Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena.
New York: Munn & Co., 1898. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. viii + 148pp. + 4pp. adverts. Original red cloth gilt-lettered on spine & front board, black-stamped figure of ghostly figure & writing-slate on front board. B/w frontis. & illustrations. Index. A well-illustrated expose of various techniques used by fraudulent Spiritual mediums to fool their audiences. Although raised a spiritualist, and allowing some respect and sympathy for those who genuinely held their convictions, the author argued that in the long-term his revelations could only help all earnest truth seekers in the movement, by exposing the charlatans whose tricks would drag it into disrepute. The slate-writing of the title was common in some spiritualist circles and referred to spirit messages which would either be written automatically by the medium (often as mirror-writing), or would seemingly spontaneously-appear on writing-slates (similar to school black-boards). Robinson then explained how these effects might be produced (by the use of graphite or slate pencil stealthily attached to the fingertip, specially prepared slates, etc.) and also described the methods behind numerous other ploys: the use of pulleys in darkened rooms to contrive levitation, special leather cuffs with retractable hooks to cause the sudden movement of tables, etc. etc. Chapter Headings: The Single Slate; The Double Slate; Miscellaneous Slate Tests; Mind Reading and Kindred Phenomena; Table Lifting and Spirit Rapping; Spiritualistic Ties; Post Tests, Handcuffs, Spirit Collars, etc.; Seances and Miscellaneous Spirit Tricks; Miscellaneous Tricks. From the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, with his ex-libris seal blind-stamped on the front free endpaper. Boards lightly rubbed, slight fading to spine with some chafing to edges and ends, owner's name and date (1899) on front free endpaper, old bookseller label on rear pastedown, otherwise a bright, unmarked VG + copy. Item #51659
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