SPIRITUALIST

[Herbert Thurston, SJ, Roman Catholic liturgical scholar and member of the Society for Psychical Research.] Autograph Letter Signed regarding Samuel Butler and the ‘Oxford theory’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Author: 
Herbert Thurston [Herbert Henry Charles Thurston] (1856–1939), Jesuit priest, Roman Catholic liturgical scholar, andt member of the Society for Psychical Research [Samuel Butler; William Shakespeare]
Publication details: 
3 December 1930; on letterhead of 114 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London, W.
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The recipient is not identified. Addressed to ‘My dear Sir’ and signed ‘Herbert Thurston’. He begins by thanking him for ‘the nice things you say’, and continues: ‘I fear I have no defence as regards Samuel Butler. I knew that he had written on the Sonnets and that some people thought highly of his book but I have never seen it. The fact was that I was provoked into talking up the question by some friends who have recently become obsessed by the Oxford theory.

[The Universal Group of Intuitives, Essex spiritualist society.] Printed prospectus: ‘A Message from Angela (General Secretary)’, with portrait, ‘concerning first vol. of the group’s issue of “Spirit Revelation unveils the Bible” by Charles Kingsley.

Author: 
‘Angela’ (Susan Boltwood), General Secretary of the Universal Group of Intuitives, Essex, founded by her and her husband Charles Dennis Boltwood (‘Crusader’); spiritualism; Charles Kingsley
Kingsley
Publication details: 
‘November, 1937. Written from’ ‘Parent Centre, “Eversley”, Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex.’
£180.00
Kingsley

The item advertised in the present prospectus (no other copy of which has been traced) is unaccountably absent from the bibliography of the Victorian author Charles Kingsley. Information regarding the Universal Group of Intuitives was provided to ‘Light’, the journal of the Spiritualist Alliance, by its General Secretary Mrs Frances Boltwood (‘Angela’), and appeared in its number of 10 September 1936.

[Hannen Swaffer, Fleet Street journalist and spiritualist.] Typed Letter Signed to theatre historian W. Macqueen-Pope, with carbon of the reply, regarding the music hall artiste Belle Bilton, who became Lady Dunlo.

Author: 
Hannen Swaffer [Frederic Charles Hannen Swaffer] (1879-1962), Fleet Street journalist and spiritualist [Walter James Macqueen-Pope, theatre historian; Belle Bilton, music hall artiste [Lady Dunlo]]
Publication details: 
Swaffer’s letter: 9 May 1951; 8 St Martin’s Place, Trafalgar Square, WC2 [London]. Carbon of Macqueen-Pope’s letter: 11 May 1951; 359 Strand, WC2 [London].
£45.00

See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. From the Macqueen-Pope papers. Each item in good condition, lightly aged, with creasing and rust staining to one corner from a paperclip. ONE: Swaffer to MP. TLS, signed ‘Swaff’. 1p, 4to. ‘Dear Popey, / Do you know anything about this woman? [From the context he is sending MP an enquiry he has received from ‘Mr. Le Poer Trench’] I presume she was a legitimate actress.

[Sir Oliver Lodge, physicist, inventor and Christian spiritualist.] Typed Letter Signed to Rev. A. H. Sayers, declining to speal to the Monmouth Town League of Nations Union.

Author: 
Sir Oliver Lodge [Oliver Joseph Lodge] (1851-1940), physicist, inventor and Christian Spiritualist [Rev. A. H. Sayers of the Monmouth Town League of Nations Union]
Publication details: 
18 April 1928; on letterhead of Normanton House, Lake, Salisbury.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Addressed ‘To the Rev. A. H. Vayers’, but with the ‘V’ corrected in manuscript to ‘S’. Signed ‘Oliver Lodge’. Reads: ‘My dear Sir, / I am exceedingly busy, and a visit to Monmouth is quite out of the question. There are many others better qualified to speak for The League of Nations Union; and I trust you will have a successfull meeting.’

[Sir Oliver Lodge, physicist, inventor and spiritualist.] Autograph Signature ('Oliver Lodge') for autograph collector.

Author: 
Sir Oliver Lodge [Oliver Joseph Lodge] (1851-1940), physicist and inventor in the field of radio, and Christian Spiritualist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£23.00

The signature 'Oliver Lodge' is firmly written in the bottom of three rectangular panels printed in red, with no other writing on the page, on one side of a 12mo leaf removed from 'The Meredith Birthday Book', the other side featuring quotations from the novelist for 13 to 15 June. In good condition, lightly aged.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Willm. B Carpenter') from the English zoologist William Benjamin Carpenter, explaining to Rev. John Page Hopps why he cannot address a meeting.

Author: 
William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885), English physician, zoologist, physiologist, and Registrar of the University of London from 1856 to 1879 [Rev. John Page Hopps (1834-1911), spiritualist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the University of London, Burlington Gardens, W. 17 February 1875.
£75.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on aged paper, tipped in onto a card mount. He explains that he is 'obliged to return to London immediately after the delivery of my Lecture in Glasgow', and so will not be able 'to address the audience you bring together'. If he is 'asked to take part in the Glasgow Science Lectures' the following year, he will bear Hopps's wish in mind. Hopps was both an evolutionist and spiritualist, while Carpenter considered the claims of spiritualism 'epidemic delusions'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W. Howitt') from the English author William Howett [to the editor of the Literary Gazette William Jerdan?], requesting a favourable review [of his 'Popular History of Priestcraft'].

Author: 
William Howitt (1792-1879), English poet and author, originally a Quaker, friend of Elizabeth Gaskell and advocate of spiritualism [William Jerdan (1782-1869), editor of the Literary Gazette]
Publication details: 
Nottingham. [1833.]
£56.00

1p., 16mo. On aged paper, with minor damage on removal from album. He requests 'the favour of an early notice in your journal, of the accompanying little volume if it be fortunate enough to meet your approbation'. The work has 'no object but to serve true religion & true liberty'. In a postscript he requests a 'copy of the paper containing the notice'. Howitt practised as a chemist in Nottingham between 1822 and 1836, when he moved to Esher, Surrey.

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