Henry Hay (writer)

Henry Hay (writer) was the pen name of June Barrows Mussey (March 30, 1910 – July 27, 1985), a journalist and translator who is notable for his writing about sleight of hand and magic and also of a large number of European authors including Lion Feuchtwanger. He also was one of the anonymous translators of Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925–26) for an American edition by the publisher Stackpole Sons.[1] Stackpole advertised that it paid "no royalties to Hitler" and later played up the fact that the publisher was donating a percentage of the proceeds to refugee relief. 12,000 copies were printed but Stackpole had to stop selling because of a legal battle with the publisher Houghton, Mifflin who had bought the American rights.[2]

Mussey was born in New York and lived in West Germany after World War II. He was a friend of the famous coin manipulator Thomas Nelson Downs. His highly regarded The Amateur Magician's Handbook (1950) has gone through several editions and is still considered a standard reference work among magicians.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Worthington, Jay. "Mein Royalties: Who Profits from Hitler's Bestseller?" Cabinet 10 (2003). http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/mein_royalties.php. Range, Bryant, and Maierhofer 73-74.
  2. ↑ Barns, J. J., Barns, P. P. (2008). Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930–39. Cambridge University Press.

Sources

Regina Range, Mary Bryant, and Waltraud Maierhofer, “J. Barrows Mussey and his Translation of Feuchtwanger's Wahn oder Der Teufel in Boston,” Feuchtwanger and Remigration. Edited by Ian Wallace. (Feuchtwanger Studies 3.) Peter Lang, 2013. 67-81. ISBN 978-3-0343-0919-6.

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