On (Hesperus Press)

Throughout his life, the world' s most famous escapologist strove to expose the methods and tricks of illusionists and sham spiritualists. Studying entertainers and criminals alike, Houdini investigates the tricks of the mind and sleights of hand that have deceived people throughout history. The magician' s writings caused a public sensation; legend has it that his book The Right Way to Do Wrong was bought in bulk by burglars in an attempt to guard the tricks of their trade. This collection also includes Houdini' s revelations about the methods behind some of his own most famous tricks, and articles he wrote to expose his imitators.

The latest in Hesperus's On series comes from master travel writer Mark Twain and concentrates on his journey through the Wild WestFrom 1861 to 1867, a young Mark Twain traveled through the Wild West. Following an abortive foray into a career as a Confederate Cavalry man he opted instead to head off on a stagecoach road trip with his brother Orion, who had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory. Twain sets out on an epic voyage from Missouri to Sacramento. He will visit Salt Lake City, witness the beginning of the real estate boom, and try his hand at silver mining in Nevada. Traveling in turn by boat, train, and coach, through mountains and deserts, he comes across Native Americans, visits a Mormon village, and becomes stranded in a snowstorm. Discovering a land in the grasp of a boom and bust mentality, Twain is caught up in the lust for instant wealth which remains always tantalizingly close. Priceless anecdotes detail the amusing mishaps and bad judgement calls that ensure that the author's riches are kept at arm's length. Even at this early stage of his budding career, Twain's trademark humor is visible, as no one is safe from Twain's wit. Train drivers, coachmen, fellow passengers, and locals all become victims of the author's pen as he hones his trade.

Written for the Toronto Star between 1920 and 1924, this selection of energetic pieces from Hemingway sees the author focus his gaze on Paris. Writing with characteristic verve, the author tackles cultural topics in chapters such as Living on $1,000 a Year in Paris, American Bohemians in Paris, and Parisian Boorishness. "The scum of Greenwich Village, New York, has been skimmed off and deposited in large ladles on that section of Paris adjacent to the CafÉ Rotonde. New scum, of course, has risen to take the place of the old, but the oldest scum, the thickest scum and the scummiest scum," Hemingway wryly observes, "has come across the ocean, somehow, and with its afternoon and evening levees has made the Rotonde the leading Latin Quarter showplace for tourists in search of atmosphere."

Meander through Provence in the company of Henry James with this vivid collection of travel writing taken from his little-known book A Little Tour in FranceIn 1882, a year after the publication of his wildly successful The Portrait of a Lady, which dealt with the difficulties faced by American expatriate Daisy Miller in Europe, Henry James set out a six-week tour of southeastern France, taking in Tours, Bourges, Nantes, Toulouse, and Arles. Although a sometime resident of Paris, James was convinced that the soul of France resided not in the capital but in the provinces, and he set out to find it. Beginning in Touraine, James followed the course of the Rhône north to Burgundy, writing articles on architecture, literature, and personal observation that were serialized in the Atlantic Monthly. The resulting work is a fascinating patchwork, switching seamlessly between the broad strokes of classic travel writing and the smallest details of human behavior for which James is best known. This is at once an excellent example of James' prose writing and an outstanding work of travel writing in its own right.

"To understand a profound thought is to have, at the moment one understands it, a profound thought oneself; and this demands some effort, a genuine descent to the heart of oneself . . . Only desire and love give us the strength to make this effort. The only books that we truly absorb are those we read with real appetite, after having worked hard to get them, so great had been our need of them." Reading was, for Marcel Proust, more than the pursuit of knowledge: a truly spiritual activity, it was a means of transforming and transcending the self. By reading great authors, he contends, we not only learn of great ideas, but are enriched by the fruits of the world's most inspirational minds.

Travel with Kipling through India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canton (now Guangzhou), Japan, and BurmaRudyard Kipling spent many years abroad and his relationship with India is explored in several of his works, both fiction and non-fiction. After leaving school, Kipling was sent to Lahore to work at a local newspaper. He would go on, a few years later, to take up a post at the Pioneer in Allahabad. Kipling said that only a few hours after arriving in India "my English years fell away, nor ever, I think, came back in full strength." While working for the Pioneer Kipling wrote a series of sketches about life in India. In 1889, he became the Pioneer's roving correspondent; traveling to Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canton, and Japan. This collection comprises essays from both his sketches of India and the rest of his travels, showcasing his observations, opinions, and itinerary. Although his writings might feature in some places outdated opinions and points of view, his eye for detail, character, and color, along with his masterful style, give these pieces a timeless feel and shed new light on the writings of a writer with which we thought we were familiar.

A brand new selection of Arthur Conan Doyle's writings on all things supernatural, taken from Edge of the UnknownAn account of séances, automatic writing, trips to haunted country houses, and in-depth philosophical analysis of the thinking behind the supernatural, this book is a must-have for the Conan Doyle enthusiast or the intrigued reader alike. Best known for the creation of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle had many more strings to his bow. He was a political campaigner; he believed in the existence of fairies; and he played amateur sleuth, taking up closed cases to prove miscarriage of justice. Perhaps most intriguing of all though was the fact that, following the deaths of a number of his family, Conan Doyle began to take an interest in what was then termed "spiritualism" (trying to prove the existence of life beyond the grave), he became a member of the paranormal association The Ghost Sense Club, and he also joined the British Society of Psychical Research. Conan Doyle's famous spat with Houdini is represented here with a chapter eulogizing Houdini, apparently still not quite willing to let go the suspicion that the magician was blessed with special powers.

Dickens' burning passion for theater has often been overlooked by fans of his novels. A keen playwright and actor, he staged performances for which he oversaw every detail, and personally adapted many of his own fictional works. As a consummate self-publicist, he also undertook numerous stage tours and public readings of his own work. For Dickens, and for large swathes of Victorian society, theatre was a way of life and a hub of community: audience and performers would swell out onto the streets and into nearby drinking establishments after each show. Drawing on a variety of sources, both fictional and journalistic, this collection portrays a career's worth of Dickens' musings, critiques, and opinions on one of his most revered passions and pastimes-the theater.

Journey through the subject of melancholia in an easily accessible volume touching on topics from love and sex to religion and geographyBurton's The Anatomy of Melancholy is one of the great but unclassifiable prose works in English literature: diverting, delightfully rambling, and filled with recondite learning and peculiar facts and speculations. Burton, frustrated at the stagnant, disorderly society in which he found himself, became convinced that the problems of England lay in its inclination to melancholy. This is the starting-point, or pretext, for a hugely wide-ranging survey of the causes, descriptions (and cures) of melancholy. Burton's unsystematic approach to his subject contributes greatly to its charm and interest, for much of it is composed of digressions that are, in effect, self-contained essays on all manner of subjects: cosmology, religious fanaticism, devils and spirits, food, love, and sex.

Finding cocaine to be an analgesic and a cure for depression, Freud hailed it as a miracle drug, stressing in particular its apparent lack of side effects. Marveling at its ability to "cure" addictions to morphine, he enthusiastically recommended it to all his acquaintances. Eventually, following several tragic experiences, he was forced to recognize the negative effects of the drug. This unique selection, edited and translated by Freud expert David Carter, combines letters, papers, and dream analyses on cocaine, bringing together the contentious thoughts of one of the 20th-century's most brilliant minds.