Lucy Boston; or, Woman's Rights and Spiritualism: illustrating The Follies and Delusions of the Nineteenth Century.
Auburn & Rochester: Alden & Beardsley, 1855. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 406p. + 10pp ads. Elaborate blind-stamped decorations on boards, gilt-lettering & decorations to spine. Black and white frontispiece, engraved decorative title-page, and eight plates. A novel satirizing both the movement for women's rights and spiritualism. Amongst other fancies the author imagines that chaos that would ensue were the New York state government to be taken over by a group of angry suffragists, acting on instructions received by mediums from an odd collection of spirits "from the other side" including those of John Calvin and Tom Paine. The author dedicates the work to "T. P. Munrab" - obviously an acronym of P. T. Barnum, the famous showman and hoaxer - apparently out of respect for his famous "Fiji Mermaid" hoax, and with the suggestion that he was king of the fraudsters, presumably paving the way for all others such as spiritualists. The book appears to have been simultaneously published in New York, Boston, and Toronto in 1855. This is thought to be the first New York edition: the publication date on the title page and copyright date are both 1855, and it has a frontispiece and three additional plates not found in the later John E. Beardsley NY printing (it is also on better quality paper). Cloth well rubbed with some chafing at edges and points, cloth gutters darkened. Owner's name on front free endpaper, occasional minor foxing and browning to pages, otherwise a solid unmarked about VG copy. Item #44210
Price: $120.00