This rags-to-riches story delves into the life of Harry Houdini, the incomparable escapologist, from his birth in a ghetto to his death from a ruptured appendix. Janice Weaver recounts Houdini’s early efforts to break free of poverty by performing in dime museums and sideshows; of his life on the vaudeville circuit as “the King of Handcuffs”; of his increasingly elaborate and dangerous escape attempts, including the famous Chinese Water Torture Cell; and of his ceaseless efforts to expose spiritualists, an obsession that caused a rift in his friendship with Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Original artwork and archival artifacts—including photographs, playbills and posters, letters, and even Houdini’s own stage props—brings his story to new life.

JANICE WEAVER’s books include Building America, From Head to Toe: Bound Feet, Bathing Suits, and Other Bizarre and Beautiful Things, The Quilt of Belonging: Stitching Together the Stories of a Nation, and Mirror with a Memory: A Nation’s Story in Photographs. She lives in Toronto.

DAVID CRAIG is especially gifted at illustrating historical people and places—from the Alamo and Gettysburg to the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. He has won both the James Madison Book Award for First to Fly, and the Orbis Pictus Award for Amelia Earhart.