From Matter to Spirit, the Result of Ten Years Experience in Spirit Manifestations, intended as a guide to enquirers.
London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1863. First edition. Hardcover. Small octavo. xlviii + 388pp + 32pp publisher's catalog. Dark textured cloth with blind decorative borders on both boards, titling in gilt to spine. Tipped in errata. The first edition of this early work on spiritualism published anonymously - but by Sophia Elizabeth de Morgan (1809–1892), an English spiritualist writer and activist. The book was considered important enough as a foundation text for the spiritualist movement in England to have been republished in it's entirety as Volume II of "The Rise of Victorian Spiritualism" (2000), the series collected and edited by scholar R. A. Gilbert to provide a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon of spiritualism. This copy from the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, with his ex-libris seal blind-stamped on the front free endpaper. Cloth has moderate overall wear, spine ends and corners bruised and chafed, some light bumps to edges, corners and spine ends, a few tiny tears at upper spine. Page edges darkened, minor scattered browning & foxing throughout, but otherwise bright and unmarked. Overall a tight, clean VG copy. An important text that is quite scarce in first edition. Item #63927
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