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MESMERISM "IN ARTICULO MORTIS." AN ASTOUNDING & HORRIFYING NARRATIVE, SHEWING THE EXTRAORDINARY POWER OF MESMERISM IN ARRESTING THE PROGRESS OF DEATH.
(London: Short & Co., 1846). 211 x 135 mm. (8 1/4 x 5 3/8"). 16 pp. First Separate Edition.
Pamphlet unbound as issued, stitched together with thread. In a (slightly rubbed) early 20th century blue buckram portfolio, gilt lettering to spine. Inside front cover of portfolio with bookplate of American book collector Edward Hubert Litchfield. Heartman & Canny, p. 111; Robertson II, 234-35. Very small split to tail edge of fold (outer bifolium only), a hint of yellowing to edge of leaves, but still A VERY FINE COPY, entirely clean and fresh.
From the collection of a notable American bibliophile, this is an extremely well-preserved copy of Poe's goriest foray into science fiction. The final of three short stories on the theme of mesmerism composed by Poe in 1844-45, and first published as "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" in "The American Whig Review" in December 1845, the present piece is the first separately issued story by Poe to be published in Europe (following "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Gold-Bug" in 1843 in Philadelphia). The story follows Valdemar, a man dying of tuberculosis, who is placed in a mesmeric trance that suspends him "in articulo mortis" ("at the point of death"). This is done as an experiment (conducted by a mesmerist identified only as "P") to determine if a mesmeric trance at that threshold between life and death can prolong one's time among the living. The outcome is a partial--but horrifying--success: Valdemar's body ceases to function, but his mind remains alive, trapped, for seven long months, until it is determined that he should be "awakened." At that moment, his body rapidly decomposes into "a nearly liquid mass of loathsome--of detestable putridity." Robertson calls the work Poe's "most grotesque conception," with its vivid detail about the partially animated corpse, with, for example, eyes producing a "profuse out-flowing of a yellowish ichor (from beneath the lids) of a pungent and highly offensive odor." The story is presented as a first-person scientific narrative, and there was a great deal of public speculation about its veracity at the time of its publication. Poe, apparently delighted by the response to his writing, coyly wrote that it "has given rise to some discussion--especially in regard to the truth or falsity of the statements made. It does not become us, of course, to offer one word on the point at issue. We leave it to speak for itself." Our copy was owned by important American collector Edward Hubert Litchfield (1879-1949), whose library featured American and English first editions, incunabula, and antiquarian science and the occult. The sale of his collection in 1951 at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York was a major bibliophilic event. From an immensely wealthy family made rich through railroad and real estate development, Litchfield was among the highest of high society, indulging in big-game hunting at home and abroad and hosting extravagant parties at the palatial Litchfield Castle on his 50,000-acre estate in the Adirondacks. (ST21119)
Price: $5,500.00