NEW ARRIVALS
[HIGGINS, Godfrey] Anacalypsis. An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions (2 Volumes)
[HIGGINS, Godfrey] Anacalypsis. An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis; or an Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations and Religions (2 Volumes)
New Hyde Park: University Books, 1965. First Edition Thus. 2 Hardcover Volumes. Large Quarto (9.5 x 12 inches). Limited edition of 500 copies for the United States (and 500 for Great Britain). This set is unnumbered. Bound in green cloth with decorative gilt titles to front and spines. Top edge stained red (as issued). Over 1400 total pages. 39 b/w figures at the end of the second volume. This is an extremely large and heavy set of books, weighing in at over 12 pounds. Some marks to lower page edges of volume one. There are several pages in the first section of volume one with some unobtrusive pencil underlinings. Also a few pages with some underlining in red pencil. The pencil lines can be erased if desired. The red pencil lines can also be erased but seems a bit more difficult than the regular pencil lines. Otherwise both volumes are in very good condition. A very nice production and increasingly scarce.
This massive work is the product of more than twenty years of research during which Higgins tried to uncover "a most ancient and universal religion from which all later creeds and doctrines sprang". The work details many of Higgins' beliefs and observations about the development of religion. Among these was his theory that a secret religious order, which he labeled "Pandeism" had continued from ancient times to the present day, stretching at least from Greece to India, and possibly having once covered the entire world. The book is filled with curious, unusual, and forgotten lore and the amount of information presented is staggering to say the least. A biography of the author, and a history of the book, appears in a Postface by Leslie Shepard at the conclusion of Volume II.