THE MYSTIC TIE, OR FREEMASONRY, A LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL. Articles of Confederation, Presented for Examination, being a Defense, Read before a Committee Appointed in the Church Trial of Peter Cook and Lucia Cook, at Elkhart, Indiana, December 14th, 1868, to which are Added the Particulars of the Trial.
Chicago: Ezra A. Cook & Co., 1884. Original Wrappers. Fair binding. Item #5972
12mo. 62, [2 (publisher ads)] pp. Cynosure edition. As issued, stitched in publisher's printed wrappers. Early social club library bookplate inside the front wrapper and an ink number at the bottom of the introduction; wrappers are chipped and fragile; many of the leaves are lacking the top corner, though this loss is limited to the margin, only. In this work, Lucia and Peter Cook have a clear bone to pick and accuse the Methodist Episcopal Church of being in league with the Masons, whose "pastime is the play of murder and assassination; and to vary the monotony of the agreeable amusement they act the murder of the murderer, and the assassination of the assassin"! How's that for light reading? Despite having been regularly reprinted for a decade or more after its original publication in 1869, copies remain remarkably uncommon. OCLC lists only 10 copies of all the various editions combined, and none of this 1884 edition.
Price: $150.00