Spiritualism. Its History, Phenomena and Doctrine.

with an Introduction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.. 1918.

Signed by Conan Doyle.

First edition. 8vo. 204x130mm. pp. xxii, 270. Blue cloth, lettered in dark blue to upper cover and gilt to spine. Fading to spine and some marking to boards, corners a little worn. Head and foot of spine slightly bumped. Joints a little tender but otherwise a very good copy of this celebrated and important introduction to spiritualism which ties together various themes and loose ends from his four previous books on the subject. Signed "A. Conan Doyle" on the title page.
Hill investigates the Biblical and classical origins of Spiritualism, the roles of Swedenborg and Mesmer, the work of the Society for Psychical Research, ghosts, the idea of Spiritualism as a religion and theories of life after death perhaps appropriately given that Hill is said to have invented the term "out of body experience".
In his fulsome introduction, Conan Doyle analyses the essence of the book as being an attempt to recover the spiritualist origins of religion, origins that have been ignored, lost or eroded by organised religion.

Ref. 5372