BAILEY, Alice A.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Light of the Soul: Its Science and Effect. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper recto, "Dorothy, with my love - Alice Ann Bailey." Like Bailey, Dorothy Dobbins was a follower of Theosophy; in the year of publication, her "Art from the Spiritual Point of View" appeared in the October issue of The Theosophist.Born in Manchester, Bailey (1880-1949) moved to the US in 1907, at which time Theosophy was among the fastest growing religions in the US. She quickly discovered the Theosophical Society, joining in 1917 and rising to a position of influence, becoming editor of the magazine The Messenger. In 1921, she married Foster Bailey, the society's national secretary. Bailey objected to what she saw as the "neo-Theosophy" of Annie Besant, the president, and strove to take the American section in a different direction. These plans backfired, and both she and Foster were expelled.Bailey's writings caused debate and controversy, because of her reinterpretation of some of Blavatsky's teachings, adoption of several terms from Christian mysticism, and theories on nations and racial differentiation. Her translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras was motivated by a belief that they contained the key to perfection and understanding of the soul.An inscription on the title page records that, in 1975, Dobbins passed this copy to Ruth Howard Pennell (1903-1993), another theosophist active in the 1920s. Loosely inserted is a photograph, noted on the

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