[Rarebooks] fa: ANCIENT EGYPT: THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD - Gerald Massey - 1907/1970 Ltd. Edition

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 18. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y4fwcle6

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Gerald Massey: Ancient Egypt : The Light of the World. A Work of Reclamation and Restitution in Twelve Books. London: Stuart & Watkins, 1970. Two volumes, large 8vo (26 cm), in original publisher's cloth, spines decorated and lettered in gilt, slipcase; 544, [545]-944 pp.; in-text illustrations. "Edition limited to 500 copies."

Fine, appears to be unread, no library or previous owner's marks, in a slipcase with some rubbing to the side. First published in 1907 at the end of the author's life, the work sets out his theory that Christianity had its roots in ancient Egyptian religion ("a great deal of what has been imposed on us as God's own true and sole revelation to us is a mass of inverted myths"). Born poor and entirely self-taught, Gerald Massey (1828-1907) was a spiritualist and middlingly successful poet who became "increasingly interested in Egyptology and the similarities that exist between ancient Egyptian mythology and the Gospel stories," eventually learning hieroglyphics under the tutelage of Samuel Birch, curator at the British Museum (Encyclopaedia Britannica). See our auctions this week for several other important works of Egyptology.