Legendary memory arts pioneer and magician Harry Lorayne has passed away. While “Moonwalking With Einstein” introduced me to the idea of memory improvement, Harry’s “Memory Book” was the first thing that showed me to the “how to.”
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Rıp Harry lorayne
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A good article on him
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/arts/television/harry-lorayne-dead.html
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One of a kind, sad. My first “proper” magic book was his The Magic Book and I loved it. Took me from kid’s tricks to impressive effects.
For many people he will always be remembered as the memory man and I’m sure, for all his faults (argumentative and opinionated at times), he brought more people to magic and the memory arts than probably anyone else.
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Harry Lorayne’s “Page-A-Minute Memory Book” was my introduction to mnemotechnics.
May he rest in peace.
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RIP. 
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I had the pleasure of an email exchange with Harry Lorayne.
It was just a fan message from me and a nice reply in return.
Mr Lorayne’s books were my first introduction to mnemonics back before anybody else was born.
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Me too. He lived a very full life.
Doug
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I first read The Memory Book by Harry Lorrayne and Jerry Lucas in between my 7th and 8th grade years in 1974. I was the only teenager visiting my aunt and uncle in Boulder, CO. I was amazed.
I have since used the techniques, and their counterparts to finish high school, college, and graduate school.
Additionally, I floated through high school because I could remember, but hit college and struggled through two failed attempts, discovering I hadn’t built any study skills! I subsequently spend 7 months studying study skills.
Combining my new skills with Lorrayne’s and Lucas’ earlier instruction, I cruised on down the road. I synthesized my search into a course that I taught in the 1990s, on the island of Crete, Greece, for the chapel women’s group: How to Memorize Scripture.
Side-note
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His passing reminds me of an exchange that he had with Jerry Lucas in their book The Memory Book.
HL: Did you know I met David Roth? And his fame as a memory expert goes back to the
early 1900’s. The last time I spoke to him, he told me that his local Rotary Club was
giving a luncheon in honor of his ninety-sixth birthday. He told me, “I won’t do much,
Harry—I’m just going to remember everybody’s telephone number.” And there were two
hundred people there!JL: So maybe people with trained memories live longer. Using trained-memory systems
certainly does keep a person more alert and aware. Which might have something to do
with longevity.HL: Let’s hope so!
Maybe Jerry was onto something.
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Oh my goodness. I read his book in 2019 and watched videos of him in 2021. I can still remember the list of 15 random words that I memorized in December of 2019 from his book “How to develop a super-power memory.” Rest in Peace good sir. I don’t know how I could ever repay you.
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I picked up “How to Develop a Superpower Memory” when I was in secondary school in the 1990s, and it blew my mind. Although a lot of the language was dated and very US-centric (both a bit jarring for an Irish schoolboy), most of the methods Lorayne taught stuck with me ever since. I taught my own kids some of the basics when we tried memorising cards for fun.
Sad to see him go.
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What sadness it is to hear of the passing of the memory expert and legend Harry Lorayne. There may have been many memory experts both before Harry Lorayne and after him but nobody brought it to the public’s attention better than Harry did with his ‘showmanship style’ in his teachings. I got into Harry Lorayne’s books back in the early 1980’s and only realized years later that Harry Lorayne was a magician as well as an author and memory coach. It may sound cliched but appropriate for this forum: “Gone but Never Forgotten!”. RIP Harry - you were and still are a ‘true legend’ of the teaching of memory techniques.
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