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Owen Clark - A Genius Forgotten
by Christopher Brinson
Arcady Press
Reviewed by Ray Roberts
Reading the British Ring brochure for the Eastbourne Convention 2010 I came upon
the name Chris Brinson, under the more history of mystery page where he was
listed as presenting a talk ‘In Search of Owen Clark’. At the lecture I
discovered that Chris had also written a book ‘Owen Clark a Genius Forgotten’
which I duly acquired.
Chris is a researcher, historian and avid collector and his book title ‘A Genius
Forgotten’ is very apt. Chris has passionately chronicled Owen Clark’s short
life in this book. A task that cannot have been easy as Clark had what appears
to have been an almost paranoid attitude to other magicians stealing his
effects, and, as a result he put very little into print. Couple that with his
untimely death and an only brother to survive him, who had little regard for
magic, there was much first hand evidence lost. Chris has had to rely on
journals and sparse reports of Clark’s performances, some of which could at best
be regarded as jaundiced. If it were not for Chris talking to the late Peter
Warlock, who as a young lad had seen Clark perform and could relate what he was
like as a performer, Chris’s book may have turned out differently.
It is obvious from the book that Chris had to form opinions by looking at what
had been said and written of Clark at the time. He made valued judgments of what
was the most likely outcome after examining the evidence and then proffered
hypothesis to that effect, no better example of that his how Chris has painted a
picture of what may have happened to Clark on his American tour.
Chris has written a book that can be described as a book of two halves .The
first outlining Clark’s life as a performer and inventor and the second half
giving detailed descriptions of Clark’s alleged creations. I say alleged because
once again the author had to sort out the wheat from the chaff due to
mischievous and/ or downright plagiarism of Clark’s work.
This is a well written and produced book that should appeal to any one who is
remotely interested in the history of magic. It gives the reader a chance to go
on the journey with the author. I found it a good read in fact I would go as far
as to call it a page turner.
The book is available direct from Arcady Press
www.arcadypress.co.uk.
© Ray Roberts, October 2010