Destiny: A New-Thought Novel

Descripción

[a very nice copy, minimal shelfwear, light age-toning to edges of text block; jacket has a handful of tiny edge-nicks, very slight paper loss at top right corner of front panel, tiny closed tear and associated short creasing at the left end of the upper edge of the front panel]. This occult-tinged metaphysical romance represented one of the few attempts to incorporate, in a fictional format, the tenets of the "New Thought" movement. New Thought (sometimes referred to as "Law of Attraction") is a spiritual movement with its roots in metaphysical beliefs; its origins can be traced back to the 18th century, although its principal progenitor through the middle of the 19th century was one Phineas P. Quimby, who believed in the power of "mental healing," primarily through the use of hypnotism (or mesmerism, as it was then called). He may or may not be considered the "founder" of the New Thought movement (opinions differ), but in any case his writings and teachings were very influential in its growth, and by the early 20th century there were already numerous offshoots and ancillary organizations -- one of which, the Church of the New Civilization, was founded and led by none other than Julia Seton, M.D. (then known by her married name, Julia Seton Sears; she divorced the Rev. Sears in 1914). Like most religions, there was a fair amount of mumbo-jumbo involved, e.g. this bit, from the book's "Introductory": "This book was born on the table lands of revealed human experiences; it is the consciousness of God in the human soul, worked out in true, natural, idealistic living; the pathway to perfect unification is a winding one; the staggering human consciousness sometimes forgets its ultimate." (Got that?) Dr. Seton (1862-1950) has been described as "an important figure in the development of the New Thought movement from the esoteric-metaphysical point of view," whatever that means. An indefatigable lecturer, she was sometimes referred to as the "high priestess" of the New Thought movement, and got a lot of press, not all of it favorable. (She apparently was a bit of a bust in England; one 1911 press account was headlined "High Priestess is Voted a Bore.") Mostly she wrote poetry and uplifting tracts; possibly her divorce unleashed her novelistic tendencies and brought forth this novel, apparently her only published work of fiction. She eventually ended up in Ocala, Florida, where in 1937 she started something called the New Civilization Center. (She should not, by the way, be confused with another Julia Seton, who was the wife of author and wildlife artist Ernest Thompson Seton.) A rare book, particularly in jacket. The work of the jacket illustrator, Paul Stahr, appeared frequently on popular magazine covers of the day. N° de ref. del artículo 22213

Contactar al vendedor

Denunciar este artículo

Detalles bibliográficos