Bruce MacNab’s The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini follows the exploits of Houdini as he laid the groundwork for becoming a 20th-century icon. Houdini, of course, became famous for escaping from ropes in less time than it took to be tied up, from handcuffs brought and placed on him by others, from straitjackets used on the insane and from jail cells that housed notorious criminals. He also exposed psychics and seers, all of whom he regarded as fraudulent. What few knew until this publication is that seeds for these sensational stunts and services were first sown in the summer of 1896 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Quite extraordinary really, considering that Houdini has been profiled hundreds of times since his death in 1926, and prior to The Metamorphosis, the coverage of Houdini’s Maritime exploits could be counted in paragraphs rather than pages.
Why the Maritimes, and why MacNab?
Houdini came to the Maritimes...
David Ben is a Canadian magician, the artistic director of Magicana, the publisher of Magicol and a fan of the East Coast.
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