George Arnold

author

George Arnold

1834–1865

A lively New York poet and journalist of the mid-1800s, he moved from painting to writing and became a familiar voice in the city’s literary world. He is best remembered for the poem “The Jolly Old Pedagogue,” but his career also ranged across magazines, humor, and popular fiction.

1 Audiobook

The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

by George Arnold, Frank Cahill

About the author

Born in New York City on June 24, 1834, George Arnold first hoped to become a portrait painter before turning to literature instead. He went on to build a reputation as an American author and poet, contributing to publications including Vanity Fair and The Leader.

Arnold was part of the bohemian literary circle around Pfaff’s beer cellar in New York, a scene also associated with Walt Whitman and other writers of the time. He sometimes wrote under the name “McArone,” and his work moved easily between poetry, journalism, and lighter popular writing.

Although he died young on November 9, 1865, at just 31, Arnold left behind a body of work that kept his name in print after his death. Readers still encounter him most often through “The Jolly Old Pedagogue,” a poem whose cheerful tone helped make it his most enduring piece.