Houdini, Harry

   (pseudonym of Enrich Weiss, 1874–1926)

   magician and debunker of spiritualism. In early 1924 J.C.Henneberger, owner of WT,in an attempt to salvage the magazine, hired Houdini—then at the height of his celebrity—as a regular columnist. The column “Ask Houdini” appeared in the issues for March, April, and May–June–July 1924. Houdini also appeared as the author of the short stories “The Hoax of the Spirit Lover” (April 1924) and “The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt” (March and April 1924), possibly ghostwritten by Walter Gibson. Henneberger commissioned HPL to write an account of an adventure that Houdini purportedly had in Egypt; but as HPL investigated the details of the incident (told to him in correspondence with Henneberger), he found that it was almost entirely mythical. HPL therefore asked Henneberger for as much imaginative latitude as possible in writing the story. The result was “Under the Pyramids” (published in the May-June-July issue as “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs”). Henneberger was going to print a joint byline to the story, but because HPL had written it in the first person (as if narrated by Houdini), he felt obliged to omit HPL’s name. Houdini, reading the story in manuscript, expressed great approbation of it (see SL1.328). In the fall of 1924, when HPL, now in New York, was having difficulty finding employment, Houdini asked HPL to visit him at his apartment at 278 West 113th Street in Manhattan, as he would put HPL in touch with “someone worth-while” (SL 1.354). At the meeting, in early October, Houdini gave HPL an introduction to Brett Page, the head of a newspaper syndicate; HPL met Page on October 14, but no job resulted from it. In the fall of 1926 Houdini came in touch with HPL again. He first asked HPL to write an article attacking astrology, for which he paid $75 (see SL2.76, 79). (This article apparently does not survive.) Then he commissioned HPL and C.M.Eddy (who may have done revision work for him at an earlier date) jointly to ghostwrite a full-scale book on superstition, but his sudden death on October 31 put an end to the plans, as Houdini’s widow did not wish to pursue the project. A synopsis of the book, along with the text of one chapter, survive in HPL’s papers under the title The Cancer of Superstition(in DB). Houdini gave HPL a copy of his own debunking of spiritualism, A Magician among the Spirits(1924), with the inscription: “To my friend Howard P.Lovecraft, /Best Wishes,/Houdini./‘My brain is the key that sets me free.’”

   See Ruth Brandon, The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini (1993); Kenneth Silverman, Houdini!!! (1996).