Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$341.96 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: ix (9) + 196 pages. FRONTISPIECE + 14 ILLUSTRATIONS ON PLATES. Octavo (8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch) hardcover, full light brown cloth, titling in black to spine, paste-on illustration & black titling front. * Ex library with a couple of call numbers front & rear, removed label front & removed pocket rear, some minor remnants of removed label on lower spine & front board (SEE ALL PICS), some wear to corners (SEE PICS), light chipping to head & base of spine (SEE PICS), minor ink stain top edge (SEE PIC), some touch ups to torn section of paste-on front (SEE PIC), but both hinges repaired & reinforced (SEE PICS), & now solid & GOOD CONDITION. *** FROM DOYLE'S PREFACE: "This book contains reproductions of the famous Cottingley photographs, and gives the whole of the evidence in connection with them. The diligent reader is in almost as good a position as I am to form a judgment upon the authenticity of the pictures." *** Some of the book consists of correspondence between Doyle and E. L. Gardener of the Theosophical society. Both Doyle and Gardner, along with another Theosophist named Geoffrey Hodson, were called in to examine the case of these fairy photos, which were taken by two school-girls at Cottingley Glen (sometimes spelled Cottingly) around 1917. *** That the author of the great and extremely perspicacious Sherlock Holmes should have taken these photographs seriously for even a moment seems strange today, but the time in which they appeared has to be taken into account. The latter half of the 19th and early part of the 20th century had seen an explosion of so-called "spiritualism", including whole spiritualist churches, and Doyle himself and many other intellectuals of the time became involved in all of these beliefs and debates about "spiritual" entities, beliefs and debates which seemed to make all of the long-standing legends and folk-beliefs about fairies have some possible basis in reality. Consider also that photography was at the time only about a half-century old, and the tricks that could be done with photography, especially by two precocious school-girls, were still in early stages of development. *** CONTENTS: * I.) HOW THE MATTER AROSE. II.) THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT, STRAND CHRISTMAS NUMBER 1920. III.) RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS. IV.) THE SECOND SERIES. V.) OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT IN THE COTTINGLEY GLEN, AUGUST 1921. VI.) INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES. VII.) SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES. VIII.) THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES. *^*^* EX LIBRARY, BUT A DECENT EX LIBRARY WITH REPAIRS (SEE FULL DESCRIPTION OF CONDITION ABOVE).
Seller: The Holy Graal, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Coming of the Fairies. George H Doran, New York, 1922.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Description: First American Edition. Tanning of page edges. Visible stain centered at photo plate between pages 32-33, this stain bleeds between pages 28-39. Darkening along upper text block, upper cover edges and spine possibly due to smoke. Binding is tight with light edge wear and corner wear. Cover picture plate is solid and in good condition. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Lowry's Books, Three Rivers, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Author: Arthur Conan DOYLE. Title: The Coming of the Fairies. Publisher: New York: George H. Doran Company,1922. First American Edition. Language: Text in English. Size : 8.5 " X 6 ". Pages: vi-196 pages. Binding: Attractive and very good original full cloth binding (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a removable protective mylar cover. A rare find in any condition! Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, very small tear hard to see to upper margin of frontispiece and title page repaired by a previous owner - as shown, gift note of a previous 1922 owner on the first endpaper - as shown). Illustrations: Complete with the frontispiece portrait and the 14 illustrations (including the Cottingley Fairies photographs). **** The book: Scarce and very nice first US edition of this book on The Cottingley Fairies. The Cottingley Fairies appear in a series of five photographs taken by Elsie Wright (1901 1988) and Frances Griffiths (1907 1986), two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. In 1917, when the first two photographs were taken, Elsie was 16 years old and Frances was 9. The pictures came to the attention of writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who used them to illustrate an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for the Christmas 1920 edition of The Strand Magazine. Doyle, as a spiritualist, was enthusiastic about the photographs and interpreted them as clear and visible evidence of psychic phenomena. Public reaction was mixed; some accepted the images as genuine, others believed that they had been faked. A rare find in any condition!
Seller: MFLIBRA Antique Books, MONTREAL, QC, Canada