A unique manuscript copy of HP Lovecraft and Harry Houdini's The Cancer of Superstition will be sold at auction.
It will cross the block in Potter & Potter's April 9 Houdiniana and the Davenport Magic Collection sale in Chicago, with a valuation of $25,000-40,000.
 Lovecraft and Houdini collaborated on the manuscript just before Houdini died |
The remarkable 31-page text was discovered in an abandoned magic shop, which has got to be the most perfect place imaginable for a lost piece of Lovecraft's writing to turn up.
Lovecraft and Houdini collaborated on the work, a treatise against the scourge of superstition in modern society, in 1926 - with Lovecraft acting as ghost-writer.
It concludes with the disquieting observation that "most of us are heathens in the innermost recesses of our hearts."
The project was cut short after Houdini's death that same year.
The two men became friends after Lovecraft wrote a story starring Houdini for a 1924 edition of Weird Tales.
Titled Imprisoned with the Pharaohs, it's written from Houdini's perspective and credited to him.
It relates the supposedly true story of his encounter with a terrifying, nameless being below the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Houdini liked it so much he continued to offer Lovecraft work.
While Lovecraft is acknowledged today as one of the greatest horror writers of all time, he was largely ignored during his own lifetime and died in poverty.
Also featured is a massive scrapbook of cuttings personally compiled by Houdini that relates to his career from 1900-1920.
It includes annotations from Houdini explaining the background to some of the articles.
The lot is valued at $25,000-35,000.
We have this exceptional signed photograph of Houdini for sale.
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