The Tarbell Course in Magic is a notable encyclopedia of magic amongst professional and amateur magicians. It has eight volumes; the first five were part of the original home-study correspondence course compiled in 1928 by Harlan Tarbell, the remaining three volumes being added on later. This magic volume series was originally designed as a correspondence course for budding magicians. Once they were collected and bound, the series has become an unparalleled reference standard for magicians. In its impact on the magic world, it is second perhaps in its influence on the art of magic only to Hoffman's Modern Magic, and many professional magicians have based their careers on the Tarbell Course. Structure The entire collection comprises more than one-hundred lessons in every aspect of magic including micromagic/close-up magic, escapology, mentalism and stage illusions. It is the most comprehensive literary work in magic history. The original five volumes contained sixty correspondence lessons with more than 3,000 illustrations. In addition to teaching specific tricks, The Tarbell Course also teaches patter, marketing, the history of magic, ethics, advertising, routining, presentation, diction and elocution, magic theory, performance theory, acting, misdirection, timing and showmanship. Volume 7 of the series was written by Harry Lorayne and compiled from contributions by other magicians; it is valued largely for its comprehensive index, subdivided by title, contributor, and properties, to the first seven volumes. Volume 8 of the series was compiled and edited by Richard J. Kaufman and Steve Burton. It collected Tarbell's widely scattered and previously uncollected writings on magic, which Kaufman then fashioned into something resembling the first six volumes of the course. Since most of the book was written and illustrated by Tarbell, it is linked more closely to the rest of the course than Volume 7. History Publishers T. Grant Cooke and Walter A. Jordan hoped to produce a correspondence course in magic in the mid-1920s and approached Harlan Tarbell and Walter Baker to work on the project. Baker abandoned the project early on to concentrate on his performances. Tarbell was thus dropped from the project. Cooke and Jordan then approached Harry Houdini to create the course. Houdini declined due to lack of time but recommended Tarbell. Ultimately, the publishers agreed and offered Tarbell $50,000 for the course. The series sold 10,000 copies until Cooke and Jordan discontinued it in 1931. In 1941, Louis Tannen purchased the rights to the course and reworked the correspondence