Conan Doyle and Houdini correspondence goes on show
A fascinating correspondence between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the magician and escapologist Harry Houdini (pictured left) will be on view at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum throughout April.
The museum, in Charleston, USA, is housed in an old Methodist church. It is home to a series of manuscripts from the private collection of real-estate magnates David and Marsh Karpeles. Admission is free.
The glass cases, edged around the pews and pulpit, contain exhibits ranging from pages from Roget’s original Thesaurus to Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sketched map of the Antarctic.
An article in a March issue of The Paris Review explained the relationship between Conan Doyle and Houdini, which started with a book exchange. Both men had an interest in the possibility of contacting people in the afterlife.
In 1920, Harry Houdini was on a tour of the British Isles with his wife Bess, plus a menagerie of small animals and trunks of theatrical ‘props’ needed for his act.
