The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America's Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist

A well-known magician's journey to find the greatest cardsharp ever stimulates the neglected globe of magic where Americans found escape throughout the Great Clinical depression

It has the classic quality of an old-fashioned fable, but Karl Johnson's The Illusionist and the Cardsharp is a true tale that lovingly re-creates the glimmer of a disappeared globe. Here, set versus the backdrop of America coping the Clinical depression, is the globe of magic, a realm of celebrities, sleight of hand, and sin where desires can be understood - or taken away.

Complying with the Crash of '29, Dai Vernon, understood by magicians as "the guy that deceived Houdini," is tramping down Midwestern backroads, barely making ends fulfill. While swapping tricks with a Mexican gambler, he becomes aware of a guy he doesn't quite think is real - a famous enigma guy that deals completely from the center of the deck and that locals call the greatest cardsharp of all time. Established to find the reclusive brilliant, Vernon sets out on a trip with America's shady, glossy, and sinful side - from mob-run Kansas City with railroad communities that looked sleepy only in the daytime. Does he find the sharp?

Well, Karl Johnson did - after years of study right into Vernon's colorful mission, study that led him to locations he never recognized existed. Johnson takes us to the cardsharp's doorstep and shows us how he presented on Vernon the greatest secret in magic. The Illusionist and the Cardsharp is an unique and endlessly amusing item of history that exposes the creativity and fascination of a special breed of American showmen.