This illustrated biography of Harry Houdini combines original artwork and archival artifacts--including photographs, playbills and posters, letters, and even some of Houdini's own stage props--to bring the story of the world's greatest escape artist to life. Readers will learn all about Houdini's unique rags-to-riches story, from his birth in a Hungarian ghetto to his death from a ruptured appendix at age fifty-two. The book details his career as an escape artist and explains how he evolved into the "King of Handcuffs" on the vaudeville circuit and became an international star as his escape attempts reached ever more elaborate and dangerous heights. Filled with little-known facts, this is the perfect book for readers interested in magic and the history of Houdini. The book includes a bibliography and index.