Robert Lund

Robert Lund
Cover of Genii (1979)
Born	Robert J. Lund May 04, 1925 Saginaw, Michigan
Died	October 20, 1995 (age 70) Marshall, Michigan
Resting place	Lakeside Cemetery, Colon, Michigan

Robert "Bob" J. Lund (b.1925-d.1995) was a noted magic historian and author, was also one of the world's foremost magic collectors.

Biography

Born in Saginaw, Michigan, he resided in the Detroit area for most of his life where worked as a reporter and editor on the newspapers in Detroit, Chicago and New York. He was also an editor for Motor Magazine and was the auto editor for Popular Mechanics Magazine. Lund served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Realizing that he lacked the flair for performing, Lund decided to make his mark on the magic world by becoming a student of magic history and collecting anything and everything related to the art. His accumulation was called the "largest such collection in private hands."

Lund contributed articles to more than 20 magic journals and indexed numerous books on magic and magic history, including the Magico reprint of The Annals of Conjuring. He was the last editor of The Conjurors' Magazine (1948-1949), and edited the newsletter of the Magic Collectors Association (1962-1963).

He was awarded the Academy of Magical Arts Award of Merit in 1983, and the Literary Fellowship in 1988. He has also been honored by the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians.

With his wife, Elaine, Lund co-founded the American Museum of Magic in Marshall, Michigan. The museum was built around his collection of posters, playbills, books, photos, apparatus, scrapbooks, letters and thousands of other pieces of magic memorabilia and ephemera. The first building opened to the public April 1, 1978. A second building, the vacated former Marshall Public Library, was purchased in 1999 as the collection continued to expand.

Since Elaine Lund's passing in 2006, the museum has been governed by a board of directors and has become a non-profit corporation.

References

• Cover, M-U-M, Vol. 46, No. 9, February 1957, ROBERT LUND magician-of-the-month by LESLIE P. GUEST, page 401
• Sid Lorraine Files Folder, 33A, (n.d., The Southfield News and Observer, September 13, 1972, It's No Illusion... Magic Collection Keeps Growing, By Corinne Abatt, page 22
• Cover, The Linking Ring, Vol. 58, No. 6, June 1978, OUR COVER Robert Lund, page 53
• Cover, M-U-M, Vol. 72, No. 11, April 1983, Robert J. Lund MAGICIAN OF THE MONTH A World Beyond Bird Cages, By Daniel Waldron, page 8
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 75, No. 12, December 1995, Robert J. Lund 1925-1995, page 65, Broken Wand ROBERT J. LUND, page 124
• Cover, Genii Magazine, Vol. 43, No. 7, July 1979, An Interview with Bob Lund, by John H. McConnell, page 453
• M-U-M, Vol. 85, No. 7, December 1995, BROKEN WANDS, Robert Lund, page 46
• The Magic Circular, Vol. 90, No. 962, January-February 1996, Obituary, Robert Lund, MIMC (1925-1995), by JIM ALFREDSON, page 23
• The Linking Ring, Vol. 78, No. 11, Nov. 1998, Memoirs Of A Magician's Ghost, by John Booth, CHAPTER 332 – Dan Waldron on Bob Lund, page 78