As Alfredson and Daily write in their Conjuring Periodical Bibliography, Mahatma is the ‘first English language magical serial of any substance’. It is a fantastic resource for historians, researchers and other treasure hunters. A few of the prominent names you will find in Mahatma are Conradi, De Kolta, Downs, Elliott, Evans, Hilliar, Hoffmann, Houdini, Kellar, Leipzig, Plate, Selbit, Trewey and many more.

Some interesting facts about this periodical are:

Mahatma was printed in the rear of the storied Martinka’s magic shop in New York City, then the central hub of all things magical.

Among the delightful period advertisements in Mahatma are some of Houdini’s earliest ads, many with rarely seen pictures!

Houdini himself wrote a column for Mahatma.

Mahatma is the only place to find never-again-published rare Dr. Elliott material, including his handling of the second deal and the pass.

Starting in 1902, the S.A.M. meeting notes were recorded in Mahatma.

You get a fully searchable PDF of the complete run of Mahatma, an index prepared by Stephen Hobbs and an introduction by Richard Kaufman. This is a joint production between Lybrary.com and the Conjuring Arts Research Center. The introduction and index are reproduced with the permission of Richard Kaufman.