PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH - 1897-1898, Volume 13
Book Details + Condition: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. (London). First Edition, 1898. Hardcover. 653 pages, with Index to front. Illustrated. Scarce first edition, original copy of PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH from 1897-1898. Publisher's original green cloth boards with gilt title, etc. to spine. Contents of this volume include: On the "So-Called" Divining Rod; Divination; Observations of Certain Phenomena of Trance; Automatic Writing; Seance with Mrs. Piper; Indications that the "Spirit" Hypothesis is True; Hypothesis of Telepathy from the Living; Psychical Research in American Universities; The Subconscious Self and its Relation to Education and Health; Andrew Lang's "The Book of Dreams and Ghosts"; and much more. Notable contributing authors include: W.F. Barrett, Richard Hodgson, James H. Hyslop, Frank Podmore, Andrew Lang, F.W.H. Myers and more. Please see our other listings for more first editions of THE SOCIETY OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, as well as information about the organization below. Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; some discoloration and aging to boards; old cataloguing sticker to bottom of spine; text is clean and free of markings. On the front free endpaper is a slip from the London Spiritualist Alliance Library (this one being blank); the same stamp to upper corner of inside front board, and another sticker stating "Not to be taken out. Presented by Mrs. Home and the late Col. L.E.M. Taylor."
The Society for Psychical Research was created in 1882, with Henry Sidgwick serving as its first president. Its stated purpose was to apply scientific methods to the investigation of psychic phenomena and the paranormal. Areas of study included hypnotism, dissociation, thought-transference, mediumship, spirit possession, apparitions and haunted houses and the physical phenomena associated with séances. The SPR were the first to introduce a number of neologisms which have entered the English language, such as 'telepathy', which was coined by Frederic Myers. Much of the early work involved investigating, exposing and in some cases duplicating fake phenomena. Among its most renowned members were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Price, and William T. Stead.
