Ricky Jay, Buying Books and Telling Secrets..
By John Jurgensen for the Wall Street Journal..
As one of the world’s most respected sleight-of-hand artists, Ricky Jay has amassed a peer group of top magicians and cardsharps, and a stable of famous pals, from Bob Dylan to David Mamet. These days, however, he probably spends more time hanging out with book dealers, he says. “I like them. They live by their wits and their knowledge.”
They also live off their earnings from insatiable collectors like him. At the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, held recently in the cavernous Park Avenue Armory, he wandered the booths with some new acquisitions in hand, two books about hand shadows, and greeted many dealers by first name.
One seller asked his advice about a book whose blank pages reveal images when you blow on them, a specialty of Mr. Jay’s…