1926 INSTANTANEOUS PERSONAL MAGNETISM SHAFTESBURY OCCULT RALSTON 12TH ED RARE HB For Sale

ITEM DETAILS

Title: Instantaneous Personal Magnetism: Combining an Absolutely New Method with the Best Established Teachings of the Past; Now the Standard Work of the Magnetism Club of America

Author: Edmund Shaftesbury

Publisher: Ralston University Press, Meriden, Connecticut

Publication Date: 1926

Edition: Twelfth Edition Enlarged

Condition: Good

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Today we are pleased to offer this 1926 twelfth enlarged edition of Edmund Shaftesbury’s Instantaneous Personal Magnetism, issued by the Ralston University Press of Meriden, Connecticut. This is the large-format burgundy cloth hardcover edition, gilt stamped on the front cover and spine, and identified on the title page as “the standard work of the Magnetism Club of America.” The book presents Shaftesbury’s system of “personal magnetism,” a highly unusual early twentieth-century mixture of self-culture, occult psychology, animal magnetism, mental training, character reading, health theory, will-power instruction, and persuasive personality development.

Shaftesbury was the pen name associated with Albert Webster Edgerly, the figure behind Ralstonism and the Ralston Health Club movement. His publications circulated through a private, mail-order-style world of “home training courses,” personal improvement clubs, and pseudo-scientific systems promising greater health, influence, power, magnetism, and mental command. This volume is firmly in that world, advertising related courses such as Advanced Magnetism, Mental Magnetism, Sex Magnetism, Operations of the Other Mind, Universal Magnetism, Future Seeing and Destiny, The Great Psychic, Life Electricity, and Thought Transference. It is a strong example of the American occult, New Thought, self-help, and mind-culture publishing overlap of the 1920s.

Institutional cataloging records this 1926 Meriden edition as the twelfth enlarged edition, 400 pages, illustrated, under the subject of animal magnetism, and notes that the work had earlier appeared under the titles Personal Magnetism Club of America and Cultivation of Personal Magnetism. The title page gives the copyright as 1926 by Ralston Company of Hopewell, New Jersey, and the rear text reaches page 400, matching the cataloged pagination for this edition. The book is therefore a substantial late Ralston-era printing rather than a short pamphlet or later modern facsimile.

Physical condition is good overall for a roughly 100-year-old occult/self-help hardcover. The binding is in good shape overall. The burgundy cloth boards remain present and attractive, with bright gilt stamping on the front cover and spine. The exterior shows general age wear, including light rubbing and scuffing to the cloth, softened and bumped corners, wear at the spine ends, mild surface soil, some unevenness to the cloth sheen, and a little bowing or handling set to the boards. The page edges are toned and soiled from age, with scattered spotting visible along the text block. The spine is still readable, though the book has the slightly loosened feel expected of a large early twentieth-century instructional volume in this condition.

The interior shows age toning, scattered foxing, small stains, occasional smudges, handling marks, and some darker spotting in the margins and near page edges. The front and rear endpapers show toning and light soil, with some stress along the inner hinge areas. The pages are generally readable throughout, with decorative initials, typographic ornaments, and small illustrations remaining clear. No major writing is evident in the shown pages, though normal signs of age and use are present.

Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.

400 pages.

Measures approximately 9 3/4 inches tall by 6 1/2 inches wide by 1 1/2 inches thick.

KEYWORDS

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