CONFESSIONS OF A GHOST HUNTER

First edition, first printing. Publisher's original black cloth with green titles to the spine and upper board, in dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding square and firm, the spine tips with very slight fraying, the cloth clean and fresh. The contents, with some spotting to the prelims and edge of the closed text block, are otherwise clean and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed, nicked and creased dustwrapper that has has several small chips and short closed tears with some darkening to the spine and dustiness to the panel edges. Correctly priced 10/6 net to the upper panel and spine.

This example is in the scarce variant dustwrapper, printed on white rather than dark grey paper. A book of the author's ghostly experiences, starting with his paranormal family history and framed by the belief that the psychic ability to perceive such phenomena is hereditary, and developing into strange tales from America, Scotland and London. Elliot O'Donnell (1872-1965) was a popular and prolific writer on the paranormal and occult whose books drew on his own experiences, the reported experiences of friends and acquaintances and on folklore. His popularity in both Britain and the United States led him to make television and radio broadcasts and write for newspapers; he is often described as the first celebrity ghost hunter, and is recognised as laying the foundations on which later ghost hunters and psychical researchers such as Harry Price, whose work has remained in the public consciousness to the present day, built their careers.