Original manuscript notebook titled “Magic, Mystery, and Occult Science” by C. A. George Newmann, approximately 100 handwritten pages in a cloth-bound 7.5 x 9.5 ledger, a number of pages signed as “C. George Naeseth” and “Geo. Newmann” (one signed in full as “Charles Augustus George Newmann, Zumbota, Minnesota” and dated March 15, 1900). Newmann (1880–1952), born Christian Andrew George Naeseth, performed as “Newmann the Great” in the early decades of the twentieth century. In addition to stage illusion, Newmann practiced hypnotism and “people reading” and became one of the first—and most successful—American entertainers to make a specialty of these skills. He was also well-known as a pioneering collector of magic literature, author of such books as Clever Card Conjuring (1922) and Newmann’s Magical Library (1945), and the subject of an important monograph, Newmann: The Pioneer Mentalist (1989). In the present item, the twenty-year-old Newmann, then at the very beginning of his career, outlines his act, scripts “patter,” and explains his views on hypnosis and mentalism. For example, a section titled “Mental Magic” includes lengthy and detailed presentations titled “Telepathy, an Experiment in Mind or Thought Reading,” “Clairvoyance, Second Sight or Supernatural Vision,” and others; a section titled “Minor Illusions” contains scripts for presentations of such illusions as Herrmann’s Billiard Ball, the Birth of the Flowers, the Invisible Hen, and others. One self-contained section of approximately thirty pages presents ten lessons under the title “Lessons in Inductive Hypnosis”; another section contains a multipart essay titled “The Philosophy of Personal Influence.” Elsewhere, Newmann pens verse, quotations from others, lists of “Mind Reading Tests” and “Tests in Mesmerism,” and more. In very good condition, with several pages previously removed from the ledger (likely by Newmann himself and not affecting any of the extant contents), the text block partially loose from the binding, soiling, staining, and rubbing to covers, and mild, even toning to interior, which is generally quite clean and well-preserved. R&R COA.
