The Occults in Council; or, The Great Learning
Denver, Colorado: The Smith-Brooks Printing Company, 1901. Published for the Proprietor. 8vo (9 x 6 inches). Color frontispiece (The Soul's Awakening, after James Sant) with tissue guard; photographic plates throughout. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt.
FIRST EDITION, VOLUME ONE ONLY. Stated Vol. I on title page and spine; no subsequent volume appears to have been published. Copyright entered in the name of Eliza J. Parks, the book's proprietor; the author writes under the pseudonym "Sir William." An extremely scarce Denver imprint.
Cloth with some surface toning, fading, and scratches to the boards; spine lettering bright. Black coated endpapers intact. Interior generally clean; text and plates very good, tape residue to title page. A solid copy of a fragile and seldom-seen book. Good+.
The Occults in Council presents itself as a record of spiritualist séances and occult investigations, with the author claiming access to truths concerning the immortality of humankind withheld from the race since creation. The photographic plates — including portraits of mediums and spiritualist figures — give the book the character of a document as much as a treatise, and the Denver imprint, pseudonymous authorship, and single-volume publication together make it one of the more eccentric American occult productions of its era.
Item #144209Price: $250.00