This library for wizards in New York City is by appointment only
By Alina Simone for PRI’s The World..
Acquiring the esoteric knowledge necessary to become a good magician has never been easy. Some magicians only share their techniques with their protégés. Others take their secrets and tricks with them to their graves.
Then there’s Harry Houdini, who liked to scorch the magical earth behind him by publishing the mechanics of an act after he was done with it, deliberately shriveling the market for his imitators.
But one particular institution helps modern magicians get on the right path. The fifth floor of a non-descript high-rise in midtown Manhattan may not be the first place you would go in search of magic, but that’s exactly where one of the rarest repositories of magical literature in the world is housed — the Conjuring Arts Research Library.
“I wanted a place that was available for anyone with an appointment, to be able to come in and find some of the rarest material — the things that you couldn’t find, almost anywhere else in the world,” says Bill Kalush, the founder of Conjuring Arts Research Center.