Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist? Or, Curious Revelations from the Life of a Trance Medium
Philadelphia: Rufus C. Hartranft, Publisher, 1891. First Edition. Black and white plates. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. xxiv, 264 pages. Near fine. Bound in dark blue cloth over bevelled boards with gilt-stamped spine and upper board. Circular-bordered portrait of Lincoln in gilt on upper board. Minor extremity wear, chain of prior owners' names on preliminary blank, a few pencilled marginalia. Hinges sound.
Mrs. Maynard's personal recollections of séances conducted in the Lincoln White House. She claims Lincoln used spirit counsel in such matters as the Emancipation Proclamation and the Freedmen's Bureau.
Publisher Rufus C. Hartranft was a cousin of General John F. Hartranft, who was in charge of the prisoners held in connection with the Lincoln assassination at Washington Arsenal Prison.
A full page quote from Lincoln's body guard, William H. Crook, has been neatly copied out in pencil on rear blank leaf. This quote describes "women spiritualists" and Mrs. Lincoln after the assassination, and Robert Lincoln finally ordering them out of the White House. From Crook's book, "Through Five Administrations."
An uncommonly nice copy of these unusual recollections from inside the Lincoln White House.
Ref. MONAGHAN 1088.
Item #1421
Price: $375