The Ghosts of my Friends.

London: Dow & Lester.. [1907].

Early twentieth century fun with smudgy signatures.

163x95mm. Unpaginated. Frontispiece, title page and 46 leaves. 29 of the leaves have been written on. The idea of The Ghost of my Friends is one asks one's friends to write their signature in fountain pen ink along a crease that runs vertically in the middle of the leaf. The leaf is then folded along that crease, the ink smudges and blots and when the page is unfolded a ghostly image emerges that represents, if the title of the book is to be believed, "the ghost of one's friends". The images produced resemble Rorschach tests and in the same way that the interpretation of these are said to reveal the psychological state of the beholder, these weird, blotchy signatures provide a window into the soul of the writer or perhaps the reader. Or perhaps it tells us nothing at all. It is all very entertaining though and these were very popular in the early twentieth century from which this example dates, the earliest "ghost" having been created on 23rd September 1907. Half the signatures are from 1907 and 1908. There is one from 1927 and one from 1964 and then thirteen from 1972. The remaining leaves are blank for a new owner to continue the fun. Rather amusingly, one of the more recent signatures has been written in unsmudgeable biro which rather misses the point.

Ref. 5332