Richard's Almanac

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

In 1992, the entire run of newsletters was compiled and republished as The Collected Almanac

First issue

Richard's Almanac was also the title of Kaufman's column in Magic Manuscript which ran during the same 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 and a Winter and a Summer Extra 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. After the magazine ended "The Collected Almanac" was published which included all three volumes, new material for an introduction, and a cumulative index.