On offer is a 1927 original typed manuscript of a very rare book on the occult: "My Travels in the Spirit World" by Caroline D. Larsen. Measuring 8.5 inches by 11 inches, the manuscript is 100 percent complete, containing 41 single-sided typewritten pages. The pages are held in a manila folder and bound at the spine with yarn. The cover, binding, and pages are all in good condition.The title page of the manuscript contains a very subtle watermark that reads, "Eagle-A Type Erase 25% Cotton Fiber USA." The title page also lists the publication date, 1927; publisher, The Tuttle Company in Rutland, Vermont; and, most notably, an endorsement from Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The endorsement reads, "I think the book is valuable." Author Caroline Dorothea Jensen Larsen was born in Denmark around the year 1860, and in 1899 married a violin teacher named Alfred Larson. For the early years of their marriage, Alfred Larson conducted the Montreal Amateur Symphony in Quebec. The couple later moved to Vermont where Caroline's husband founded the Burlington Symphony Orchestra and the Larsen Violin School.During the Jazz Age, when Caroline Larsen published "My Travels in the Spirit World," America was exceedingly fascinated with the supernatural. Cults had become popular throughout California and around the country, and certain occult practices, like speaking to the dead, became part of pop culture.In her introduction, Larsen writes, "Now, when speculation and research concerning the life after death are arousing more interest in the public mind than at any other time in human history, it seems peculiarly fitting that I should publish my 'Travels in the Spirit World.' So far, every attempt to lift the curtain that separates us from the realms of the spirits has been carried on through a 'medium'. But in this little book, I shall describe scenes of the Spirit World which I have witnessed with my own eyes, and I shall relate conversations with spirits in which I have actually taken part. I have been enabled to tell you of these marvelous [sic] occurrences by virtue of a rare faculty which few possess: the ability to leave the physical body and to live for the time being in the astral, the power of being a spirit though there has been no actual physical death" (1).Larsen writes of her ability to detach herself from the physical world and live in the astral world as a spirit, describing scenes she actually witnessed and communications made with others in the spirit world: "I met and recognized a woman spirit who on earth had been a Royal Queen of modern times . . . She walked around in seemingly stunned bewilderment, ignorant of having passed over . . . She simply could not understand her present predicament . . . She did not notice me. I simply watched her for a while out of curiosity" (14).This is a rare and interesting example of occult writing from the 1920s. Today, as astrology and mysticism enjoy another surge in popularity, this rare manuscript would make a superb addition to any collector's library.
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