LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS: BASED ON MATERIALS COLLECTED IN 1815 AND SUPPLEMENTED BY RECENT RESEARCHES WITH A PHILOSOPHICAL DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, OR GREAT WORK OF ALCHEMICAL RE-CONSTRUCTION, AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL CHEMISTRY
Book Details + Condition: George Redway (London). First Edition, 1888. Publishers original brown cloth, with gilt title to spine. 315 pages, followed by a Catalogue of Hermetic and Alchemy Books from George Redway. This is a Gilbert variant edition as the covers have no line embossing. The original edition of LIVES OF ALCHEMYSTICAL PHILOSOPHERS was published anonymously [Francis Barrett attrib] in 1815, and its author remains unknown. Waite claims in his Preface that his edition is “practically a new work under an old title.” A.E. Waite (1857-1942) was an American-born writer on occult subjects, member of the Theosophical Society, Rosicruciana in Anglia and longtime member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, before leaving to form his own Fellowship of the Rosy Cross. Firm binding; minor wear to boards, with chipping/gnawing (??) to bottom edges of front and back boards; owner's name on front endpaper and a few pages with red marks in margins. Pages 249 - 312, plus index remain uncut.
