Potter & Potter Auctions
Live Auction

The Grossman-Nicholson Magic Collection Part 2

Sat, Jun 10, 2017 11:00AM EDT - Sun, Jun 11, 2017 11:00AM EDT
Lot 89

Fraud, Spirits, Telepathy – Which

Estimate: $2,500 - $3,500

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$30 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
[Spiritualism Typescript] Carter, Russell Kelso (American, 1849—1928). Fraud, Spirits, Telepathy – Which? Baltimore, ca. 1920. A book-length typescript with ink annotations, signed by the author on last foreword page. Comprising 6 unnumbered leaves [table of contents, sheet of alternate titles, proposed list of illustrations] + 108 pages (4to) on rectos only, and two halftone plates. Accompanied by a second typescript, entitled “The Sky Smugglers”, a 14-page short story, bearing several ink annotations. The longer work, believed to be unpublished, is an apparently autobiographical telling of the author’s experiences in spiritualism and magic and discusses mediums and magicians including Henry Slade, Eusapia Palladino, Frederick Eugene Powell, The Mahatmas, Charles Foster, and others. Carter wrote extensively on the subjects of faith healing and Christianity, and published several novels under the pen name Orr Kenyon. He wrote at least one other work on spiritualism, “Glimpses of Borderland” (1918). An anecdote told by one of Carter’s colleagues at Pennsylvania Military College appears in Houdini’s “A Magician Among the Spirits” and recounts their attendance at a séance by Slade.

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