The Life Beyond the Veil - The Lowlands of Heaven: Spirit Messages received and set down.
London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd, June, 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo. 192pp. Brown cloth lettered in black on spine, publisher's device and rules in blind on upper board, b&w illustration. After his wife developed a talent for automatic writing, the author, British clergyman Reverend G. Vale Owen (1869-1931) found himself a believer in Spiritualism - and felt compelled to take up pen and commence a mediumship that became well known in Spiritualist circles. Owen believed that he had initially been contacted by his deceased mother, and then by a number of other spirit entities, among them were: Astriel, the headmaster of a school in Warwick who had lived in the mid-eighteenth century; Zabdiel - about whose Earthlife little is divulged; Kathleen, who acted as amanuensis on the spirit side and who had lived in Liverpool and had died at the age of 28, and Arnel who provides clues to his or her identity in the writings. The communications were first published by Lord Northcliffe in the London "Weekly Dispatch" during the second half of 1921, and concerned the creeds of Christendom, the relation of Christianity to Spiritualism and proofs of human survival after the death of the body. These automatic writings were later to become a series of five volumes entitled Life Beyond the Veil: "The Lowlands of Heaven", "The Highlands of Heaven", "The Ministry of Heaven", "The Battalions of Heaven", "The Outlands of Heaven". As with the other volumes, "The Lowlands of Heaven", the first in the series, is complete within itself. As might be supposed, Rev. Vale Owen was forced out of ministry by the Church authorities, following which he resigned his vicarage and went on a lecture tour in America and in England, eventually settling in a pastorate of a Spiritualist congregation in London. From the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, although not marked as such. Cloth a bit rubbed with a few lightly discolored patches and a streak to the front board, a few light bumps and some rubbing to edges, corners & spine ends, page edges darkened, endpapers unevenly darkened, owner's name on page preceding title page, pages browned at margins - but unmarked. Overall a tight, clean about VG copy. ( no dust jacket ). Item #63020
Sold