In the late nineteenth century, mediums across the country were busy delivering messages from the dead to anyone who would listen. And there were plenty who would. Often these words from beyond appeared on slates during séances. But the brand of magic that mediums offered was nothing more than that-magic. Author William E. Robinson, an accomplished magician who worked as a stage manager and assistant to Alexander Herrmann and Harry Kellar, knew all the tricks of the trade. His book, Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena, published in 1898, explained them all.

This new edition includes all the original illustrations, along with an introduction by Henry Ridgely Evans—another turn-of-the-century magician who knew the dead couldn’t talk, except through the preservation of the written word. Just as Evans and Robinson will be doing between these covers.