MESMERISM "IN ARTICULO MORTIS." AN ASTOUNDING & HORRIFYING NARRATIVE, SHEWING THE EXTRAORDINARY POWER OF MESMERISM IN ARRESTING THE PROGRESS OF DEATH

by POE, EDGAR ALLAN

$5,720 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

London: Short & Co, 1846. First Separate Edition. 211 x 135 mm. (8 1/4 x 5 3/8"). 16 pp. 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

• Publisher: Short & Co
• Year: 1846
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

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