The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician

Presenting the amazing Harry Kellar: the first magician to receive international fame and the model for the Wizard of Oz!

In this illustrated biography of the most well-known illusionist at the turn of the twentieth century, Author Gail Jarrow follows Kellar from a magician’s assistant traveling and performing across the United States during the Civil War to an international superstar with a show of his own, entertaining emperors, kings, and presidents.

Jarrow uses Kellar’s own words and images--his amazing four-color promotional posters--to tell his riveting story in this first Kellar biography for young readers. And she reveals the science behind Kellar’s illusions and explores nineteenth-century entertainment and transportation as well as the history of magic, spiritualism, and séances.

Gail Jarrow is the author of The Printer’s, Robert H. Jackson, and Lincoln’s Flying Spies, all for Calkins Creek. Her articles and stories have appeared in Highlights, Cricket, Muse, Spider, and Cobblestone. A graduate of Duke University and Dartmouth College, Gail has taught in grades four to eight. She lives in Ithaca, New York.