Gibson, Walter: Fell's Beginner's Guide to Magic ©1978 Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc., FL Softcover, perfect-bound, 191 pages With Mike Shelley (editor) The Complete Beginner's Guide to Magic (fully revised) ©1996 Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc., FL Softcover, perfect-bound, 213 pages

Image courtesy Bryan-Keith Taylor

Image courtesy Bryan-Keith Taylor

Comments: The earliest edition of this book appears to be Fell's Beginner's Guide to Magic. Then a revised edition with editor Mike Shelley and the title "The Complete Beginner's Guide to Magic was released. The contents of the revised edition appear to match the Fell's edition, so I'm not sure what the revisions were.

This book appears to have been later released as part of the Fell's Know-It-All Guides and titled Magic For Beginners, with a few tricks missing but also including two extra chapters, Presenting Knots: Knot Tricks with Added Effects; and A Bag of Tricks: mixed bag of tricks by magician Mike Shelley. Because of these differences I've listed the "Know-it-all" books in a separate listing.

Contents (from Complete Beginner's Guide edition):

xix Introduction
xxvii How to Set up Your Own Magic Show

1 Part I Easy Card Tricks: using two decks of cards, a glass and a handkerchief

3 A Magic Discovery: magician discovers secret number of cards selected by the audience member
4 Three-Card Monte: The Queen in the middle of a trio of cards disappears
6 Find the Card: The pre-selected card is picked out of a deck magically
8 The Mystic Row of Cards: A trick of discovery
10 The Magic Card: magician discovers audience's selected card in a heap of other cards
11 Change the Number: One person remembers a card and another names a number; magician mixes deck and puts the first card at the spot named by the second.
13 Here’s Your Card: spectator's card suddenly appears at the bottom of the deck
16 The Sharper's Trick: gag effect
17 Kings-Queens-Jacks: All the royalty is shuffled and dealt out in sequential suits
18 Mysterious Totals: magician leaves room, returns and tells how many cards remain in a previously dealt deck
20 Whisk Away: card dropped in a glass, covered with handkerchief, and a different card appears
22 Mysterious Kings: Kings appear in unexpected places
24 The Card Circle: The magician discovers the three hidden cards
26 Quick Poker Deal: Deal out the hands and give yourself a Royal Flush
27 Four Ace Deal: turn up the four Aces in your poker hand
28 Eleven Speller: Spell out the selected card through a mysterious deal
31 Lucky Dozen: A variation on Eleven Speller; this time with twelve.

37 Part II Card Tricks for the Story Teller

37 Cross the River: puzzle story moving a fox, a goose and a sack of corn across the river
38 Merchants and Thieves: Three Kings and three Jacks try to cross a river in a boat meant for two
39 Three Married Couples: Kings and Queens try to cross the same river with many complications
40 Three in a Boat: variation of Married Couples
41 Super Poker Deal: An Honest John story that relates how the dealer dealt himself a perfect hand
42 Honest John Returns: The dealer returns with an explanation of his methods, but with a big surprise.

47 Part III Advanced Card Tricks

47 The Mystic Circle: spectator mentally selects a card and points to another; magician announces the mentally selected card
49 The Twenty Card Trick: The magician mysteriously discovers a pre-selected pair of cards
51 Three Rows: Out of three columns of cards, a chosen card is discovered.
53 The Four Jacks: four Jacks inserted in the deck later appear together
55 The Row of Ten: From the mysterious row, the magician picks your chosen card
*57 One Out - One Under: dealing trick
59 The Spelling Bee: depends on the arrangement of the cards and careful dealing
61 The United Pairs: Suits of royal cards appear in sequential order after shuffling
63 The Mental Divination: With four rows of cards laid out, the magician picks the pre-selected card
64 Mystic Addition: magician names the totals of different piles of cards
67 Mental Detection: rivals some of the best feats of sleight of hand
69 Mystical Divination: magician mystically "sees" the pre-selected card.
73 The Magic Pile: magician follows the advice of spectator and surprises with a pile of cards numbering a pre-selected total
75 Three Mystic Files: variation on Mystic Addition, names the total of three chosen cards

79 Part IV Tricks With Coins: Featuring Popular Coin Tricks

79 Coin Balanced on Handkerchief: quarter balances on the edge of a cloth handkerchief
79 Coin and Matchbox: From an empty matchbox, a penny appears
80 Two Balanced Coins: Two coins balance between magician's fingers
81 Finding the Chosen Coin: magician brings out penny pre-selected by the audience from a hat
83 The Spinning Coin: magician tells if spinning coin is heads or tails
85 Coin Through the Sleeve: produce a coin at the elbow
86 The Coin and Hat: coin magically drops through the crown of a hat into a glass
87 Chinese Coin Trick: coin with hole becomes knotted on a string and magcially removed
89 The Mysterious Ring: Chinese coin become knotted to a string tied between the wrists
91 The Mystic “Q”: spectator counts a pattern of coins forms a Q and magician points to the correct coin
*93 The Spin-Away Coin: spinning coin tapped by matchbox vanishes

97 Part V Look into My Eyes: Tricks of Hypnotism

97 The Strength Test: a person of equal strength cannot pull his touching forefingers apart
98 Controlled Eyelids: The subject has trouble opening his eyes
99 Immovable Fingers: The subject cannot move his fingertips apart
100 A Weak Knee: subject loses power of the left knee!
102 The Electric Wave: A tingling sensation sweeps through the subject’s hair
104 Magnetized Hand: hypnotist makes the subject’s hand move upward
105 Fingertip Control: subject is unable to rise from his seating position until the hypnotist allows
106 A Mesmerized Wrist: The subject loses control over his own wrist
109 Hypnotized Arms: subject's arms will levitate
110 Hand on Head: No one is able to remove the hypnotist's hand from his head
111 Cold Air: subject experiences coldness creeping through the palm of his hand
113 Hands Together: No one is able to pull the hands apart except at command
114 Lost Strength: performer's hand on the subject’s chin causes his strength to be sapped
116 Stopping the Pulse: performer stops own pulse, then starts it again

121 Part VI Table Tricks

121 Rising Matchbox: matchbox rises in the palm of the hand
121 Balanced Matchboxes: A series of six matchboxes stand on each other
123 Mechanical Matchbox: matchbox closes at the sound of "Presto!”
123 Solid through Solid: match passes through the bar of a safety pin
124 The Magic Square: Magician knows numbers and totals of covered numbers on a chart
*126 The Escaping Prisoners: story of an escape using 24 matches
*128 Sugar That Floats in Coffee
129 Orange Changes to Apple: Turn oranges to apples
*130 The Spinning Egg: only magician can make the egg spin
*131 Breaking a Paper Napkin: only magician can tear the napkin
*133 Apple, Egg and Orange: magician knows which spectator is holding which object
*134 The Quick Knot: in handkerchief
136 Orange or Apple: behind his back magician knows whether orange or apple lifted
*137 Self-Tying Handkerchief
138 Two Handkerchiefs Tied: two handkerchiefs knot in the air
140 Balancing a Handkerchief: Make the handkerchief stand upright on your fingertips
140 Shaking the Knot: instant knot in handkerchief
142 Blowing Through a Bottle: blow out a candle through a glass bottle
142 Water That Is Not Wet: magician’s hand stays dry after being dipped in a bowl of water

146 Part VII Tricks With String

146 The Fingers and the Loop: knot vanishes from spectator's finger
148 On and Off: Loops of string knotted and unknotted in a series of baffling methods
*150 Ring on the Finger: with hands tied behind his back, ring in mouth appears on selected finger
*153 The Double Loop: looped string falls in one unknotted piece
154 Knots that Are Not: Now you see three knots, now you don’t
*157 The Three Single Knots: variation on now you see it, now you don't
158 The Pencil and Loop Trick: remove the pencil with the loop from buttonhole without cutting the string
*160 The Penetrating Rings: rings penetrate off a sting
162 Tying the Thumbs: magician removes coat and more with his thumbs tied

167 Part VIII Mental Mysteries

167 The Chosen Name: performer picks the chosen name from a hat
168 Amazing Figures: magician is always right.
170 Always Nine: magician always knows the center figure
171 Mysterious Multiplication: performer gives correct answer from multiplication
172 Tell the Time: magician tells you what time a watch reads
174 The Watch that Stops Itself: ticking watch stops and starts itself
175 The Book Mystery: book test
177 The Color Test: magician determines the color of yarn behind his back
178 Which Pencil?: performer selects pencil in hat chosen by spectator
180 Mental Card Detection: magician determnes selected card selected while he was absent
182 Think of a Number: magician taps five circles filled with numbers and reveals the selected number.

187 Magic Dealers