Welcome to Dai Vernon's legendary annotations for The Expert at the Card Table by S.W. Erdnase. This new over-size book was triggered by the discovery of more than 160 long-lost photographs of Dai Vernon's hands that were taken in 1961 specifically to illustrate this manuscript. It is as close as you will ever get to a personal session with The Professor.
Includes:
- A facsimile reproduction of the entire, original typed Revelation manuscript.
- The entire text of The Expert at the Card Table with Vernon's annotations inserted at the appropriate places illustrated with the newly discovered photos.
- More than 100 pages of added material including Vernon's explanation (with photos) of Topping the Deck, Walter Scott's Second Deal and Double Belly Cut, the Ping Pong Shift, The Hop, Allen Kennedy's legendary Center Deal and more.
The book itself measures 9 by 11.5 inches with 392 pages and a beautiful dustjacket designed by Michael Albright. The book is bound in green cloth and stamped with copper foil.
The Professor, Dai Vernon, is the single most important figure in the entire universe to ever exist in all of eternity, or at least very close. Not only did he present us with a vast number of innovations in technique, effect, theory, etc., he lived to be 98 years old meeting and interacting with nearly every other great magician and was able to pass on many of their great lessons and teaching to subsequent generations.For example, due to his association with Dr. Elliott, he learned, amongst other things, the great piece of advice, “Be natural and use your head.” He took this phrase and applied it to a lot of magic to improving it immensely, and, also, passed it along to his students and had it in his writings. This is just one example of many, and we owe the Professor a great deal for all he has added to the art.
Although the Professor kept many of his secrets sub rosa for much of his life, he changed his mind later on and, with the help of Lewis Ganson and Faucett Ross, among others, allowed many of his creations to be published in his various books. These include the Dai Vernon Book of Magic, the Inner Card Secrets books, the Vernon Chronicles, and, one of the crown jewels, Revelation, his study of Erdnase’s the Expert at the Card Table.
The fourth volume of the Vernon Chronicles included many of his reminiscences and David Ben has written the first volume of an excellent biography for those that wish to learn more. Also, you should definitely study The Vernon Touch, a collection of his column in Genii magazine, and The Vernon Chronicles video series. They are about as close as you can get to spending time with this extraordinary gentleman.
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For someone who doesn't already own one, I recommend getting the unannotated "The Expert at the Card Table" to which this book will make a fine complement. Take the original Erdnase work with you wherever you go, then when you've covered a little ground, come back to that ground in "Revelation" for Vernon's additional information, expanding on what you've read.