Modern Psychic Mysteries: Millesimo Castle
London: Rider & Co., [Ca. 1929]. First edition. 8vo, 367, [1]pp. Photos, illustrations throughout. Publisher's gray cloth boards ruled in black and lettered on spine, in illustrated jacket. Spine slightly cocked, scattered mild foxing throughout, more pronounced on page block edges. Pale spotting to upper corner of rear board. Jacket with some staining to front panel, toning to spine, and a few edge tears. Very good.
Scarce first edition in jacket of this account of the series of séances in 1927-28 arranged by Marquis Carlo Centurione Scotto at the medieval Millesimo Castle in Italy. The Marquis was attempting to contact his son who had died in an airplane crash the year prior, and sitting at the séances was accomplished miniature painter and mental medium, Gwendolyn Kelley Hack (1877-?).
Hack reported on the extensive range of phenomena which was said to have occurred including the materialization of hands and feet; the levitation of the Marquis to a height of six feet while sitting in a heavy chair; apports and asports; antique weapons engaging in a noisy battle; the movement of sometimes weighty and bulky objects; direct writing; thuds and bangs; the playing of musical instruments as they floated; and other such instances. On one occasion the sitters were creating a favorable atmosphere by singing a fascist song when an illuminated picture of Mussolini was transported from an adjoining room through closed doors. Perhaps most famously, the Marquis was transported, or asported, from the locked séance room, necessitating a two-and-a-half-hour search of the castle and grounds. He was eventually found after Mrs Hack received an automatic message through her spirit guide Imperator supplying his location: he was fast asleep on a pile of hay and oats in a granary within the stables, the door locked from the outside.
The aftermath of this publication included scathing reviews from Baron Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, Rudolf Lambert, and Theodore Besterman. The latter's review was so damning, it caused Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was friends with the Marquis, to resign from the Society for Psychical Research and begin his open attacks on the society for its bias against spiritualism.
A scarce book which is very important for its content in terms of 20th century spiritualism and counter movements. Also interesting is the fact that the events surrounding its publication proved to be important and tragic in ACD's life, very much influencing his later writing.
. Item #8053
Price: $500.00