Richard's Almanac

Richard's Almanac
First issue
Frequency	Monthly, then Quarterly
Publisher	Richard Kaufman
First issue	September 1982
Final issue	February 1987
Total issues	40

Richard's Almanac was a newsletter written, illustrated and published by Richard Kaufman. It ran for 36 issues, plus 4 extra issues free for subscribers.

Kaufman wanted to name it "The New Phoenix". Karl Fulves though, who edited the 1965 New Phoenix, claimed rights to that name. Therefor he decided to use the same name as his column which was running in Magic Manuscript at the time.

Format

Generally, the newsletter included 4-6 tricks by notable magicians, and a news/opinion section entitled "Bull".

The newsletter ran monthly for the first two years, 12 issues plus a Winter and a Summer Extra bonus issue each year. In it's third year the newsletter became a quarterly, and three of the issues were late. The final issue, intended for Winter 1985, was published in February 1987.

Content

The newsletter centered around close-up magic, and as could be expected, most of the items are card or coin tricks. There were a large variety of contributors, including but not limited to Larry Jennings, Jay Sankey, Derek Dingle, Mike Gallo, Bro. John Hamman, J.K Hartman and Geoff Latta.

Themed Issues

There were several themed issues during the newsletter's run, as follows: Volume One:

• The Winter Extra 1982-83 A Session with Krenzel, Dingle and Kaufman
• January/February 1983 A Jay Sankey Issue
• April 1983 A John Carney Issue
• May 1983 A California Issue
• June 1983 A Geoffrey Latta Issue
• The Summer Extra 1983 A Jon Racherbaumer Issue
• August 1983 A Jay Sankey Issue

Volume Two:

• October 1983 A Brother John Hamman Issue
• December 1983 A Michael Skinner Issue
• January/February 1984 A Larry Jennings Issue
• April 1984 Max Maven Presents: A Phil Goldstein Issue
• June 1984 A Michael Gallo Issue
• The Summer Extra 1984 A Jon Racherbaumer Issue
• July/August 1984 A California Issue

Inserts

There were a few free items given to subscribers only, including two gimmicked cards for The Ken Beale Display in the December 1983 issue, a sheet of stickers for a Two-Bit Wildcard in March 1984, a card from a Tom Mullica Tom-Foolery deck of cards with the Autumn Quarterly of Volume 3, and a set of gimmicked cards for Card Factory in the Winter Quarterly of Volume 3.

Reprints

The first year of Richard's Almanac was reprinted in hardcover with a green dustjacket. Sales were poor so vols. 2 and 3 were not done individually.

In 1992, the entire run of newsletters was compiled and republished as The Collected Almanac. It included all three volumes, new material for an introduction, and a cumulative index.