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Lot 168
STOKER ON MESMER AND MESMERISM. STOKER, BRAM. 1847-1912. Autograph Manuscript for "Mesmer," his brief biography of Frederic-Antoine Mesmer, forming the complete Chapter II, Section C of Famous Imposters,
21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$16,640 inc. premium
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STOKER ON MESMER AND MESMERISM.
STOKER, BRAM. 1847-1912. Autograph Manuscript for "Mesmer," his brief biography of Frederic-Antoine Mesmer, forming the complete Chapter II, Section C of Famous Imposters, 6 pp, most recto only, with some text on versos, 4to (230 x 178 mm), black ink on paper, with numerous emendations, corrections and deletions (one in red ink), first leaf dated by Stoker upper left "6/6/10," interleaved with blanks, fragments of stitching and paper wrapper at spine edge, torn from a notebook.
RARE STOKER AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT WITH RELATION TO DRACULA. Stoker's manuscript on Mesmer begins by specifying the scientific truth of Mesmer's discoveries: "...Mesmer made an astonishing discovery which having been tested and employed in therapeutics for a century is accepted as a branch of [changed in the printed version to "contribution to"] science...." However, it is not his discovery that earns Stoker the "Imposter" label, but his employment of it was "in the manner or surrounded with the atmosphere of imposture." Mesmer's Famous Imposters was printed in 1910, but you can recognize Stoker's interest in the science and its subject in his 1897 master-piece Dracula, who employs similar techniques in casting a mesmeric spell on his victims, and again in Lair of the White Worm, in which a wealthy and slightly psychopathic young man has inherited Mesmer's personal effects, and uses them to transfix a local girl.
Portions of Stoker's autograph for Famous Imposters are help at Trinity College, Dublin (see IE TCD MS 11603, and IE TCD MS 6168). We trace no portions of the manuscript at auction through rarebookhub, and this portion relating to Mesmer is of particular relevance.
RARE STOKER AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT WITH RELATION TO DRACULA. Stoker's manuscript on Mesmer begins by specifying the scientific truth of Mesmer's discoveries: "...Mesmer made an astonishing discovery which having been tested and employed in therapeutics for a century is accepted as a branch of [changed in the printed version to "contribution to"] science...." However, it is not his discovery that earns Stoker the "Imposter" label, but his employment of it was "in the manner or surrounded with the atmosphere of imposture." Mesmer's Famous Imposters was printed in 1910, but you can recognize Stoker's interest in the science and its subject in his 1897 master-piece Dracula, who employs similar techniques in casting a mesmeric spell on his victims, and again in Lair of the White Worm, in which a wealthy and slightly psychopathic young man has inherited Mesmer's personal effects, and uses them to transfix a local girl.
Portions of Stoker's autograph for Famous Imposters are help at Trinity College, Dublin (see IE TCD MS 11603, and IE TCD MS 6168). We trace no portions of the manuscript at auction through rarebookhub, and this portion relating to Mesmer is of particular relevance.