It collected Tarbell's widely scattered and previously uncollected writings on magic, which Kaufman then fashioned into something resembling the first six volumes of the course.

In 1941, Louis Tannen purchased the rights to the course and reworked the correspondence lessons into book form and ultimately added three additional volumes.

A magician traveling in India offered to buy some of the secrets of a Hindu Fakir and was surprised to learn that they came from the Tarbell Course.

In Africa, tribal medicine men asked that the volumes be sent in a plain brown wrapper to keep their followers from learning that their magic came from Chicago.

[2] From 2016 onward, Penguin Magic adapted the Tarbell Course for online video, with each trick and technique taught in order by magician Dan Harlan.