Queen of Magic: The Wondrous, Unstoppable Adelaide Herrmann

More famous than Houdini. More daring than any man of her era.

For nearly sixty years, Adelaide Herrmann (1853-1932) ruled the global stage. She caught speeding bullets with her bare hands. She soared through the air as a human cannonball. Alongside her husband, Alexander, she executed the most mesmerizing illusions of the Golden Age of Magic. Then, tragedy struck. Widowed at forty-three, Adelaide stepped into the magician’s role as the sole headliner.

For three thrilling decades, she reigned supreme as vaudeville’s absolute Queen of Magic.

Rescued from obscurity after her lost memoir surfaced, Adelaide Herrmann finally returns to the spotlight. Renowned historian Margaret B. Steele resurrects this forgotten icon, rich with Adelaide's own words and beautifully enhanced by vivid historical essays, rare interviews, and over 100 stunning period photos and posters. Move over, Houdini. The Queen is back.

Margaret B. Steele is recognized as the leading expert on the legendary Herrmann dynasty of magicians. Margaret has appeared on HISTORY, NPR, and the BBC and has lectured at the New York Historical Society, The Magic Circle in London, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. A stage magician and Juilliard-trained oboist, Margaret has performed around the world in uniquely different vantage points--the spotlight, the orchestra pit, and inside boxes--and writes of road companies from lived experience. She is the author of this book's companion volume, the multi-award-winning The Great Boomsky: The Many Lives of Magic's First Black Superstar.