William h mcilhany biography of martin

Ruth Brandon's 1993 biography, The Life and Many Deaths of Harry Houdini, is not a book I reference often. Silverman and Christopher are my usual go-to sources.

But maybe this is a mistake.

William h mcilhany biography of martin luther

Because recently while thumbing through the Brandon book, I spotted something I don't believe has appeared in any other biography. And it's quite a significant piece of early Houdini history!

On page 20-21 (of the U.S. hardcover), Brandon quotes an undated letter written by Ehrich Weiss to his mother when he was "ten or eleven." This is notthe well-known "dear Ma" postcard.

This is something else entirely, and would be only the second known letter between Houdini and his mother (Houdini was buried with all their correspondence).

I was excited to see Brandon sourced the letter to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

So I reached out to our good friend Eric Colleary, who was kind enough to provide an image of the letter for me to share here on WILD ABOUT HA