Edgerly Albert Webster (3 results)
Published by The Ralston Company, Meriden, CT, 1934
- Softcover
Seller: S. Howlett-West Books (Member ABAA), Modesto, CA, U.S.A.S. Howlett-West Books (Member ABAA)
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used - Very good
£ 26.95
£ 4.11 shippingShips within U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketStapled wraps. Condition: Very Good-. 2nd Printing. This is a smaller than trade sized booklet with cardstock covers and a stapled spine. The booklet is in Very Good- condition and was issued without a dust jacket. The booklet covers have noticeable ground-in dirt and spotting. The rear cover has the same ground-in dirt and patc…hes of reddish splotching. The text pages are generally clean, though there is foxing / and tidemarking to the top half of most of the pages. "Under the pseudonym Edmund Shaftesbury, Edgerly was a prolific author of self-help and utopian religious texts, producing over 100 books, most of them "official" books to buy as a member of the Ralston Health Club. A recent critique described the books as "chock-full of racist rants, naive pseudoscience, and curmudgeonly attacks on modern society." He also dabbled unsuccessfully in real-estate speculation and the theater, and invented a language called "Adam-Man Tongue" that was "nothing more than a bizarre-looking version of English." " (from Wikipedia).
More imagesPublished by Ralston Publishing Company, Washington, 1908
- First Edition
Seller: William Chrisant & Sons, ABAA, ILAB. IOBA, ABA, Ephemera Society, Fort Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A.William Chrisant & Sons, ABAA, ILAB. IOBA, ABA, Ephemera Society
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used - Very good
£ 277.22
£ 6.73 shippingShips within U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketCondition: Very Good. First Edition. Gilt title to spine. Author Edmund Shaftesbury is the pseudonym of Albert Webster Edgerly. ; 8vo; 320 pages.
More imagesSeller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used - Near fine
£ 6,545.59
£ 4.11 shippingShips within U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketUnbound. Condition: Near Fine. Two handwritten manuscripts by Albert Webster Edgerly, the founder of the Ralstonism Movement, a late 19th Century movement that stressed a healthy diet, questionable science, and the use of personal magnetism to control others. The manuscripts consist of: 1. *All's Well That Ends Well: The Great S…tory of the Day!* Handwritten manuscript novel. 19 signatures of 24 leaves each, totaling 904 numbered pages. The first signature lacks the first leaf (probably a cover leaf or title page) and the conjugate leaf (pages 39/40). Modest toning and foxing, mostly on the first and last leaf, a few hand corrections, but overall a clean and probably final draft manuscript copy, very good or better. A very long novel described in the first sentence as: "The history of a young lady during her three years course through the High School of Lynn; her first entrance and introduction to the Teachers; her opinion of the school and bright prospects for future happiness therein; her bright hopes clouded and obscured; her struggles for the right; despondency and recklessness, and the final, glorious end which awaited her after all her troubles." An extremely lengthy and melodramatic unpublished manuscript. Each of the 45 chapters (except the last) has a brief or several sentences long introduction summarizing what is in the chapter, which, in addition to the trials and tribulations of the heroine Minnie Marsh, includes such intriguing chapters such as Chapter 17: "George Marsh's visit to the Lawrence Cotton Factory. Death of George!"; Chapter 19: "Mr. Browning 'washes his hands of the whole affair.' Minnie is locked in the Room of Disgrace"; and Chapter 22: "The three telegrams. George saved by Galvanism. Minnie's interview with Mr. Graham. His opinion of her." 2. *A Guide to Moral Elevation; or, Fifty Resolutions Formed on New Year's Day by Lizzie E. Edgerly to be Devotely Kept during the Year 1876: Lynn, December 31 - 1875 To L.E.E. from A.W.E*. This second manuscript is a small notebook (5" x 3.5") with a thin crepe purple cover with canvas spine. Some creases on the front cover, else near fine. Apparently a New Year's gift prepared by Edgerly for his sister. Two page title and introduction followed by 50 handwritten pages, each with a resolution. Most of the advice is whimsical: "No. 6: I will never speak an angry word if there is nobody present to hear me"; "No. 29: I will never stutter while calling the cat"; "No. 40: I will tell the truth on Sundays"; and "No. 44: I will never shed tears when I cry." Edgerly was a lawyer from Lynn, Massachusetts who founded a health club and soon after began to author the first of his several dozen self-help books (mostly under a pseudonym, Edmund Shaftsbury). He was the founder of the Ralstonism Movement, a late 19th and early 20th Century movement that stressed a healthy diet, questionable science, the use of personal magnetism to control others, sexual magnetism and related sexual eccentricity (each man should engage in a probationary marriage with someone the age of his grandmother), white supremacy rants, and various other quaint and/or questionable practices. One of his self-help books endorsed the consumption of whole grain cereals. William Danforth of Purina Mills, who manufactured a similar cereal, sought and received the endorsement of Edgerly for his cereals and renamed the company Ralston-Purina. Two almost certainly unpublished manuscripts by the founder of the Ralstonism Movement. It is certainly likely that Edgerly also wrote the novel for his sister. The novel would benefit from further analysis or study.
