Facts and the Future Life.
London: Hutchinson and Co., 1922. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Small octavo. 192pp. Original navy cloth with gold titling to spine. 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 Earth-life 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 an number of books and articles, the most notable a series of five volumes entitled "The Life Beyond the Veil". This volume is a collection of articles in which the author offers his own conclusions about life after death, which were previously published in late 1921 in the London paper "Weekly Dispatch". 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. Boards lightly rubbed and with a few bumps to edges, corners and spine ends bumped and lightly chafed, lettering to spine quite dulled, endpapers unevenly browned, pages edges darkened, pages toned with some light scattered foxing, less than half dozen pages have light pencil marks outside text - else a tight, clean about VG copy. Overall a tight, clean about VG copy. No dust jacket. Item #63022
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