Ernst, Bernard M.L. & Hereward Carrington: Houdini and Conan Doyle The Story of a Strange Friendship ©1932 Albert and Charles Boni, Inc., NY Hardcover, 255 pages

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Contents:

11 CHAPTER I
Houdini: life and character
His performance at the Palace, Blackburn
His collections
His training
Conan Doyle’s estimate of his character
Doyle: his beliefs, his attitude toward fraudulent mediums
Sketch of his life
Sketch of Houdini’s career
The question of the Davenport Brothers
Doyle’s belief that Houdini had supernatural power

47 CHAPTER II
Doyle’s explanation of fraud among mediums
The exposure of Chambers
The Spiritualists themselves the leading unmaskers of fraud
Eva C.
Mrs. Wriedt
Dr. Crawford and his “cantilever theory” of levitation.

69 CHAPTER III
Houdini’s performance at the London Hippodrome
His brush with Jess Willard
Kellar on Spiritualism
Mrs. Brittain

89 CHAPTER IV
Sir William Crookes’s investigations of spiritualistic phenomena
D. D. Home, Kate Fox, Florence Cook
The case of Slade and his slate-writing
The Wright “fairy photographs”
Doyle believed Houdini was super-normal
Instances of Doyle’s keenness
Doyle and the banquet of the Society of American Magicians
Doyle puzzles the conjurers with the monsters in “The Lost World”
Houdini dragged on the stage at Raymond Hitchcock’s “Pinwheel Revue.”

109 CHAPTER V
Brief history of Spiritualism: the Fox Sisters
the Davenports
Home
Annie Eva Fay
Florence Cook
Palladino
Mme. Blavatsky
foundation of the British Society for Psychical Research
Mrs. Piper
Eglinton
the Bangs Sisters
Anna O’delia Diss DeBar
Mrs. L. E. Piper, William James, and Sir Oliver Lodge
Bert Reese—Houdini’s account of his experiences with Reese, Fraulein Rothe, and Baynes, and his own early Spiritualistic performances
Palladino
Spirit photographs
Ada Besinnet

132 CHAPTER VI
The “Crewe Circle”
Doyle’s defense
Edward H. Morrell, the original of Jack London’s Star Rover
Doyle inspects Houdini’s collection of literature on Spiritualism
Houdini’s account of how Doyle was deceived at seances
Houdini’s explanation of Hope and Palladino
A message “from Houdini’s mother”
correspondence with the New York Times
A present from Houdini to Doyle

154 CHAPTER VII
The Houdinis and the Doyles at Atlantic City
Automatic writing
Lady Doyle gives a sitting
Houdini’s account
His article in a New York paper
Doyle’s reply
Houdini’s explanation
Doyle’s insistence
Houdini’s sworn statement
His habit of rationalization

186 CHAPTER VIII
The Scientific American Prize
Houdini’s membership on the committee, and Doyle’s attitude toward this
the Margery case
Doyle and the Zancigs
Kemp
Mrs. Eddy
Father Heredia
Rinn
Doyle’s Western tour in 1923
the beginning of the break
The end of a strange friendship

206 CHAPTER IX
Correspondence between Doyle and Mrs. Houdini after Houdini’s death
Mrs. Houdini tries to get spirit communications from her husband
Some important letters from the Houdini collection
Messages from Houdini?

228 CHAPTER X
Correspondence between Doyle and B.M.L. Ernst
Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
More efforts at communication with Houdini
The Ford message
Letter from Doyle to Harold Kellock, Houdini’s biographer
Inexplicable “spiritualistic” feats performed by Houdini