There are a plethora of books on card magic. There are virtual encyclopedias of card magic, for example, Card College by Giobbi comes to mind. Coin magic, however, not so much. Other than various writings by magic’s greats, compilations of exclusively coin magic are rare. The most well know compilations are Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic, Coinmagic by Kaufmann and Expert Coin Magic by Roth.

I’m not involved in magic long enough to theorize why there wouldn’t be a Coin College type of series, however, some of the void has been filled with a new release by Hermetic Press called The Long Goodbye. The Long Goodbye is a body of work assembled and performed by the late Geoffrey Latta. Geoffrey Latta was a well respected, underground magician based out of New York. Latta was considered one of magic’s foremost creator and innovator when it came to slight of hand. Latta was a regular at the New York Coin Seminars and had started the planning stages of the book in the early 1990’s.

Several factors delayed in the publication, not the least was his untimely death at an early age. The book has been simmering over the last twenty years. Edited and posed by Jamy Ian Swiss, the book finally came into fruition. The Long Goodbye is comprised of 344 pages with over 720 photos. It teaches more than twenty-five sleights and forty-eight tricks and routines. Interspersed there are insights and comments by Geoffrey Latta. Also included are anecdotes of times spent with Latta by his friends who not only seen him perform but knew him as more than just a magician. Besides the attractively produced and prolifically photographed routines, the first edition includes excerpts from the legendary but closely guarded video recording Latta made in Peter Samuelson’s apartment called The Pink Purse Tape. The Pink Purse Tape had card and coin routines but the included DVD has just coin work. Within the initial introduction, Jamy Ian Swiss hints that another volume would follow. If you do coin work or if you just want to see what a magician’s magician does, I suggest you invest in The Long Goodbye and see what amazing magic is all about.