ALEXANDER, C. [Claude Alexander Conlin]

Oriental Wisdom; Its Principles and Practice

Los Angeles: C. Alexander Publishing, 1924. First Edition. Octavo. 19.5cm. Publisher's black heavy grain embossed cloth titled and decorated in blind and gilt to spine and front board. 557pp. Some light bumping to spine ends and extremities, and a small patch towards the bottom front corner where either liquid or some light abrasion has taken the gloss off the cloth. A cheaply yet solidly produced book, a very good, handsome copy indeed. Internally clean. Marbled blue-green endpapers. Portrait photographic frontispiece. Relatively cheap paper stock, but miraculously free of heavy toning or spotting.
A further expansion to the empire of Claude Alexander Conlin, aka "Alexander the Crystal Seer", "Alexander; The Man Who Knows" and occasionally just "Alexander"; stage mesmerist and magician par excellence, thoroughly unqualified wearer of turbans and appropriator of "Oriental" wisdom and magic, serial husband (accounts of how often he was married differ on whether it was 7 times, 14 times, or some potentially bigamous number in between), and avid debunker of charlatan mediums whilst occasinally moonlighting as one in the meantime. It's a real mystery that there was room for both Alexander and L.W. de Laurence in the same nation at the same time. This particular work with its attempted exposition on everything that could be packed under the "oriental" banner from Pranic Yoga, to High Hindu Magic, to "Oriental Psychic Broadcasting" which appears to be telepathy with a bunch of hypnotism techniques thrown in to make sure one gets the required response. It dates from the period when Alexander was seemingly unable to reconcile his debunking of commercial spiritualism and fake mediums, with his stubbornly held belief that spiritualism and the wider esoteric world held authentic power and mystery. Very much a man of skill and personality, who seemed to combine the cynical and expedient techniques of showmanship and stagecraft, with a genuine curiosity regarding the various 'wisdoms' he utilised to put on a good show. An interesting example of what happens when getting paid is more important than just about anything else.

Price: $300.00

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