Saturday, November 16, 2013

Peril Press revives Houdini inspired Bazarada

Here's a unique Houdini-related eBook publication from Peril Press. The Adventures of Bazarada - All 6 Houdini Inspired Tales! is a collection of six short stories by Sax Rohmer featuring a magician named, Bazarada.

According to the description on Amazon, "Sax Rohmer made friends with escape artist Harry Houdini, who wrote to him in praise of Rohmer's The Romance of Sorcery. Rohmer based his mystery-solving magician character Bazarada on Houdini."

The Bazarada stories appeared in Collier's magazine between September 1937 and August 1938. This ebook collects all six Bazarada stories: The Jade Serpent, Red Doctor, Tunnel of the Apes, The Mummy That Walked, Black Magic, and Death in the King's Room.

This edition also includes all 11 Ronald McLeod illustrations to the stories as well as a gallery of 11 cartoons from Collier's.

It appears this is currently only available as an eBook. It would be great if Peril Press could also release this in a printed edition.

Purchase The Adventures of Bazarada - All 6 Houdini Inspired Tales! (eBook) on Amazon.com.

 UPDATE: David Saltman has a few terrific posts about the Bazarada stories and their connections to Houdini at his blog The Houdini File HERE and HERE.
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5 comments:

  1. DAVID SALTMANNovember 16, 2013 at 5:56 PM

    The Bazarada tales were published in hardback and dedicated to Houdini, under the title "Salute to Bazarada and Other Stories." First printing was by
    Cassell in London, 1939. An American edition, limited to 1000 copies, was published in 1971 by Bookfinger, in NYC. It does not, alas, include the wonderful illustrations that were in Collier's. You can see a couple of them at http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/09/houdini-in-fiction-real-life.html

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    1. John CoxNovember 16, 2013 at 6:03 PM

      Fantastic. Thanks for that info, David. I'm ashamed to say, this is the first I've heard of Bazarada.

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  2. DAVID SALTMANNovember 17, 2013 at 1:41 PM

    We've done some stories on Bazarada and the whole connection between Houdini and Sax Rohmer. Harry's fictional cousin is the Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu! An excerpt from Bazarada can be found at: http://www.houdinifile.com/2012/09/houdini-in-fiction-real-life.html

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    1. John CoxNovember 18, 2013 at 12:04 PM

      Jeeze. Look at that. I even made a comment on that story, but I completely forgot about Bazarada. Embarrassed.

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  3. EricNovember 18, 2013 at 11:20 AM

    After I bought the hardback from Amazon, I posted this short review: It includes six mystery stories about an illusionist and escape artist, perhaps inspired by Houdini but not literally based on him. Well-written. A bit like Sherlock Holmes stories, not in the use of detection but in some of the themes.

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