First Edition Was Abraham Lincoln A Spiritualist
$600
Out of stock
Description
Maynard, Nettie. Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist? Or, Curious Revelations From The Life of a Trance Medium. Philadelphia: Rufus C. Hartranft, 1891. First Edition.
First edition of famous account of seances in the Lincoln White House.
This purported first-hand account by medium Nettie Maynard, a genuine-if-controversial associate of Mary Todd Lincoln, maybe the most detailed account of a strange period of American History.
Following the death of their son William Lincoln in 1862, Mrs. Lincoln experimented with Spiritualism, conducting at least eight sessions in the Red Room of the White House, according to the White House Historical Association. While both President Lincoln and Ms. Maynard may have been present for these sessions (Maynard calls it here the “Red Parlour”) her recollection thirty years later places her at the center of Civil War politics. Perhaps most striking, Maynard claims to have predicted and encouraged Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, telling him to “fearlessly perform the work and full the mission for which he had been raised up by an overruling Providence.” Maynard died the year following its publication.
The former copy of Elizur Parsons, noted Connecticut Spiritualist, listed among those present at the New England Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association of Lake Pleasant, Mass in 1878 and as the representative for the Connecticut Spiritualist Association at the 1905 national convention. Maynard, also from Connecticut, appears to have been an acquaintance of Parsons. In multiple places throughout the text, Parsons corrects the spelling of place names and provides updates on the whereabouts of various individuals.
8vo, 264pp, blue cloth boards with title and Lincoln portrait gilt stamped to front. Title and author repeated on spine. Small stains and scuffing to boards, back sun faded, with small bump to top back board edge. Corners bumped. Book block darkened. Some foxing, and pencil corrections by the former owner. Ownership signature and borrowing instructions written in pencil on first free endpaper. Good condition.
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