Dingwall E J Eric John (3 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. First Edition. Hardcover 1st edition. No dj. Some sheflwear and a touch shaken, but overall a good reading copy. Eric John Dingwall was a British anthropologist, psychical researcher, and scholar of unusual and heterodox subjects whose career represented one of the more extraordinary intellectual trajectories of the twentieth century, combining serious academic credentials and institutional affiliations with a lifelong fascination with the marginal, the anomalous, and the deeply strange dimensions of human behavior and belief. He worked for many years at the British Museum and the Society for Psychical Research, bringing to his investigations of unusual phenomena a combination of genuine scholarly rigor and an open minded curiosity that refused to dismiss uncomfortable or anomalous material simply because it fell outside the boundaries of conventional academic respectability. His published work ranged across an extraordinary variety of subjects including the history of magic and conjuring, the anthropology of human sexuality, psychical research, and the biographical study of unusual and extreme human personalities and behaviors. Some Human Oddities is a collection of biographical and analytical studies examining a selection of historical figures whose lives were marked by extraordinary, extreme, or deeply unusual characteristics of personality, belief, or behavior, approaching its subjects with the combination of scholarly curiosity and analytical detachment that characterized Dingwall's work across his career. The categories identified in the subtitle, the queer, the uncanny, and the fanatical, signal the range of human unusualness the book addresses, encompassing figures whose lives were marked by sexual nonconformity, by encounters with apparently inexplicable phenomena, or by the kind of consuming and extreme religious or ideological commitment that drove them to remarkable or disturbing extremes of thought and action. The biographical approach Dingwall brings to his subjects allows him to examine unusual human phenomena through the concrete particularity of individual lives rather than through purely abstract analysis, grounding his broader observations about human psychology and behavior in the documented specifics of particular cases drawn from historical record. This method reflects the influence of the case study tradition in both psychology and psychical research, treating individual lives as evidence through which broader questions about human nature and its more extreme manifestations can be productively examined. The tone of the work balances genuine scholarly seriousness with the readable accessibility of a writer aware that his subject matter, while deserving careful analytical attention, also has an inherent fascination that makes it naturally engaging to a general readership with an interest in the more extraordinary corners of human experience. Dingwall's combination of erudition, open mindedness, and willingness to engage seriously with material that more conventional scholars might have avoided or dismissed makes Some Human Oddities a characteristic and rewarding product of one of the more genuinely original scholarly minds of the twentieth century. Chapters include St. Joseph of Cupertino, James Allen, Berbiguier, The Deacon of Paris, D.D. Home, and Angel Anna.

Hard Cover. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. B/W Glossy Emanuel Swedenborg Frontispiece, Preface . HBDJ, 1st Edition, 1962, NF+/VG-, AS-IS, DustJacket some slight Rub, Wear, Scuff & Tiny Chips Tears Edges Extremities, 223 pgs, INDEX, + Library of Mystic Arts Listings. DJ spine Sunned tiny Chips Ends, .Pictured on Red of Red & Black DustJacket, Johann Jetzer, St. Mary Magdalene De Pazzi, Swedenborg had alleged Supernatural Powers, History of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is story of Flagellation as Illustrated in Life of a sado-masochist. Interesting biographies of unusual people.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. xiv, 98 pp. Original cloth. Star-shaped sticker on front cover, else Very Good. This copy does NOT have any library markings. First Edition. Quoting the Psi Encyclopedia: "His 'How to Go to a Medium' is a guide for the aspiring investigator, giving information about essential equipment used by fraudulent practitioners--for instance their use of cotton threads and luminous pins--drawn from his knowledge of conjuring." Quoting Wikipedia about Dingwall's study of the paranormal: "In the 1920s and 1930s Dingwall travelled widely in Europe and the United States to investigate mediums. He has been described as a 'sceptical enquirer' and a psychical investigator who 'spent many years exposing fraud and unscientific practices among psychical researchers.' He co-wrote the skeptical book Four Modern Ghosts (1958) with Trevor H. Hall which gave rationalistic explanations for alleged supernatural phenomena such as the Yorkshire Museum Ghost and Harry Price's Rosalie materialization séance. In his book Critics Dilemma (1966), Dingwall supported Hall's criticism of the spiritualist William Crookes and the medium Florence Cook. He investigated the mediumship of Eusapia Palladino and came to the conclusion she was 'vital, vulgar, amorous and a cheat.' In 1920, Dingwall with V. J. Woolley tested the medium Eva Carrière in London. The results were negative and it was discovered that her ectoplasm was made from chewed paper. Dingwall also investigated the medium Mina Crandon. He suspected that she hid her ectoplasm in her vagina but did not come to any definite conclusion. . . . In his later years Dingwall became a critic of psychical research.".