Pre-Adamite Man: Demonstrating the Existence of the Human Race Upon this Earth 100,000 Thousand Years Ago!
Boston: William White and Company, Banner of Light Office, 1869. Fourth Edition. Hardcover. Small octavo. 408pp, 10pp publisher's catalog, ii advert. Original black cloth bordered in blind and lettered in gilt on spine. Written by Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875), doctor, occultist, Spiritualist, medium, and author, a pioneer of Rosicrucianism in America and probably the first individual to advocate the practices of sexual occultism in that country. In this unusual work Randolph enters one of the great controversies of the time: the origins of humanity and whether the Biblical teachings about Adam as the single ancestor of the species could be taken literally. Randolph leans heavily on contemporary scientific / historical thought to argue that human pre-history is far older more complex than that suggested in the Bible, offering evidence and studies of history and mythology, as well as paleography and archaeology. Deveney tells that the work was first published privately by Randolph in 1863. It clearly proved to be popular, as Randolph published a second edition in that same year, and a third in 1864. It then drew the attention of the Boston publishing house, White & Co., who brought out this fourth edition in 1869. Cloth has a few light marks from handling and is generally a bit rubbed and faded with some light loss and fraying at corners and spine ends and small splits in the cloth hinge at the front. Endpapers browned and a bit brittle with a small chip and tear to the fore-edge of the front free endpaper (closed on verso with acid-free tissue tape). An owner's note and bit of shadow from a (now absent) bookplate on the front pastedown, endpapers starting to split at inner hinges, pages toned but clean and unmarked. Still overall a solid Good + copy of this very scarce early edition. Item #67412
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