Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Case for Spirit Photography. George H. Doran, 1923.

Price: US$750.00 + shipping

Condition: Good

Description: The Case for Spirit Photography By Arthur Conan Doyle with Corroborative Evidence by Experienced Researchers and Photographers, Illustrated, George H. Doran Company, New York, 1923, 132 pp, beige cloth lettered in black with applied photographic illustration, eight double-sided black and white photographic illustration plates, 8.5 x 5.75”, 8vo. In good condition. Light wear to extremities with rubbing to corners, moderate fraying at spine ends. Modest soiling to surface of cloth with five dots of pink staining to front board. Smudge marks at edges of both front and rear boards. Spine darkened with soiling. Photographic illustration pasted to front board has chipped slightly at edges with small patch of loss on “ghost”. Old bookseller’s notations on fly and pastedown in pencil. Front gutter tender, spine is mildly shaken. Small tear at top edge near gutter leaf 31-32 pp. Internally good with light toning to edges and minor foxing. Free of known ownerships or marginalia. Please see photos. Exceedingly scarce first American edition, one of Doyle’s later life obsessions! A non-mystery book on “spirit communication” written in response to a charge of fraud leveled by skeptic Harry Price against a group of spiritualists in Crewe centered on the mediumship of William Hope and Mrs. Burton, who allegedly were able to cause by psychic means likenesses of the des ceased to appear in photographic plates. Doyle defended Hope and Burton and lambasted both Price and the Society for Physical Research, accusing them of conspiracy and deception with intent to destroy the reputation of an honorable man. The book was first published by Hutchinson in December 1922, and issued in hardcover in the United States in January 1923.

Seller: ROBIN RARE BOOKS at the Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A.