June Barrows Mussey (March 30, 1910 – July 27, 1985), who wrote under the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
Henry Hay, was an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and translator who is notable for his writing about
magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
and
sleight of hand
Sleight of hand (also known as prestidigitation or ''legerdemain'' ()) refers to fine motor skills when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with close-up magic, card magic, card ...
and also of a large number of European authors including
Lion Feuchtwanger
Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Feuchtwanger's Ju ...
.
He also was one of the anonymous translators of
Hitler's
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
''
Mein Kampf
(; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germ ...
'' (1925–26) for an
American edition by the publisher
Stackpole Sons. 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
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...
who had bought the American rights.
[Barns, J. J., Barns, P. P. (2008). ''Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930–39.'' Cambridge University Press.]
Mussey was born in New York and lived in West Germany after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He was a friend of the famous coin manipulator
Thomas Nelson Downs
Thomas Nelson Downs (March 16, 1867 – September 11, 1938) was a manipulative magicians known for his coin tricks. Downs was also known as "The King of Koins".
Magic historian David Price has written that Downs "was the first of the great ...
. 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
''Magic''(1942) as Barrows Mussey
*''Learn Magic'' (1947) as Barrows Mussey
*''
Roll back the sea'' (1947, translator), as Barrows Mussey. The first English language edition of
Het verjaagde water
(''The chased water'') is a 1947 Dutch non-fiction novel written by A. den Doolaard, which gives an account of the recovery works to repair dike breaches after the October 1944 Inundation of Walcheren as part of operations by The Allies of Wor ...
by
A. den Doolaard
A. den Doolaard (; mk, А. ден Долард, A. den Dolard, ; 7 February 1901 – 26 June 1994) is the pseudonym of the Dutch writer and journalist Cornelis Johannes George (Bob) Spoelstra Jr.
Biography
Den Doolaard went to high school in ...
.
*''Mein Kampf: The First Complete and Unexpurgated Edition Published in the English Language'' by Adolf Hitler. Translated anonymously. Stackpole Sons, 1939.
*''Cyclopedia of Magic'' (1949)
*''The Amateur Magician's Handbook'' (1950)
"The Devil in Boston: A Play about the Salem Witchcraft Trials in Three Acts (1948)" by Lion Feuchtwanger, translated by J. Barrows Mussey (ebook 2015)
References
Further reading
*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. .
*http://www.geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Henry_Hay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Henry
1910 births
1985 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
American magicians
American expatriates in West Germany
Journalists from New York (state)
20th-century American journalists
American male journalists
20th-century American male writers