The Rise of the Indian Rope Trick: How a Spectacular Hoax Became History.

Octavo, blue & white boards (hardcover), white letters, xxiii, 264 pp. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: If there is one image that conjures up the idea of the Mystical East, it is the Indian rope trick: A rope snakes into the air. A boy climbs the rope and when he gets to the top -- he vanishes. At once homespun, philosophical, and free of apparent gadgetry, the trick has enthralled generations of magic-lovers in the West. Photographs and eyewitnesses have attested to its ability to amaze. There is one problem. It never existed. The rope trick is one of the most successful hoaxes of all time, created by an amateur magician and printed in the Chicago Tribune in 1890. Despite a later admission that the story was false, it continued to spread in newspapers and journals throughout the world. Some claimed to have seen the trick performed on trips to India. Others added their own spin to the tale. Using the original legend as a starting point, Peter Lamont, himself a magician, explores how easily people will believe stories that are fed to them as truth despite experience, intuition, and the laws of nature. Debunking, Performing Arts, Magic, Philosophy, Human Nature. bslic. …