The Juggler's Anthology
of Venerable Veracities:
Practical Instruction, Applied Physics,
& Insightful Observations
from Early Published Works
on the Juggler's Craft
The Juggler's Anthology
of Venerable Veracities:
Practical Instruction,
Applied Physics, &
Insightful Observations
from Early Published Works
on the Juggler's Craft
Compiled with context
& commentary
by Reginald W. Bacon
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2021)
6x9 softcover; 320 pages;
150 diagrams & illustrations.
ISBN: 978-0-9977528-5-4
LOC: 2020951886
The Juggler's Anthology of Venerable Veracities compiles early and rare instructional works on juggling, manipulation, and equilibristics; plus articles, interviews, and excerpts on the subject from late-19th and early-20th-century authors. The digitally-restored page images are from rare copies in the Vaudeville Restrospective Collection. Each of the 24 selections is illuminated with context, commentary, and new annotated research findings by veteran acrobatic juggler and performing arts historian Reginald W. Bacon.
The anthologized selections, now in the public domain, are from 1821 to 1956. Three instructional books are included in their entirety --- by Ellis Stanyon (1901), Carl Martell (1910), and William DeLisle (1910). Other notable jugglers who wrote insightfully about their specialties include Paul Cinquevalli, W.C. Fields, Solomon Weiland, Louis Knetzger, Fred Allen, and Jack Greene. Newspaper and magazine interviews captured the repertoire and probed the minds of legends like Malabar and The Great D'Alvini; as well as international vaudevillians like William Everhart and Mozetto. Observers of the socio-cultural scene, like William Hazlitt, Henry Mayhew, and Caroline Caffin, also addressed the juggler's life and art.
In 320 pages, the 24 authors expressed values that ranged from art to sport, from street to stage, and from outright fakery to hard-won virtuosity. (For a complete list of the anthologized books and articles, read the Table of Contents.)
The compiler's commentary places each selection in the context of its time in the evolution of juggling, its public perception, and its place on the variety stage, in the circus arena, on the streetcorner, or in the gymnasium.
This anthology is the companion volume to The Juggler's Trilogy of Timeless Techniques, a compilation of the three major early works of juggling instruction, The Art of Modern Juggling (1907) by Anglo (Thomas Horton, Juggling Secrets (1911) by Will Goldston et al., and Juggling (1921) by Rupert Ingalese (Paul Wingrave).
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