Lewis, Eric C.: A Choice of Miracles
©1980 Magical Publications, Sierra Madre, CA
Hardcover, 8x11", 213 pages

Comments: The first of the "Miracles" Trilogy: 1) A Choice of Miracles (magic up to 1939); 2) A Continuation of Miracles; and 3) The Crowning Miracles.

Contents:

10 Publisher's Note
11 Introduction (Charlie Miller(
13 Foreword

15 Chapter I In The Beginning
19 The Great Super-Colossal Jumbo Card-Pip Trick
24 The Alarm Clock Production
26 An Introductory Item
28 Four In Hand

33 Chapter II And Then Came The Magicians
35 The “Pump And Guess” Card Discovery

43 Chapter III “Well I Never"
44 A Broken And Restored Wand
45 Visibly Through
47 The Multiplying Wands
50 Merely A Mistake
52 A Useful Forcing Device (Divinadisc)
54 Magical Pictures
56 Playing With Fire
57 The Book Of Spells

61 Chapter IV A Magical Mentality
63 Off And On The Ribbon
65 The Strange Letter
66 The Walking-Cane Suspension
70 Silk Over Head, Plus

73 Chapter V Commercial Magic In the Early Thirties
74 Through a Half-Inch Hole
77 The Locked Books Release
79 Card Castles
81 A Self-Erecting Card-Castle Table
83 The Case of the Curious Cubes
85 Curiouser and Curiouser
89 The "Miracle" Passing Cards
91 The Improved "Zen's" Switch
93 The Queen of the Air

99 Chapter VI Oriental Frolic
101 The Penetrating Flower Pot
104 Comedy Flower Growth
105 The Chinese Hat
106 Dual Lantern Production
108 A Modern Chinese Lamp Stand Production
111 A Multiple Lantern Production
113 A Surprising Lantern
114 The Mystery of the Triple Temple

119 Chapter VII "...Except Thee and Me..."
128 If All The World Were Wine
129 The Convocational Jacks
131 An Everlit Match
132 Chris Van Bern's Mirror Mystery

135 Chapter VIII Three From '33
136 Archie Byford's Living and Dead Test
137 Cups and Balls For the Stage
145 The Shrinking Wand

149 Distant Drums
150 The Art of the Magician, by The Great Levante, 1936
152 Magic as a Business, by The Great Levante, 1937
154 Novel Nemocracy With Numbers
156 A Remarkable Record
159 The Obedient Cigarette Paper
160 Hallucination
163 The Educated Silk
165 The Unexpected Glass

169 Chapter X Magic For Moderns
170 A Convincing Color-Change Wand
172 The Vanishing Tube
174 The Quadrifid Cards
176 The Golden Arrow

XI The Calm Before
180 The Eric Lewis Natural False Count
181 “A Little Trick with Eight Cards”
182 The Sharper Sharped
184 The Natural Put-Back Count
185 The ‘Streamlined” Cards to Pocket
189 Fantasm
191 The Big-Little Joker Transposition
193 The Electric Bulb Penetration
196 The Mutilated Note
198 Two-Color Paper Routine

XII The Storm

207 Appendix
211 Index

With bookplate for Margaret Yates

Eric Lewis is one of the great minds in magic who came up with many great effects during his lifetime. These 3 books represent the documentation of his inventions and incorporate many of his earlier writings which have been edited and rewritten and new illustrations drawn. These books incorporate much of the history behind the tricks which makes for interesting reading. This was conceived as trilogy and that was what was delivered, exactly 3 volumes. Lewis was also an expert craftsman and began building tricks at a young age. Many of Lewis' effects have also been commercially produced including many by Milson Worth.



A Choice of Miracles was published in 1980 and contains 213 pages. It describes his magic up until 1939 and here are some of the highlights:

Alarm Clock Production
Broken and Restored Wand
Merely a Mistake
Playing with Fire
The Book of Spells
Off and On the Ribbon
The Strange Letter
Walking-Cane Suspension
Locked Books Release
Case of the Curious Cubes
Curiouser and Curiouser
Improved "Zen's" Switch
Penetrating Flower-Pot
Comedy Flower Growth
Chinese Hat
Dual Lantern Production
Mystery of the Triple Temple
Convocational Jacks
Living and Dead Test
Cups and Balls for the Stage
Convincing Color-Change Wand
Vanishing tube
Golden Arrow
Electric Bulb Penetration

The second book in the series, A Continuation of Miracles, published in 1981, has a total of 254 pages. Lewis continues on his magical journey. Here are some of the effects described:

One Man Nest of Boxes
Crazy Imaginary Four-Ace Trick
Black Magic
Lighted Bulbs from Mouth
Fantastic Frame
Penelease
Die in Box
Clock Dial
Cups and Balls
Billiard Balls
Mass Production
'Orrible Murder
Fig-Leaf Chest
Peacock Fantasy
Hypnotizing a Rabbit
Card Guillotine
"Slam-Through" Glass Vanish
"Elevated" Magic Welding
Sympathetic Silks
Tricolor
Acrobatic Balls
Casket of Boxes
Chronicle of the Sympathetic Cubes
Perplexing Puzzle
Yellow Art Tubes
Torn, Restored, and Rising Card

The Crowning Miracles is the last of the volumes and has 237 pages and was published in 1983. This volume has over 20 years of children's magic, close-up, stage, and platform magic. Here are some of the highlights:

Suprinso
Pin-Up Girl
Color Forcing Paddle
"Slate" Mistake
Harbin-Lewis Trick
Mystery of the Crystal Ring
Who Done It?
A Lesson in Card Magic
School or Circus?
Pirate's CHest
Solid Chuff-Chuff
Eric Wilson and "Brer Rabbit"
Michael Chick
Die Table
Edward Pierce
Abdul's Fez
Weird Cylinders of Wung and Wong
Tumbling Name Blocks
The Great Zonzo
Newspaper Headline Prediction
Die-Vination
Dial-a-Number
Imaginary Pipe
The Red Card
Self-Priming Syphon of Louis Histed
Multiple Jiffy Slate
Sword Stab
Die Everlasting
Midas Touch
Painting by Numbers