The Kingdom of Gold. Dedicated to "Whomsoever", November 1888, Rejected by the Builders of Books for a Quarter of a Century.
Boston: The Christopher Press, 1913. First edition. Hardcover. Science fiction concerning a utopian community to be established at an unspecified location in the South Seas to which people could escape in specially designed ships. Replete with warnings of impending financial disaster, and "the need for a spiritual awakening to prepare for the downfall of oppression, miscalled "prosperity" ... (text from the book order form loosely inserted). Scarce in the original illustrated dust jacket.
The dust jacket printed with green illustration of an imaginary ship, and printed with text reading, "A Prophetic Novel. There are "Powers and Powers" And "Invisible Governments of more Than One Order. Is There Something Attainable Beyond Human Knowledge?". Price $1.25 printed at lower right front dust jacket.
Loosely inserted folded prospectus/order form dated October 1913, printed in green, with the same illustration of the imaginary ship printed on one panel.
At the rear of the volume is a table of contents for a work by the wife of the author, Theodosia Eighmie Carpenter. In the 1880s the Carpenters (Poughkeepsie NY) sponsored Anandabai Gopal Joshee, who was not only the first Indian woman to receive a Western medical degree, but also the first known Hindu woman to travel to America.
Small 8vo, frontispiece, 244pp, xviii. Green gilt cloth, the gilt at spine dulled. Dust jacket chipped and dusty with a couple of spots. Stuart Teitler Collection p. 41. Geoffrey Smith American Fiction 1901 - 1925 C-127. Written in the tradition of the utopian novel; they have chosen the South Seas as the idyllic location, as it was perceived from the 1600s on. World Cat locates only an electronic copy. Very good condition. Item #23218
Price: $175.00