English
MÉMOIRES ET CONFIDENCES
faure nicolay
Inveterate traveler, he relentlessly crossed Europe and the two Americas, crossing the Atlantic more than fifteen times! At the turn of the century, he chose Brazil as a land and, on the eve of his death, published his fascinating autobiography in Portuguese. Remented unknown in Europe, it is translated here for the first time in the native language of its author.
These Memoirs and Confidences immerse us in the intimacy of an exceptional career enamelled with incredible adventures, snowy roads from the Black Sea to the tropical heat of South America, from the Sultan Lodge to Constantinople at the Napoleon III camp in Châlons-en-Champagne. We rediscover a whole section of the history of illusionism, according to the modes that Faure Nicolay Impulse or to which he succumbs: magic billiards, anti-spiritism, hypnosis, prodigious calculation, projections of melting views, etc. Finally and above all, these Memoirs raise the veil on the relations between the great artists of the golden age of prestidigitation: over the pages, we thus accompany Faure Nicolay in his intimacy with Frickell and Josef Velle, in his felted friendships With Carl Compars Herrmann, in his competition with the artists of the Robert Houdin theater or in his heated relationships with Verbeck, Epstein or the Davenport brothers.
This account is here abundantly annotated, accompanied by historical annexes, illustrated with many geographic cards and seventy unpublished documents (photographs, posters, engravings, letters, etc.) from public and private collections from all over the world.
Pierre Taillefer is art historian, heritage curator at the Ministry of Culture. His research focuses on the history and iconography of curiosity shows.
Features Book:
- Translation of Pierre Taillefer
- 208 pages in French
- Layouts and illustrations by Benoit Drage
- 24 x 24 cm format
- Quadri rigid cover
- Couture binding with fabric bookmark
- Preface by Jacques Voignier
