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     Sidney Wrangel Clarke’s The Annals of Conjuring, published serially in the pages of The Magic Wand during the period 1924-8, was a landmark in the recorded history of conjuring. It represented the most detailed and erudite work on the subject yet to appear and, even today, though later historians and writers have provided considerable additional knowledge, it still remains the most important single source of information for the student of magic history.
     My own interest in the man who wrote this eclectic book was aroused by both the impressive nature of the research and the discovery that during his earlier years he had lived in Hull, the city to which I had moved from Glasgow in 1963. This interest eventually led to the writing, and publication by The Magic Circle in 1983, of my biography of Clarke, The Barrister in The Circle, almost coincidentally with the appearance of a facsimile reprint of the original text of The Annals by Magico.
     It is a very great pity that Clarke’s original manuscript, his earlier drafts of the text, the notes that undoubtedly he would have made during its preparation, and details of all his sources, have not survived. Over three-quarters of a century after publication, the possibility that they might yet turn up in some unlikely quarter seems extremely small.
     Certainly at the time of writing Clarke’s biography, when I was in regular contact with Clarke’s nephew, the late T. E. B. “Tibby” Clarke, he confirmed that the only relevant book in the family’s possession was copy number 1 of the limited edition of four copies of The Annals published by George Johnson in 1929, and there were no pertinent papers.
     Consequently, the identification of all the source material that Clarke consulted in writing The Annals, a perennial topic of discussion amongst magic historians, becomes a speculative exercise, for while he did furnish references to some sections of his text, by and large he did not adopt this normal academic procedure. His failure to do so seems all the more surprising given he was a barrister, nurtured in the minutiæ of the law, and a man who had been contributing serious studies on drama and the theatre prior to embarking upon conjuring history.
     A possible explanation for this apparently “out of character” feature may well reside in the final medium in which The Annals was published, namely, a magazine catering for the general interests of magicians. The original intention had been to publish the work as a book, and it was advertised as such in The Magic Wand in 1919-20 with an invitation for subscribers. Only about ten people expressed interest, and this poor response led to abandonment of publication in book form; we must be thankful that George Johnson, editor of The Magic Wand, retained such keen personal interest in Clarke’s opus that he serialised it four years later.
     We also know that the original intention had been to include a bibliography in The Annals but, presumably in the light of the response to the advertisement, the decision was taken to issue it as a separate entity, and thus The Bibliography of Conjuring and Kindred Arts, compiled by Clarke and his Swiss collaborator, Adolphe Blind, was published by George Johnson in 1920.
     It is pertinent to ask, therefore, whether the original text of The Annals might indeed have included many more reference sources than eventually appeared in the serialised work. A book dedicated to the subject could (and should) convey these details to its specialist readers whereas such minutiæ would hold little interest for the average subscriber to The Magic Wand. Alas, in the absence of the typescript of Clarke’s original text, one can only ponder this possibility.
     At the time when Clarke commenced work on The Annals, very few histories of conjuring had been published. The pioneering work that focused purely upon legerdemain (as opposed to occult magic) was Thomas Frost’s The Lives of the Conjurors, which appeared in 1876, and Clarke acknowledges this source. Henry Ridgely Evans had published Magic and its Professors in 1902 and the first and second editions of The Old and the New Magic in 1906 and 1909, while Houdini’s The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin had appeared in 1908. Houdini’s The Conjurers’ Monthly Magazine, published in 1906-8, was also a bountiful source of original historical information, largely gathered by Houdini himself during his travels. These were the major sources available to Clarke.
     Surveying the information contained in The Annals, it is clear that Clarke’s sources additional to the existing literature included first-hand details from reliable individuals and contemporary records (for example, his friend John Nevil Maskelyne, to whom he attributed the initial suggestion that he should write a history of conjuring and who permitted Clarke access to the records at Maskelyne’s theatre); original programmes and playbills of nineteenth-century performers; engravings of conjurers; and newspaper reports and advertisements. At the conclusion of his book, Clarke acknowledged the help he had received from John Nevil Maskelyne, Angelo J. Lewis (Professor Hoffmann), Harry Houdini, and Adolphe Blind (his bibliographic collaborator and possessor of a notable library of magic books), all who had died before the serial work in The Magic Wand was completed. He then went on to thank David Devant, George W. Hunter, and Sidney Oldridge for their assistance, including the loan of many of the prints; he also cited The Magic Circle’s collection as a source of prints and programmes. Presumably, some of his researches were conducted at the British Museum, where he would be able to consult the rare books he describes in his text.
     Apart from the mainstream sources Clarke enumerated, almost certainly he had mined other material in less obviously relevant publications, and the identification of these in recent times has come about by a combination of serendipity and diligent research. We are greatly indebted to Gordon Bruce, who kindly shared a fascinating lead with Bob Read and myself. In section 1 of the Additional Resources section, Bob provides a graphic account of the discovery of Arthur Watson’s important contributions to conjuring history and our resulting researches.
     When Todd Karr first told me of his ambition to produce a new edition of The Annals, with annotations, corrections, and in raiment worthy of its contents, I was immediately enthusiastic and happy to accede to his wish to incorporate biographical and other relevant material from The Barrister in The Circle, and to augment his own intensive researches on The Annals with such notes as I had made over the years. My old friend Bob Read, who likewise has been a keen student of The Annals, shared this enthusiasm and also has made available his own notes and the resources of his incomparable collection of engravings. Consequently, the preparation of this annotated edition has proved an enjoyable exercise and not least on account of the new information that has come to our attention from various sources during its progression.
     It is my hope that the resulting volume will provide admirers of Sidney Clarke’s opus with a new, user-friendly version of the work which, together with the supplementary information and illustrations, will enhance its value as an essential reference source for everyone who has an interest in the history of the art and science of conjuring.

     — From Edwin A. Dawes' preface to The Annals of Conjuring