Title: THE GREAT BOOK OF MAGICAL ART, HINDU MAGIC AND INDIAN OCCULTISM
Author: L.W. de Laurence
Publisher: The de Laurence Company, Inc.
City: ChicagoYear: N/A (circa 1960s-70s)Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 635Illustrated: Yes
Book Details + Condition: A massive book 'by' Lauron William de
Laurence (1868-1936), renowned publisher of occult literature. In very good condition: slight shelf wear; some smudges to endpaper; interior is clean and free of markings save old stain at very top of about half of the book, only a bit near the edge (please see pictures). The title of
this particular volume says 'Hindu' and 'East Indian' but, it is largely a
grimoire of Western ritual magic, taken from a variety of sources including
Francis Barrett's Magus, the works of Agrippa etc. Title aside, it was probably one of the few works that was widely used for actual
magical practice in the United States in the mid-20th century. De Laurence had
a typically eccentric attitude when it came to identifying editions of his
books: in some cases he would reprint them endlessly over decades without
changing copyright data, in others — such as this — he overstated the number of
editions, presumably to make the book sound more popular. Sadly, noone knows
how many editions there were between the first and the "fourteenth" edition.
