Talk:Roy Walton

Biographical Data
The following was provided by Roy Walton1 , May 5, 2006 10:18:50 PM:


 * Born in London 1932
 * Interested in magic since the age of eight
 * Two books on card magic published by L Davenport and Co. of London
 * Awards from the I.B.M. and the Magic Circle for contributions to card magic.
 * Contributor to most magazines on card magic in the English language.
 * Now lives in Scotland

-- Robocoder 23:22, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

rv of the bibliography and a comment on the Delete discussion.
I have rv'd the bibliography back in, since this was deleted with no specific discussion. Whilst this is of specialist interest it is probably unique given the wide dispersal of his publications across the years in journals of varying obscurity, it has academic significance, and given the nature of card tricks, it is reasonable to include the TOC of his books. This bibliography has been a labour of love for card afficionados for some time.

I have copied most of the delete/keep discussion here for the purposes of comment:


 * Delete - Notability not established. Mais oui! 22:21, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Neutral for now, this Gsearch returns a lot of hits. Some of them are clearly not this subject, but some of the earlier ones are. I could be convinced he satisfies WP:N --Deville (Talk) 01:18, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep, article is really sparse, but there is a large number of g-hits that reference him as a classic magician and innovator. His "contributions" probably warrant an article - a better one, at least. Kuru talk 01:32, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep google suggests he is in the top rank of his profession. Sumahoy 03:19, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Keep: google on "Roy Walton" magic gets 500,000 hits, most of which refer to him as a very notable magician ("It’s been said that Roy Walton invented one of the most original card effects of all..."), he seems to have written several books [1] [2]. AnonEMouse 17:09, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Comment Hmm...no ISBN numbers for those books. Bookfinder shows two entries from L. Davenport, a self-purported "maker and publisher" of magic. Google shows lots of stuff attributed to Roy, but not a single morsel of biographical information, other than he manages a magic shop in Glasgow, Scotland.[3] I'll send them an email inquiry and see if we can dig up anything. -- Robocoder 21:39, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I think that though well meaning this demonstrates a complacent and dismissive attitude. Was anyone with knowledge of card magic consulted? Just because this is a minority subject does not mean that it is not significant or useful.

WRT "L. Davenport, a self-purported "maker and publisher" of magic" Davenports are Britain's and possibly the worlds oldest and most famous magic shop, manufacturing and publishing since the 19th century. Nothing self purported about this, it is well documented history. Ask any member of the magic circle, email Paul Daniels, Derren Brown etc if in doubt. Re ISBN numbers, this is easy to check, but a significant proportion of magic books are not sent to the British Library/Library of Congress, and I doubt that any copies of The Crimp, an irregular journal published by Jerry Sadowitz have official catalogue numbers.Jellytussle 16:35, 5 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The Complete Walton Vols 1 & 2 do not have ISBN numbers. Jellytussle 20:05, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

crufty
This is a great article, and Roy Walton is a heavy hitter.....no question about that......but even as a devoted student of magic, this article is a bit on the crufty side for a general encyclopedia. Bddmagic (talk) 20:23, 17 February 2012 (UTC)