[Rarebooks] FS: The Great Alexander, Crystal Gazer in the new Bookin'!

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

An item from our new Bookin'! catalog =>
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Bookin-5.pdf>
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Conlin, Claude Alexander. "Crystal Gazing. Its History and Practice, with
a Discussion of the Evidence for Telepathic Scrying"

Los Angeles; Press of Kellow & Brown. No date, but probably around 1919-20.

Oh my, where to begin? Claude Alexander Conlin [1880–1954] was also known
as The Great Alexander, Alexander the Crystal Seer, and Alexander the Man
Who Knows. Hardly germane to our story, but certainly interesting, is the
fact that he was known as these things to as few as seven, and possibly as
many as 14, different wives, some possibly at the same time.

Born in the staid, perhaps even dull, town of Alexandria, South Dakota,
young Alexander seems to have been something of a troublesome lad,
although it needs to be noted that many details of his life are unclear
and his biographers could not always sort truth, fiction, and Alexander's
account of things into a coherent whole. He is said to have spent his
early manhood in an out of local jails, running from the authorities in
speedboats filled with bootlegged liquor, extorting money, and engaging in
Oklahoma prison breaks. He himself claimed to have taken part in the
shooting of the Alaska gold rush con-man, Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, but
there has never been much evidence to support his claims on that subject.

It would have been a bit ironic if he had been involved, because when he
hit his 30s Alexander became one of the most celebrated con-men of the
stage of his time. The Great Alexander, as he became known, was a
celebrated, highly successful vaudeville magician, specializing in psychic
performances, mind reading and other highly-dubious enterprises, cutting
quite the figure in his Oriental robes and feathered turbans, with his
omnipresent crystal ball always at his side, gazing into the future,
perhaps for a new wife. Wikipedia notes- "All of Alexander's biographers,
Darryl Beckmann, David Charvet, and Alexander's biographer of the 1940s,
Robert A. Nelson, have said that Alexander was the highest-paid mentalist
in the world at the height of his career, during the 1920s. Both sources
state that he earned multiple millions of dollars during his career on
stage and that during his lifetime he may have been the highest paid
entertainer in the field of magic."

He was also inventive, developing electrical stage effects which must have
been quite startling in an age not numbed of its ability to feel wonder by
a constant stream of CGI effects. He retired before he was 50 and spent
his remaining years hobnobbing with celebrities including Marion Davies,
Margaret Sullivan, Jackie Coogan, and Clara Bow. He also wrote a book
exposing the trade cons and tricks of psychics, mentalists, and mediums.

But here again we hit a snag- although he was certainly a stage-based
con-man himself, and he exposed many fraudulent spiritualists to the
public, he seems to have believed that certain psychic and mentalist
phenomenon were real. In 1919 he founded a publishing house which
specialized in astrological, Spiritualist, and New Thought books and
pamphlets. His 'Crystal Silence League' encouraged affirmative prayer, the
development of Spiritualistic mediumship, and crystal ball scrying. In
fact in this Crystal Gazing pamphlet, whose text, um, "liberates" much
information from Northcote W. Thomas's 1905 book on the same subject,
Alexander includes a full-page application for his 'Crystal Silence
League' as the last page.

Or maybe he never believed that at all. While he made a career, fame, and
fortune of knowing, or claiming to know, what others were thinking, it
remains very hard to discern what the Great Alexander himself thought. I
suppose that of such mysteries, interesting lives are made.

This booklet is very uncommon, much like The Great Alexander himself.

Softcover. 5.5"x8.5", 8 pages, plus an application form. Minor wear.
[39685] $250

PICTURES =>
This item & pictures from it are in our new Bookin'! catalog =>
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Bookin-5.pdf>

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