By John Hertz: Have you too, seeing these postage stamps, been reminded of T. Nelson Downs and John Northern Hilliard?
P.S. If you wonder about that number, you can look here.
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I think more of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (often credited as the father of modern stage magic) or John Mulholland because his was the best book I read when I was trying to become a stage magician, but there are many great names who have done documentation.
And for magic numbers: IMO the intertwining of 0769230 and 153846 is more impressive. (The article may be correct that their manipulation doesn’t work, but IMO that’s trivial.)
John Hertz replies by carrier pigeon:
The reminder I had in mind was that The Art of Magic is Downs’ deservedly famous book, admittedly edited and possibly ghostwritten by Hilliard, as can be seen via the links to their names which OGH helped me provide.
The U.S. Postal Service description says Greg Breeding designed the stamps. Its text “A magician producing a coin from seemingly nothing is a crowd-pleasing staple” points to Downs, renowned for this in what came to be called the Miser’s Dream.
Jay Fletcher is credited with the illustrations, showing five main magical effects: production (rabbit from a top hat), prediction (crystal ball), levitation (floating woman), vanishment (birdcage sparkling empty), transformation (flower turning into bird).
His portraying the title with these five concepts, and giving each a concrete image, communicative, elegant, masterfully simple, is exemplary.
Magic is our neighbor. Theater arts in general are.
They and we are in the versimilitude business; magic in particular.
Science fiction tells of what has never yet happened, and fantasy what so far as is known cannot happen. Mainstream fiction points to familiar reality; we step away.