William Manning (3) (–1905)

This is in fact two small volumes, one being Recollections of Robert-Houdin by William Manning, a sort of biographical sketch of a French magician, and the other Automata Old and New by Conrad William Cooke, which is exactly what it says on the tin. They were produced by members of the Sette of Odd Volumes, a delightful Victorian club in which the members were addressed as "Your Oddship," of which I can only approve.

As far as the books themselves, the volume on automata was infinitely more show more interesting to me, and particularly valuable as a resource for steampunk and science fiction writing, as you can see exactly what kinds of things were being produced, not being produced but talked about, and just what pre-video-oriented people considered "lifelike." show less