Spiritualism on Trial: Containing the Arguments of Rev. F. W. Evans in the Debate on Spiritualism Between Him and Mr. A.J. Fishback, Held in Osceola, Iowa...1874
Cincinnati: Htichcock and Walden, 1875.
First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 432 pp, in publisher's brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Some losses/chipping of cloth at head and foot of spine and a few places on rear board, which appear to have been somewhat amateurishly dyed to match the cloth. Internally very good; binding tight, text and endpapers clean. Evans, a Methodist preacher (and not the Shaker Frederick William Evans, to whom this book is sometimes erroneously attributed), presents extensive arguments against the claims of Spiritualists -- that the living can communicate with the dead, that there is no other way to explain various observed physical phenomena, etc. -- and provides evidence of fraudulent behavior by mediums and scientific explanations for various phenomena that might appear to involve spirit activity. According to the preface, the idea for the debate came from Fishback, an ex-Universalist minister who spent several decades as an itinerant lecturer and debater on behalf of Spiritualism, but Fishback failed to submit his own arguments for publication.
Item #20326
Price: $125.00