The Fred Braue Notebooks - Volumes #1-8 Set

Own a piece of magic history, once thought lost to time.

The fabled Fred Braue Notebooks have surfaced in their original form, offering a rare look into the private files of one of magic’s most influential thinkers. While this series was originally intended to span fifteen volumes, only eight were ever released by the original publisher, Jeff Busby, leaving the project famously unfinished for decades.

These original eight-volume sets are currently available in mint, unused condition. To finally bridge the gap left by the project's abrupt end, every set now includes a complimentary 235-page PDF of The Unpublished Fred Braue Notebooks, compiled from the remnants of the Busby collection.

This supplemental volume is the result of a massive recovery effort by the Conjuring Arts Research Center. After acquiring the source material for the notebooks, the organization tasked Leo Reed with compiling the unpublished content Busby had planned but never produced. Much of the material was recovered from two floppy disks containing drafts for volumes nine and ten. Within this digital supplement are scans of the original notes, sophisticated card routines, and even the "suppressed" material originally intended for Expert Card Technique and The Royal Road to Card Magic that never made it to print.

Beyond the card magic for which Braue is famous, these notebooks reveal his work on the Sympathetic Silks, the Linking Rings, and an ingenious five-ball Cups and Balls routine. Perhaps most fascinating are the session notes documenting the underground magic scene of the mid-20th century. Braue was a meticulous chronicler, leaving behind detailed descriptions of effects by legends like Charlie Miller, Dai Vernon, Max Malini, and Nate Leipzig. This isn't just a collection of rough ideas; it is a wealth of professional-grade material written by a man who truly understood the real work.

The physical volumes are 8 1/2 x 11 inches and spiral-bound for easy study. It should be noted that while these are new and unused, they have been in storage for many years, so some copies may show minor vintage character such as rusted staples or slightly bowed pages.