My Affinity: and Other Stories
Boston: William White and Company, 1870. First edition. 8vo, [6], 338, plus [1], 10pp. publisher's ads at rear. Publisher's blue cloth ruled in blind, spine stamped in gilt. Moderate foxing throughout, spine cocked, cloth worn through along edges and spine ends, some scuffing and paper residue to endpapers. Ownership inscription dated 1870 on front flyleaf else clean and sound internally. Penultimate work from prominent American spiritualist, medium, feminist, and poet, Lizzie Doten (1827-1913). Doten was an active lecturer, traveling the country and speaking on religion, spirituality, women's rights, and reciting trance poetry. In one such event, as reported by several papers after her death, Doten orated a piece called "On the Death of the Immortal Poet, Edgar Allan Poe, in the Streets of Baltimore," which she claimed had been revealed to her by the disembodied spirit of Poe himself. Lizzie Doten is listed in the Fourth Annual Spiritual Register of the Spiritual Clarion Office of Auburn, N.Y as a public speaker from Massachusetts (she was born and raised in Plymouth). Also listed in this register is the owner of the book, Frances E. Hyer, whose ownership signature is found in front. Hyer is listed as a travelling public speaker. An important and scarce work from Doten, held by 10 or 11 American institutions according to OCLC. Item #4994
Price: $450.00