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the third volume and its supplement both with 'a photographic reproduction of my [i.e., Mead's] bodily appearance', tissue-guarded in the latter, one or two spots to borders, pp. 146-288; viii, 288-424; 290-307, [1], offprint; 1-112; 1-112; 113-224; 225-336; 337-440, viii [Index]; 1-112; 113-224, [+ ads], 8vo, original blue (the first two numbers), green (the supplement), or orange wrappers, the backstrips gently faded and a couple slightly nicked at foot, a touch of darkening to edges, textblock edges lightly spotted in place, a very good set. An interesting group of issues, from late in the life of this theosophical periodical: its run ceased in 1930, and Mead died in 1933, having left behind a sizeable legacy in the field of gnosticism in part represented by this journal and the Quest Society that accompanied it. Although Mead's output had slowed following the death of his wife in 1924, each issue features at least one article by him, as well as the majority of reviews and notices. Most interesting among the editor's own contributions, perhaps, is his 'Retrospect and Prospect' in the April 1926 number, which he uses to close the original series (the new one begins with the first issue of Vol. XVIII, the final issue of the previous volume having never appeared). Here Mead provides an account of the founding of the magazine, and his own curriculum vitae: joining the Theosophical Society on coming down from Cambridge in 1884, and becoming Mme Blavatsky's private secretary (and, after her death, her editor), then leaving due to the controversy over C.W. Leadbeater (and Annie Besant's lamentable handling of it); he founded The Quest in order to restore a 'straight and clean' path in his pursuit of 'the wisdom-element in the great religions and philosophies of the world' a criticism of the more narrow view ('the Indian craze') of Besant, et al. Mead's 'ability to balance objective scholarship with a sympathetic approach to spiritual reality' (ODNB) gave theosophy an 'academic respectability' that it had otherwise lacked, and he played an important role in the modernist reception of esoteric beliefs: he was in the circle of Olivia Shakespear and W.B. Yeats, both of whom provided entry points into the orbit of Ezra Pound who subsequently contributed to earlier issues of 'The Quest', and displayed traces of his influence throughout his career; Pound introduced him to T.S. Eliot, who would acknowledge the derivation of foundational elements of 'The Waste Land' from the work of another member of The Quest Society, Jessie L. Weston. Though the present clutch of issues does not feature either Pound or Weston as contributors, it does provide a representatively diverse cohort alongside Mead, to exemplify the organ's 'investigation and comparative study of religion, philosophy and science as complementary to one another in aiding the search for that reality which alone can give complete satisfaction': A.E. Waite, suffragist Geraldine Hodgson (all parts of her 'Three Candles', a fin-de-siècle literary assessment of France, England, and Ireland, are present), poet Phyllis Mégroz, Francis Younghusband, Irish poet G.C. Duggan, artist Frederick Carter, and poet Cloudesley Brereton are among those present. Amongst the reviews by Mead are one of Yeats' 'A Vision' and one of Montague Summers' 'History of Witchcraft and Demonology' the latter condemned as 'egregious, credulous and misleading'.
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