LLOYD, John Uri.

£2,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Etidorhpa. First edition, limited issue, signed by the author at the end of the facsimile letter, as issued, this copy also inscribed by the author to stenographer Ella Burbige on the first blank, "Miss Ella Burbidge [sic], compliments of John Uri Lloyd", and notably uncommon thus. This novel was "one of the most splendid of a number of opulent fantasy extravaganzas issued in America in the late 19th century" (Locke).Burbige (b. 1857) is mentioned in the footnote on page 221, regarding the existence of an element that is neither solid, gas, nor liquid, and is listed in the subscribers list.This extraordinary metaphysical work by the eminent American pharmacologist John Uri Lloyd (1849-1936) is "a long eccentric romance with interspersed sections that describe scientific experiments in chemistry and physics" (Bleiler). Its hero meets a bearded stranger called 'I-Am-The-Man' who explains that he has been taken to the centre of the earth by "an eyeless, sexless, nude humanoid" (ibid.). Their adventures include the sampling of "liquid from a mushroom fruit [that induces] astonishing dreams of Dante-like hells, with misshapen organisms and gigantic hands emergent from the ground" (ibid.). Etidorhpa (Aphrodite spelled backwards) was hugely popular, went through many editions, and was translated into seven languages; there were Etidorhpa literary clubs in the United States and some parents even named their daughters Etidorhpa. Howgego describes the work as "highly regarded by devote

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