Barnum, Vance: Joe Strong, The Boy Wizard ©1916 George Sully & Co. Hardcover, 215 pages ©1940 Whitman Publishing Co., WI Hardcover, 247 pages

Image of 1916 edition courtesy e-Bay seller CosanostraMagic

Image of 1940 edition courtesy of e-Bay seller DonBursell

Comments: A fiction story that also teaches some magic within its covers, as noted below.

Contents:

1 Chapter I Joe Solves a Puzzle
13 Chapter II A Fireworks Fire
14 - Mathematical Slate Trick
21 Chapter III To the Rescue
32 Chapter IV Joe’s Feat
40 Chapter V Joe’s Ambition
50 Chapter VI A Family Jar
60 Chapter VII Mr. Blackford’s Trouble
68 Chapter VIII The Runaway
78 Chapter IX The Overturned Lamp
88 Chapter X The Side-Door Pullman
96 Chapter XI A Surprised Deacon
103 Chapter XII The Professor’s Assistant: general description of palming, trick wands, hat loading, etc.
112 Chapter XIII Joe’s Help Needed
123 Chapter XIV Joe’s Disappearance
126 - Vanishing and Appearing Assistant
131 Chapter XV Invoking the Law
137 Chapter XVI The Smashed Watch
145 Chapter XVII Joe Learns Something
147 - Secret of the Smashed and Restored Watch
154 Chapter XVIII The Magic Egg
158 - Balancing an Egg on a Straw
161 Chapter XIX The Circus
161 - Secret to the Floating Egg
164 - The Floating Card
167 - The Answering Figure
170 Chapter XX Some Trapeze Tricks
180 Chapter XXI Almost Caught
187 - Lit and Extinguished Candle Secret
191 Chapter XXII Strange News
193 - Pulling Objects from a Borrowed Hat
199 Chapter XXIII “I've Got You!”
202 - Guinea Pigs to Doves Trick
203 - Vanishing Canary
207 Chapter XXIV Caught
211 Chapter XXV Joe's Clever Trick