Author, magician, and magic historian Margaret B. Steele will launch her new book, “Queen of Magic: The Wondrous, Unstoppable Adelaide Herrmann,” on Monday, Nov. 2, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. The book revives the story of a long-overlooked Golden Age illusionist.
The event, “Memoirs of a Magic Queen: Restoring Adelaide Herrmann’s Lost Legacy,” begins at 6 p.m. ET in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, 111 Amsterdam Ave., New York City. Admission is free in person and by livestream, and advance registration is required.
The evening will include an illustrated presentation of period photographs and rare posters. It will also feature a curated exhibit of Herrmann memorabilia from the library’s Billy Rose Theatre Collection, a costume display by couture designer Jane Wilson-Marquis and a magic performance by Steele.
Herrmann (1853-1932) performed on stages around the world for nearly 60 years. She caught speeding bullets with her bare hands, soared through the air as a human cannonball and, alongside her husband, Alexander, performed some of the most spectacular illusions of the era. After she was widowed at 43, she became the act’s sole headliner and spent the next three decades building an independent career as vaudeville’s Queen of Magic.
After Herrmann’s long-lost memoir resurfaced, Steele used it as the foundation for a fuller portrait. The book pairs Herrmann’s own words with historical essays, rare interviews and more than 100 period photographs and posters.
“Queen of Magic” and its award-winning companion volume, “The Great Boomsky: The Many Lives of Magic’s First Black Superstar,” are available from retailers worldwide and directly from Floating Lady Publishing. Wholesale orders are available through Ingram Content Group.
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