Jim Steinmeyer
Author of Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear
About the Author
Jim Steinmeyer is one of today's most renowned historians of stage magic. He is the critically, acclaimed author of The Glorious Deception, Charles Fort, and Hiding the Elephant, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. He is also a leading designer of magic illusion who has done work for television, show more Broadway, and many of the best-known names in modern magic, such as Doug Henning, Siegfried Roy, and David Copperfield. He lives in Los Angeles. show less
Image credit: Jim Steinmeyer and Jay Marshall working on British TV series The Secret Cabaret, produced by Open Media for Channel 4 By Open Media Ltd. - Open Media Ltd., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75645536
Series
Works by Jim Steinmeyer
Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear (2004) 471 copies
The Last Greatest Magician in the World: Howard Thurston versus Houdini & the Battles of the American Wizards (2011) 175 copies
The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer" (2005) 163 copies
The Science Behind the Ghost: A Brief History of Pepper's Ghost, The Victorian Theatrical Sensation (2013) 8 copies
Treacherous Impuzzibilities 7 copies
Devilish Impuzzibilities 6 copies
Virtual Impuzzibilities: useful & mysterious demonstrations of strangely self-working conjuring 6 copies
Unexpected Impuzzibilities 4 copies
A Tribute to Robert Harbin 3 copies
Bewildering Impuzzibilities 3 copies
Nothing But Mystery 2 copies
The Purse Trick 1 copy
The Short Change Repeat 1 copy
With Nothing But Mystery 1 copy
Discovering Invisibility 1 copy
Jarrett Magic 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1958-11-01
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Occupations
- magician
author
Members
Reviews
The title is a little misleading as it is more of a biography with little details here and there that actually concerns Dracula. Not a bad read though.
Steinmeyer tries to unravel the influences behind Bram Stoker’s creation of the world’s most famous fictional vampire.
He uses his central thesis that the infamous Count was formed out of an amalgamation of Stoker’s friends and acquaintances to present a series of mini-biographies of his chief suspects. The handling of the various subjects is uneven and there’s a fair degree of supposition and conjecture on how each influenced the author of Dracula (in some cases I’m not sure they did at all.)
The book concludes with a look at the history of Dracula on stage and it’s rise in pop culture, but other than a few passing mentions totally overlooks the impact of the cinematic incarnations.
In the end I’m not sure who the book was aimed at, nor did it lay out a convincing case for it’s thesis.… (more)
He uses his central thesis that the infamous Count was formed out of an amalgamation of Stoker’s friends and acquaintances to present a series of mini-biographies of his chief suspects. The handling of the various subjects is uneven and there’s a fair degree of supposition and conjecture on how each influenced the author of Dracula (in some cases I’m not sure they did at all.)
The book concludes with a look at the history of Dracula on stage and it’s rise in pop culture, but other than a few passing mentions totally overlooks the impact of the cinematic incarnations.
In the end I’m not sure who the book was aimed at, nor did it lay out a convincing case for it’s thesis.… (more)
This is a well documented and interesting biography. It provides a very comprehensive picture of the times and the evolution of magic as entertainment.
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 57
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,441
- Popularity
- #17,844
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 30
- ISBNs
- 24
I feel the authopr used the better known Houdini to lure people to the book, only to then say a lot of negative things about him, but otherwise enjoyed the book.