Book Details + Condition: Arthur Hall, Smart and Allen (London). Extremely scarce First Edition thus, 1863 (nd - please see below for more detail). Hardcover. 275 pages. Interior hinges cracked but binding remains firm and solid; normal aging and wear to embossed boards, with some discoloration present; a bit of odd gluing to first two pages (unsure if this was a publishing issue, or a later attempt to tighten the binding); periodic foxing, mainly to first and last few pages; interior is clean and free of markings. Despite the normal aging and wear, the majority of the book has uncut pages, and thus hasn't been used and read.
The book's title is somewhat misleading, as it is an account of Cooke's life from the time of his exploration of "astrological science" in 1847, onwards. Cooke focuses on his personal, occult, business and legal relationships with the celebrated astrologer Zadkiel (Richard James Morrison), highlighting their failed ventures and chronicling their esoteric and occult pursuits. He then provides a defense of astrology vis-a-vis a pamphlet he published, before discussing fortune-telling, crystals and scrying. Cooke later explores astronomy, as well as his trip through America and with various Spiritualist movements.
The book is extremely scarce, and while eccentric, serves as a very important biographical source for Zadkiel - most particularly with regards to his legal battles in defense of astrology (for which Cooke most likely acted as counsel). The work's publishing history is also very complex - there appears to be two editions (or perhaps one edition with differing title pages); one with the imprint Arthur Hall, Smart, and Allen, and the other being "Privately Printed". The former is undated, the latter dated 1863, although they were likely issued at the same time. Cooke kept a supply of sets of the publisher's issue, and in 1878 had additional blank leaves added to a small number of copies.
