciphers (card tricks that make use of counting or numbers)

The Rendezvous Force
Why am I Here?
Frisbie Saunders’ Location by the Numbers
Affinities
Packet Calculator

Chapter Six: Singular Events (effects that can’t easily be placed in other categories)

The Intelligent Leaper
Driven to the Depths
The Corsican Climbers
Punched in the Face
Out of Touch
Sans Index
Vernon on Edward G. Brown’s “Poker Hand Mystery”
Aces by Proxy
The Third Color
Tour Through the Outback
The Top-Stock Riffle Reverse
Larry Jennings’ Eidetic
Commanding the Colors
It Stands Alone
The Silhouette Change
A Face in the Night

Chapter Seven: Sorted Affairs (card tricks with pre-prepared decks)

A Sticky Solution
It’s a Snap
Vernon on Gilbreath
Nerves on Edge

Chapter Eight: New Wine from Old Bottles (previously unpublished effects by some of the magicians Vernon admired)

Max Malini’s Hypnotic Gaze Divination
Nate Leipzig’s Two-Deck Transposition
Leipzig on the Collins Ace Trick
Henry Christ’s Vanish for the Collins Ace Trick
Henry Christ’s Spell Detector
The Christ Ace Trick

245 pages; hard covers with dust jacket, first edition, 1988.

 

Volume 3: Further Lost Inner Secrets

The third volume in the series includes more gems from the legendary ‘Castle Notebooks’ kept by Bruce Cervon, including unpublished Vernon effects in addition to contributions from some of his friends and contemporaries such as Sam Horowitz, Henry Christ, Dr. Daley, Faucett Ross, Herb Zarrow and others.

Leading off this incredible volume is a 30-page essay, ‘Trouping Around in Magic with Max Holden’ by William P. Miesel, Max Maven, Bruce Cervon, Stephen Minch and Dai Vernon, a historical commentary on the New York Inner Circle in the 1920s and 30s.

Sleights covered include Subway Gambler’s Palm, the Contortion Palm, Flat Top Switch, the Zarrow Block Addition and A Table Pass. Effects include the legendary Joker Monte, in addition to Horowitz’s Look Homeward, Angel, Tenkai’s Phoenix Bill Vanish and many more. 63 routines, 210 illustrations, 32 historical photographs – 270 pages of pure Vernon.

Contents:

Foreword – Herb Zarrow

Introduction – Bruce Cervon
Author’s Introduction – Stephen Minch

Trouping Around in Magic with Max Holden – William P, Miesel

Chapter One: Dark Side of the Hand
Subway Gambler’s Palm
The Contortion Palm
Dr . Daley’s Face-Lift Addition
The Lilliput Palm
An Historical Note on the Dr. Elliott Top Palm
The Revolving Palm-Replacement
The Finley Diagonal Palm Shift Revisited
Flat Top

Chapter Two: Sundry Sleights
Flat Top Switch
The Spring-Loaded Tip-Over Change
The Zarrow Block Addition
A Note on Zarrow’s Revolving Aces
Back Breaker
The Hair’s-Breadth Stall
Vernon on the “Endfield” Slip Cut
On the Hay False Dovetail Shuffle
A Table Pass

Chapter Three: Motley
Spellatron
Cut and Spell
Caught in the Stretch
If the Suit Fits
Bruce Cervon’s Trans Mitt
Given the Slip
Will-o’-the-wisp
The Vernon Deck Vanish and Recovery

Chapter Four: Cheats
Joker Monte
Three in the Hand, One in the Bush
A Straight Deal
The David and Goliath Deal
Black’s Stack
Stacked to Formula

Chapter Five: Inflationary Effects
On Your Metal
All Sound and Fabric
Right Where?
Two Techniques with the Purse Palm
Pastiche on Ramsay, with Variations
On the Origins of the Steeplechase
Folding Money
Cashing a Check

Chapter Six: Notes on Cherished Ghosts
“Vester” Adam’s Flight of Fabric
Arthur Finley’s Remote Control
S . Leo Horowitz’s Look Homeward. Angel
Henry Christ’s Obstinate Pasteboards
Faucett Ross’ Twice Turned
Mac MacDonald’s Lost Chord
Dr. Daley’s Vis-A-Vis
Dr. Daley’s Select Transposition
Dr. Daley’s Interlocking Setup
Tenkai’s Phoenix Bill Vanish
Larry Grey’s Cut to Perfection
Jay Ose’s Presentation for The Glass Through Table
John Scarne’s Doppelganger Location
John Scarne’s Western Union Trick 208

Chapter Seven: Solitary Amusements
What’s-the-Value Solitaire
Think-of-a-Card Solitaire

219 pages; hard covers with dust jacket, first edition, 1989.