As we've reported in earlier posts, the rare book collection at the Boston Public Library, shown here, holds a unique scrapbook of Houdini material. It portrays him in a far different light from the usual.
His close friend Quincy Kilby's scrapbook reveals Harry Houdini the book lover, the aesthete, the delver into arcane literary and even political mysteries.
Kilby was a well-known book collector himself. He and Harry regularly exchanged information about rare books and book people. Kilby helped connect Harry with Alfred Becks, the former curator of the theater library at Harvard.
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| L to R: Houdini, Alfred Becks, Willard Green |
Becks became such an important person in Harry's life he actually moved into Houdini's New York brownstone to take care of the sprawling library. Letters to Kilby reflect Harry's affectionate, albeit humorous, concern with Becks' health - if the librarian sneezed, the whole collection was threatened with pneumonia.
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| Click to enlarge. |
The letter above reflects Harry and Kilby's shared passion for the artifacts of theatrical history. This intersected with Harry's lifelong interest in Abraham Lincoln, whose assassin, John Wilkes Booth, came from a famous family of actors. Harry collected everything ever written about Booth. A series of letters to Kilby indicate Harry was entertaining major conspiracy theories about the assassination.
Next from the Kilby files: Houdini the intellectual.
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