Introduction

When I sat down with Chris Wasshuber for The Magic Book Podcast, I knew I was in for a treat. As the founder of Lybrary.com and a passionate researcher, Chris had a wealth of knowledge to share.

Childhood in Austria

Chris's story begins in Austria, where a childhood encounter with magic at a birthday party planted a seed that would later blossom into a lifelong passion. However, it wasn't until his twenties that Chris was bitten hard by the magic bug. As he explained:

"I got into magic in my early twenties when I was a scientist in training, if you will. The way a scientist approaches a new field is first to do a literature search, and then you read that literature. So it's very book- and reading-based, and that's exactly the approach I took with magic. I didn't buy any tricks. I only bought books."

Growing up in Austria posed unique challenges, particularly when it came to accessing English-language magic literature. Despite this, Chris persevered, laying the foundation for what would become his sizable collection of magic books.

Lybrary.com: Digital Magic Revolution

In 1999, Chris had a lightbulb moment. With flatbed scanners and OCR technology, he could digitize his collection of magic books. As I pointed out during the conversation, this was way before Amazon Kindles were a thing. 

Despite some initial skepticism from the magic community, Chris persevered. He shared the genesis of his concept:

"I realized that in order to make better use of the investment I made in assembling this library, I needed to digitize it because then you can search and then it's much easier to find things and research things. That initial idea I had around 1996."

The result? Lybrary.com – now the largest digital retailer specializing in magic.

Chris's journey from concept to full-time pursuit was marked by both challenges and triumphs. In 2009, he decided to dedicate himself entirely to Lybrary.com, expanding the company's offerings to its current over 10,000 products, serving magicians worldwide.

The Cardsharp and his Book

One of the most intriguing parts of our chat was Chris's deep dive into the Erdnase mystery. S.W. Erdnase is the pseudonym of the author behind "The Expert at the Card Table" – a book that's been prized by magicians for over a century. But the author’s real identity has been a mystery for just as long. 

Chris took a unique approach in his research for his book, The Cardsharp and his Book: A Century Old Mystery Solved

“I found a renowned forensic linguist, one of the pioneers of that field, John Olsson from the UK. I hired him and I said, ‘Look, here's the book. Can you tell me if you can detect any hint of sort of a foreignness in there?’ So I sent this to Olsson. He did an analysis and his conclusion was, ‘Yes, this guy has a very high probability of being Erdnase, purely based on the linguistics.’"

Who was Edward Gallaway?

Chris's research has led him to focus on Edward Gallaway as a potential candidate for S.W. Erdnase. Gallaway, an educator, author, and self-publisher, had a background that aligned well with the profile of Erdnase. Additionally, his ties to McKinney and Company, the printing firm that produced the first edition of the book, added another layer of plausibility to Chris’s hypothesis, as he explained:

"When I heard from Richard Hatch that Gallaway was one of the employees [of McKinney & Company] I checked it in the record, and I realized that, okay, he had a first edition of The Expert. He wrote other books. He founded his own school of estimating for printers in Chicago. So here you have a person that, to me, fit the profile. He was an educator, somebody who likes to teach, somebody who likes to write. And then very quickly, I found out that he self-published his books and copyrighted them."

Chris asked listeners to check their own libraries for books containing Gallaway's bookplate, as examples provide valuable information for future research. Chris has written an article which explains that finding more books with Gallaway's bookplate could help inform researchers about Gallaway's interests and potentially provide more evidence linking him to Erdnase.

Photo of Edward Gallaway's bookplate appears in Chris’s book on S.W. Erdnase, The Cardsharp and his Book, used with permission.

Lubor Fiedler: A Genius Like No Other

I was interested to hear about Chris's upcoming book on Lubor Fiedler. This Czech chemical engineer and magician blended science and magic in ways that baffled magicians and the laity alike. An amazingly prolific magical inventor, Lubor Fiedler's best-known effect is the Gozinta Boxes, also known as the Lubor Die. 

The process of compiling material for the book has been extensive and demanding. Chris has gone to great lengths to obtain and translate Fiedler's German-language books, ensuring that the content is accessible to a wider audience. He also acquired rights to an East German magic magazine that features Fiedler’s work, and has collected the magical inventor’s many tricks, prototypes, and personal notebooks. 

The book is set to be a comprehensive tome, reflecting the enormity of Lubor Fiedler’s inventive mind. Chris’s manuscript was already around 600 pages long before he was able to acquire Fiedler’s personal notebooks, which potentially represent an additional 1,000 pages of content.

Chris shared his excitement about the project with me:

"I think what this book will bring out more … to document the enormity of his creative and inventive mind. That's why I truly, not just believe, but I know that Fiedler is by far the most creative genius we had in magic. There's nobody with that volume of ideas and creation, and he was able to create new things essentially on demand."

Tools for Modern Magicians and Bibliophiles

Chris isn't just about preserving magic's past – he's shaping its future too, and highlighted two valuable resources.

The first is the Magic Knowledge Base - a full text search engine into all the magic books Chris has digitized.

The second tool, especially useful for authors, is the Card Illustrator, which produces illustrations for card magic books.

Both tools are free to use and can be accessed at Lybrary.com. 

Conclusion

We covered a lot of ground in this podcast: from Chris’s early interest in magic in Austria, to his groundbreaking work with Lybrary.com. We learned how Chris unraveled the mystery of the real author of The Expert at the Card Table in The Cardsharp and his Book and how he plans to preserve Lubor Fiedler's legacy in the upcoming Lubor Fiedler: A Genius Like No Other.

Chris Wasshuber's passion for magic is truly infectious. But Chris isn't just preserving magic's past – he's busy imagining its future.