Compiled and written by Allan Slaight, accompanied by Max Maven. Illustrated by Joseph K. Schmidt.

Ten years in preparation, The James File consists of three hardbound volumes (including an index of some 15,000 entries for Stewart James in Print and The James File) and constitutes the finale to a remarkable creative odyssey. Stewart James invented his first magic trick when he was ten, in 1918, and his last shortly before his death in 1996. Stewart James in Print: The First Fifty Years, published in 1989, presented 412 tricks and routines he had released from 1928-1975, as well as 41 previously unpublished variations. When combined with his 556 originations in these two volumes, the James oeuvre of his published magical inventions exceeds 1000. Stewart James, simply, was a colossus in the art of magic. Within these two volumes are meticulously described 556 tricks and routines. Of these, 478 have not been published before. Many of the originations of this extraordinary man appearing here for the first time are brilliant; some are transcendent. And of the 148 choice variants of his inventions created by others, 74 have not seen print before. This testament to the prodigious Stewart James also presents explicit intelligence concerning his unusual private life and delves deeply into one of the most innovative minds in the history of magic.

Hardbound, three volumes in slipcase, 1700 pages.