David Devant's Grave

David Wighton, known professionally as David Devant was an English Conjurer during the early part of the 20th Century. He had already become a well known name in his country before he teamed up with John Nevil Maskelyne at St. Georges Hall.

He was born in Holloway London on Feb 22, 1868. Besides being a magician he was a pioneer filmmaker. He had one of the very first movie projectors in England and would show his movies along with his magic shows.

David Devant was the first president of the Magic Circle. He wrote several books that I know of 'My Life in Magic',  'Secrets of My Magic', 'Woes of a Wizard' and 'Our Magic'. There is another book I found by Devant called 'Tricks for Everyone' which was probably more of a pitchbook sold after his shows or in the theatre lobby. All of Devant's writings are available from MiracleFactory.net. S.H. Sharpe wrote a book about Devant called 'Devant's Delightful Delusions'. If you look into the works of Jim Steinmeyer you'll see that he is heavily influenced by Devant.

David Devant died at 6:30 p.m. on October 13th, 1941 after having suffered for years from a debilitating form of paralysis. He is buried at the Highgate Cemetery in North London.