John Mulholland (1898-1970)

John Muhlholland was born in 1898 in Chicago, and was first inspired to become a magician by seeing a performance of Harry Kellar's. He moved to Manhattan as a young man with his mother. An accomplished performer by his teenage years, Mulholland went on to an impressive career as a professional magician and authority on the subject. In the 1930s, he assumed editorship of The Sphinx, at that time the world's largest and most respected magic magazine. Mulholland had an uparalleled collection of magic memorabilia and apparatus that is now largely owned by David Copperfield. Inventor of the Mulholland Box. A one-time consultant to the article on conjuring in the Encyclopedia Britannica, he is credited with helping to make magic intellectually respectable, and wrote numerous books on the subject.

Among his written works are Quicker than the Eye (1932), Story of Magic (1935), The Art of Illusion (1944), and Book of Magic (1963).