This man's real-life attempts to expose fraudulent sÃ©ances is fictionalized in a novel in which one of his performances is interrupted by the blowing up of a firehouse by a gang led by Coalhouse Walker.
In an opera libretto within a novel, this man dresses in a suit of armor and leaps from a flaming airplane over Africa. That libretto about this man was abortively begun as a child by a Czech immigrant named after Thomas Masaryk. A man named Sam claims to be "haunted by dreams" of this man, who is compared to "Clark Kent in a phone booth," in the first line of Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, whose first section is titled after this man's profession. In a novel, this man is told to "warn the (*) Duke" by Little Boy, presaging his meeting with Franz Ferdinand on a European trip. This man's real-life attempts to expose fraudulent sÃ©ances is fictionalized in a novel in which one of his performances is interrupted by the blowing up of a firehouse by a gang led by Coalhouse Walker. For 10 points, name this historical figure who appears in E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, a magician and escape artist.
In an opera libretto within a novel, this man dresses in a suit of armor and leaps from a flaming airplane over Africa.
Harry Houdini [accept Erik Weisz or Harry Weiss]