Willard - A Life Under Canvas

300 pages
11 x 8½ inches
Lavishly illustrated with 276 photographs, and 8 pages in full color
Limited to 1,000 numbered copies
Published in 2008
Price: $85.00 + postage
Deluxe Edition: $195 + postage

The story of the four men who performed under the name Willard the Wizard reads like a roller coaster ride made up of triumphant highs and tragic lows. Working closely with author David Charvet were Harry Willard's grown children, Eugene, Madeline, and Frances, who spent many years during their youth traveling with and performing in their father's show. David had access to not only what the audience saw on stage at the Harry Willard show, but also what was happening backstage. This is the ultimate behind the scenes story of a traveling tent show as told by those who lived it. Combining these firsthand accounts with David relentless research has produced a unique slice of magic history.

Willard – A Life Under Canvas is number 14 in our series of Magical Pro-Files. It contains 370 pages with 276 photographs and because the entire book has been printed in two colors, we were able to print many of the photos in duotone, giving them the feel of a hot, dusty tent show. Eight pages of full color show Willard in action along with some beautiful portraits of his well-worn apparatus photographed by the master, Homer Liwag.

The tent-show feel continues with the printed endsheets and onto the binding with a canvas cloth on the front and back covers and Skivertex leather on the spine. This edition is limited to 1,000 hand-numbered copies. Price $85.

DELUXE EDITION: We don't automatically produce a deluxe edition of our new books. There has to be a good reason and with the Willard book, we had a perfect reason. Here in Egyptian Hall Museum there is a large photograph of Harry Willard that was color tinted by hand. This beautiful image was placed outside the tent for publicity purposes. We have made small reproductions of this image and tipped one into each of the deluxe editions. This edition also features an extra page with a color photograph of the contributors including Eugene, Madeline, and Frances Willard and each of them has signed this page along with author David Charvet. To complete the package, each book is housed in a slipcase covered with the matching tent canvas cloth and stamped with two colors. Only 150 copies of the deluxe edition have been produced and each one has been hand numbered.

REVIEWS
Among Mike Caveney's Magic Words' many publications, the "Magical Pro-Files" series has been the most consistently praised in terms of beauty and content. This title, number 14 in the series, has set the bar higher still in both categories. Willard: A Life Under Canvas is a triumph of production and storytelling. It seems fitting that the story of such a historic family of magic be chronicled in such an exceptional work as this.
—Dustin Stinett, Genii Magazine