The legendary and hard-to-find Fred Braue Notebooks, all in mint condition! Originally, this collection was supposed to have 15 volumes, but our mate Jeff Busby only got around to publishing 8 of them.
This 8-Volume set comes with a delightful bonus: a FREE 235-page PDF download of The Unpublished Fred Braue Notebooks!
Years back, Conjuring Arts managed to snag the remnants of Jeff Busby’s collection, which included the treasures that make up the Fred Braue notebooks. At our insistence, Mr. Leo Reed sifted through the material and brought together the unpublished gems. This volume is here to fill in the gaps that Busby had planned but never quite finished.
Among the goodies we found were two ancient 5.25" floppy discs—yes, those relics—containing Busby's drafts for volumes 9 and 10. Mr. Reed dug up Busby’s intended contents for those volumes and has included scans of the original notes, just for you.
Plus, you’ll discover other notes and materials that we reckon Mr. Busby had in mind for future volumes. We’ve laid it all out for you right here.
We’ve put in a good two years trying to figure out who holds the rights to this material. We’re confident that it’s either now in the public domain or that the rights holders are perfectly fine with us sharing it.
Currently, this book is reserved for the original buyers of the Fred Braue notebooks and those who’ve snagged the 8-volume sets we’re now offering.
By releasing this material, we hope to ease the pain of the original project’s incompleteness and give a proper nod to Mr. Braue’s legacy and reputation.
If you were one of the original buyers of the Fred Braue Notebooks, give us a shout at orders@conjuringarts.org to claim your PDF of The Unpublished Fred Braue Notebooks. We’ve got Mr. Busby’s original subscription records, so we can confirm your subscription without any faff.
8 1/2 x 11 inch format, spiral-bound.
Volume 1 - 35 pages
Volume 2 - 33 pages
Volume 3 - 33 pages
Volume 4 - 34 pages
Volume 5 - 33 pages
Volume 6 - 34 pages
Volume 7 - 37 pages
Volume 8 - 34 pages
Unpublished Fred Braue Notebooks (PDF) - 235 pages
Please note: While this item is new and unused, it’s been lounging in storage for decades, so you might find the odd rusted staple or a page that’s seen better days. From the "Fred Braue Notebooks Prospectus," 1985: Fred Braue, co-author with Jean Hugard of the acclaimed EXPERT CARD TECHNIQUE and ROYAL ROAD TO CARD MAGIC, left behind a treasure trove of unpublished work when he passed away in 1962. A master technician, he had the “real work” on the latest developments in card and close-up magic. Yet, much of Braue’s brilliance never made it to print. His session notebooks and personal effects are simply mind-blowing; they contain hundreds of effects, all meticulously written, that have remained under wraps.
THE FRED BRAUE NOTEBOOKS, in their original form, consist of roughly 1000 pages of typewritten text, spanning 30 years of creative genius. The few top-tier magicians who’ve had a peek at the mountain of unpublished Braue material have been left gobsmacked by its depth and richness.
The majority of the material in THE FRED BRAUE NOTEBOOKS focuses on card magic that Braue pioneered. Expect sophisticated sleights, close-up routines, and platform card work. There’s even a complete general work on card magic—several hundred pages long—that Braue was penning when he died, called SLEIGHTS. Not to mention a whole book of new routines and original sleights with cards, which sadly never got a working title. And yes, tucked away in THE FRED BRAUE NOTEBOOKS is the suppressed material from two classics—stuff that was meant for, but for various reasons never made it into EXPERT CARD TECHNIQUE and ROYAL ROAD TO CARD MAGIC. In short, a dazzling array of original sleights, moves, effects, and routines with cards.
But wait, there’s more! There’s also non-card material that will tickle any magician’s fancy, including Braue’s routine for the Sympathetic Silks; other silk effects; visual gags; Linking Rings; coins; and a complete breakdown of Braue’s Cups and Balls routine—an ingenious piece using five balls, of which only three are visible. And don’t miss the thorough description of the ball vanish that Max Malini famously employed in his Cups and Balls routine.
Included in the series of THE FRED BRAUE NOTEBOOKS are Braue’s session notes—extensive records of the magicians he met and the material they showcased—offering a fascinating glimpse into the “underground” scene of the time. You’ll find effects and routines from legendary names like Charlie Miller, T. Nelson Downs, Dai Vernon, Max Malini, Paul Rosini, Dr. Elliott, Nate Leipzig, Paul LePaul, Bert Allerton, Jack McMillen, Tenkai, Emil Jarrow, and many more.
In most cases, these aren’t mere “notes”; they’re complete descriptions penned by a professional writer. It’s a goldmine of material that’s making its debut in print right here for the first time.
