Armchair Treasure Hunt Book: The Secret · 7:38pm Nov 30th, 2016
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
Armchair Treasure Hunt Book - The Secret:
Armchair Treasure Hunting began in 1979 when Kit Williams wrote a book called Masquerade. Written as a children's story in large picture book format the addition of a Treasure Hunt was designed to encourage the reader to examine every picture in fine detail in order to locate the hidden clues to the burial place of a "Golden Hare".
Since that day there have been over fifty books, booklets, scrolls, tapes, music CD's, computer CD's and Web based treasure hunts to keep even the most ardent Treasure Hunter occupied.
All of these various mediums contain clues that lead to real world prizes. The prizes can be buried, hidden under objects, or just cleverly obscured from view. Some treasures have been discovered where others have gone missing for fifty or more years, still waiting to be discovered.
The Secret, is a puzzle book (or armchair treasure hunt book) that was published in 1982 by a man named Byron Preiss who was the head project developer and editor.
It was co-written by two men named Sean Kelly & Ted Mann. It was illustrated by John Jude Palencar, John Pierard, & Overton Loyd. The person who made the ceramic casques the keys were placed in as well as the keys was a sculptor named JoEllen Trilling. The photography was done by a man named Ben Asen. And the book layout was designed by a man named Alex Jay.
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
About The Authors:
Sean Kelly:
Sean Kelly was listed as the first author of the book, but it isn't clear whether he wrote any of the parts that contain clues to the casques. Kelly worked for National Lampoon from 1970 to 1984. According to his online biography in a National Lampoon fan site, "He is perhaps best known for his talents as a lyricist and poet, penning such classics as "Overdose Heaven," the James Joyce parody "Finnswake Again," and the lyrics for well over half of National Lampoon's song parodies." Interestingly, Kelly edited a book called Irish Folk and Fairy Tales that was published in 1982, the same year The Secret came out. Kelly is from Montreal, and he may have had a role in helping Preiss find a good hiding spot there. Kelly now works as a visiting instructor of Humanities and Media Studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. In response to questions from searchers, Kelly has said that he had nothing to do with the hiding of the casques and that Byron did not share any of the cask information with him.
Ted Mann:
Less is known about the second author, possibly because online searches bring up several different people with the same name. The most likely possibility is that the Ted Mann who wrote The Secret is the same Ted Mann who was once a faculty member at York University in Toronto, Ontario, and is now retired.
John Jude Palencar:
The 12 images that form the visual component of the puzzle in The Secret were painted by John Jude Palencar. His initials can be found hidden somewhere in each picture. Palencar was originally from Cleveland and was apparently the person who first suggested to Preiss that the Greek Cultural Garden would be a good place to buy one of the casques.
In 2014, a person claiming to be a "documentary filmmaker" posted a statement on the Q4T site saying that he had spoken with Byron Preiss's widow and that she still had the original jewels. The post claimed that the original agreement was still in force and that Mrs. Preiss would be awarding the jewels to the finders of the remaining 10 casques. A treasure hunter from Q4T then attempted to contact John Jude Palencar to confirm that information.
In response to the inquiry, Palencar issued the following statement:
Subject: Re: The Secret - Byron Preiss
From: johnjudepalencar
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:44:54 -0400To Whom it may concern - The information you have is false and woefully incorrect. Mrs. Priess is not honoring any treasure finds. She no longer owns the intellectual property rights. Byron Preiss Visual Publication contracts and copyrights etc...were sold in a bankruptcy sale years ago. The book is out of print. Should the new owners of the intellectual property rights resurrect this book, it will be their decision.
I cannot and will not help anyone find any treasures. I don't know where they are. So please let the treasure finding community know this fact! Let it also be known that I will not respond to any future email messages or phone calls regarding "The Secret " treasures.
Note: I strongly affirm Mr. Palencar's right to privacy and I ask the treasure-hunting community to refrain from any further attempts to contact him.
Byron Preiss:
The main force behind The Secret was Byron Preiss. He developed and edited the book, buried all the casques, and kept track of the jewels. Preiss was born in Brooklyn and spent most of his life in New York City. Oddly, his marriage announcement in the New York Times misspelled his first name as "Bryon" all the way through.
Byron Preiss died in a car accident in 2005. An article about his death is available on the Comic Book Resources site. Here is the obituary that was published in the New York Times:
Byron Preiss, 52, Digital Publishing Pioneer, Dies
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: July 11, 2005Byron C. Preiss, an author and a publisher who specialized in illustrated books by celebrities, graphic novels and science fiction, died in a traffic accident on Saturday in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 52 and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Preiss was the president of Byron Preiss Visual Publications and ibooks, and was recognized as a pioneer in digital publishing. He was among the first publishers to release CD-ROM's and electronic books, said Barbara Marcus, the executive vice president of the publishing company Scholastic.
Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Preiss graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1972 and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. He produced "The Words of Gandhi," an audio book that won a Grammy Award in 1985. He was also the co-author of "Dragonworld," a novel published by Bantam Books in 1979.
Mr. Preiss published works by celebrity authors including Jane Goodall, Billy Crystal, Jerry Seinfeld, LeAnn Rimes and Jay Leno. He was active in local charities, and was co-chairman of UJA-Federation of New York's publishing committee.
Mr. Preiss is survived by his wife, Sandi Mendelson, and two daughters, Karah and Blaire.
After Preiss's death in 2005, his company declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and its assets were put up for auction in 2006 with a starting bid of $150,000. It isn't clear whether the auction took place, but J. Boylston & Co. announced in December of 2006 that it had acquired the assets of the late Byron Preiss. The jewels associated with The Secret were presumably among those assets, although that transfer has never been officially confirmed.
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
About The Book:
To set up the puzzle, Preiss traveled to 12 locations in North America to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. The casques were buried by Preiss in 12 cities in the winter of 1981-82.
An article in the Chicago Tribune on 11/16/82 reported on the book and the initial reaction. According to the article, "Preiss, 29, hid the jewels over several months as he crossed the country on other business, carrying with him a six-foot shovel and various 'disguises' that he won't discuss. Only he knows the burial sites, and he answers every question in an interview cagily, so as not to tip his hand."
Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1983 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum.
The first casque was found in 1983 in Chicago, Illinois. There was an article about the discovery in the Chicago Tribune on 8/9/83. The Cleveland casque was found in 2004. An article about the Cleveland find was published in The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine on June 13, 2004.
Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
The Rules:
"The jewels collectively are worth over ten thousand dollars. The treasure casques themselves are of incalculable value, never having been owned by man or woman."
"Every treasure casque is buried underground, at a depth of no more than three to three and one-half feet. The casques are protected by lustrous transparent boxes, and are sealed."
"The following places do not hold any treasure:
(a) any life-threatening location, such as a dangerous highway embankment, a contaminated area or active railway track
(b) any cemetery
(c) any public or private flower bed
(d) any property owned by the contributors to the book, their families or friends."
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
Summary:
Each of the 12 images in the book represents a group of immigrants who came to North America from some foreign country. Each image is also linked to a particular month and contains that month's birth flower and that month's birth stone (which also the jewel for that casque). The text of the book includes twelve verses that describe (in varying detail) where a casque is hidden. The first step in solving the puzzle is to match up each image with the appropriate verse, month, stone, flower, and country of immigration.
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
Hints:
Over the years, Preiss apparently made several hints or direct statements about casque locations:
1. In a 2003 email, Preiss apparently confirmed that there was definitely a casque in Canada. (This is thought to be the casque associated with Image 9, although that connection was never explicitly confirmed.)
2. Sometime around 2003, a treasure hunter using the name of "Johann" on the Q4T site sent a proposed solution to Byron Preiss. In response, Preiss wrote "Very impressive work especially since the book is 20 years old. I think you deserve to know that you are correct about st. Louid, but not correct about the location. Thanks for all your excellent work." (The use of "Louid" was almost certainly a typo, given that the "D" is next to the "S" on a standard keyboard.)
3. In a 2004 email, Preiss apparently directly ruled out any casque in Central Park in New York City.
4. In a 2004 email, Preiss wrote "there is a treasure in houston. that's all i can tell you." (This is thought to be the casque associated with Image 8.)
5. When Egbert, who found the Cleveland casque in 2004, met Preiss, he asked him a couple of questions. He reported on Q4T that: "Preiss was a very good poker player, and was not giving out any hints about any of the other locations. However, he did confirm my theory that the countries of origin of the faeries do connect with the sites. He also said that the pages following the verses (which make up the bulk of the book) have no connection with the puzzles, and contain no additional clues."
6. Preiss confirmed to Egbert, the second casque-finder, that the immigration references in the book were significant. For example, the casque Egbert found was in the Greek Cultural Garden. (The jewel should have been the aquamarine though. Preiss actually handed him the wrong one by mistake.)
7. In describing his meeting with Byron Preiss, Egbert wrote: "When Siskel and I finally met BP, he ended up taking us to the bank vault in NYC where the jewels were kept. He also said the solutions to the puzzle were in the same drawer."
8. In a 2004 email, Preiss responded to a question about the book by giving his most cryptic clue: "after 22 years, all I can say is I." It isn't clear what he meant by that statement and he did not respond to several emailed questions about it. Because a sans-serif font like Helvetica displays a lower-case "L" in the same way as an upper-case "I", the quote was widely misinterpreted for many years. But displaying the quotation in an all-caps font clearly shows that the final letter is a lower-case "L".
According to the recipient of the email, it appeared that Preiss's message was truncated (perhaps sent accidentally) and was not a complete sentence.
9. In a 2005 email (shortly before he died), Preiss responded to a question about the Children's Zoo in Houston, Texas, by saying "it would not be a waste of time to dig there, but I cannot make any guarantees whatsoever."
One of the twelve images featured in The Secret that hold information about the buried casques.
The Hunt Continues:
People are still trying to find the remaining buried casques to this day. While it is uncertain whether the jewels can still be obtained due to the transfer of ownership of the company, people still want to put the mystery of where the keys were burried to rest.
Here is a site where you can work with other treasure hunters to find the remaining buried keys: http://thesecret.pbworks.com/w/page/22148559/FrontPage
Some of these seem intriguing mate. What made you post a blog about them?
4323778 It's all from one book called The Secret. And I wrote about it because armchair treasure hunt books have always been interesting to me. I think it is cool how you can solve puzzles in the books to find real life treasure. I will probably be making blogs about the other armchair treasure hunting books as well.