Harry Houdini Re: Thomas Edison Duped by Fake Psychic; In Contrast, Houdini "caught him 100%" Boldly Signed Letter

A 1p typed letter boldly pencil-signed by American illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926) as "Houdini" at center right; Houdini has also underlined the word "admitted" in the second paragraph, and added a comma in the following paragraph. September 3, 1926. Paterson, New Jersey. On watermarked paper. Expected wear including even toning and flattened transmittal folds. Double hole-punched at left, and with isolated marks near the top. Else near fine. 8.5" x 11."

Harry Houdini wrote this letter to German writer Carl Graf von Klinckowstroem (1884-1969) on September 3, 1926, the second day of a 3-day-long performance at the Lyceum Theatre in Paterson, New Jersey called "Do Spirits Return? Houdini Says No and Proves It." He would be dead less than two months later, at age 52.

Houdini's correspondent, Von Klinckowstroem, was an independently wealthy intellectual from Munich. Von Klinckowstroem was a historian of science, technology, and culture. He was intrigued by the occult, especially the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, but he also showed a receptiveness to Houdini's skepticism about false mediums. In the letter, Houdini refers to a German language magazine, "Zeitschrift," literally "magazine," which could refer to "Physikalische Zeitschrift" [Physical Journal.]

Houdini wrote in part:

"Just received the 'Zeitschrift' and fortunately I can read German when in latin [sic] letters and I laboriously waded through the book.

Read about Dr. Reese. I caught him ten or fifteen years ago when he was in his prime and challenged him in 1924. He confessed his trickery to me as I caught him 100% and have detailed descriptions of the pellets and in the presence of my private secretary he admitted he was a trickster.

If this interests you I will send you sworn to affidavits, as Mr. Thomas Edison has written me saying Reese was genuine…

Have you ever seen my photographs of the paraffin hands I make? If not, will send them to you…"

Dr. Bert Reese (1841-1928) was a Polish-American mentalist who claimed to practice telepathy. As Houdini explains in this letter, he had investigated Dr. Reese and determined categorically that he was a fraud. The brilliant American inventor Thomas Edison (1847-1931), in contrast, was less committal about Reese's abilities, hedging that Reese was "neither a medium nor a fake." Edison had been interested in Reese because the former wanted to use scientific discoveries -- like his unfinished long-distance "spirit phone"-- to communicate with the dead. Houdini recalled in a letter to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "That he [Dr. Bert Reese] fooled Edison does not surprise me. He would have surprised me if he did not fool Edison. Edison is certainly not a criterion, when it comes to judging a shrewd adept in the art of pellet reading…" Dr. Reese excelled at billet reading, or the "pellet test": this was when something secret was written on a piece of paper rolled up into a ball, and then, apparently sight-unseen, it was pronounced by the telepath. Houdini foiled Dr. Reese's tricks during his own private session with the mentalist by molding the pellets into odd shapes. About this meeting with Reese, Houdini wrote using similar language to that found in our letter: "I caught him cold-blooded…"

One of Houdini's last experiments, conducted after 1923, showed how false mediums could make "spirit hands" or "spirit gloves" using paraffin. Detailed molds of a deceased person's hands, replicating even their fingerprints, could be made from their bodies, and later used by fake mediums to leave fingerprints on objects, like lamp-blacked trumpets. Cold, gelatinous "spirit hands" could flop around the séance table, grazing attendees. Houdini showed how easy it was to make wax hand molds in order to defang one of the medium's most primitive but effective tricks.

During the last half of his career as a celebrated illusionist, stuntman, and entertainer, Houdini emerged as one of the world's preeminent psychical researchers. After over 30 years of applied study, Houdini had built up a massive archive of relevant scholarship, and his expertise on the subject enabled him to routinely lecture at American universities. Houdini actively investigated fraudulent mediums, in his view thus preserving the real art and craft of explicable magic. In the 1920s, Houdini had famously sponsored a $30,000 cash prize (drawn from numerous sources) to be presented to any genuine medium. Houdini's investigations into mediums had resulted in dozens of convictions.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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