Harry Price Library of Magical Literature

Harry Price Library - Periodicals

Harry Price recognised the importance of periodicals to his collection, and subscribed to a wide range of titles. He also purchased back runs and individual back issues of suitable journals. The titles range across many of the subjects covered by the Harry Price Library. Some of the periodicals have extensive back runs of over one hundred years, such as the major journals on psychic studies: Journal of the Society for Psychical Research Vol. 1-, 1884- and the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research Vol. 1-, 1882-. Also held in the collection is the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research Vol. 1-, 1907-. Other long running titles include: Light: a journal devoted to the highest interests of humanity, both here and hereafter Vol. 1-, 1881- (originally published by the Eclectic Publishing Co. Ltd., Light was later published by The London Spiritualist Alliance Ltd., which became The College of Psychic Studies Ltd. in 1955, still the publishers of Light today, albeit with a different subtitle), Psychic News No. 1-, 1932- and the Occult Review Vols. 1-77 which ran under variant titles from 1905 to 1951.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed a massive growth in the number of periodicals published, and Harry Price (1881-1948) was collecting at a time when titles from that period were available. The Theosophical movement was very active at the turn of the nineteenth century, and their journal Lucifer, later entitled Theosophical Review, jointly edited at one time by Helene Petrovna Blavatsky and Annie Besant, is represented in the collection for the years 1891-95, 1898-1903. From this period the collection also holds Borderland Vols. 1-4, 1893-97 which was edited by W.T. Stead, who is famous for his editorship of the Pall Mall Gazette and Review of Reviews, and being a victim of the sinking of S.S. Titanic. From the mid-nineteenth century there is The Zoist: a journal of cerebral physiology and mesmerism and their application to human welfare, Vols. 1-13, 1844-56, indicating yet another strand in the collection: that of animal magnetism, hypnotism, mesmerism.

One of Harry Price's earliest interests was conjuring, and this is well represented in his Library. One notable title from the United States is The Sphinx, Vols. 1-52, 1902-53 and another from Germany is Zauberspiegel, Vols. 1-9, 1895-1925. The London suppliers of conjuring equipment, Davenports, published the Demon Telegraph, Nos. 1-150, 1933-51, of which there is an almost complete run in the collection.

The periodicals in the Harry Price Library are largely in the English language, but there is a significant minority of titles in European languages, particularly in the fields of conjuring, as indicated above, and psychic research. Examples of the latter might include Tijdschrift voor Parapsychologie, Vol. 1-, 1928- from the Netherlands, Annales des Sciences Psychiques: recueil d'observations et d'experiences, Vols. 1-12, 1892-1902, published in Paris and Luce e Ombra, later entitled La Ricerca Psichica, Vols. 23-39, 1923-39 from Milan.

Some of the earliest serial publications in the Harry Price Library are almanacs of which there is quite a variety, ranging from the mid-seventeenth century through to the twentieth. In most cases the Library only has one or very few copies. A keyword search in the Library's catalogue under almanack will display many from Harry Price's Library. Four examples across the years are: A bloody almanack foretelling many certaine predictions which shall come to this present yeare 1647. : With a calculation concerning the time of the day of Judgment, drawne out and published by that famous astroler. The Lord Napire of Marcheston; The British telescope : being an ephemeris of the celestial motions : with an almanack for the year of our Lord 1741, the Julian period 6454 ... by Edmund Weaver; The spiritualists' almanack...for 1874 published by J. Burns and The mysteries almanack, MCMIV, published by R. Wood, 1904.

The early examples of periodicals come from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and include the Conjuror's Magazine, or, Magical and Physiognomical Mirror, Vols. 1-2, 1791-93 which became the Astrologer's Magazine and Philosophical Miscellany from 1793-1797. With the change of title it soon ceased to be a magazine but became more a vehicle for reprinting Lavater's Essay on Physiognomy and, oddly, Barry's Present Practice of a Justice of the Peace. Another title is the Supernatural Magazine Vol. 1, 1809 published in Dublin and featuring articles on animal magnetism and the Rosicrucian brotherhood.

Harry Price collected a vast number of pamphlets, and among them he included articles on relevant subjects removed from journals. Therefore, the catalogue records of the Harry Price Library present an accidental index to articles from a wide range of nineteenth and early twentieth-century periodicals as well as a guide to the journals focused on his chosen subjects. Current subscriptions and new titles are funded by the endowment bestowed on the collection by Harry Price. Titles acquired by Senate House Library include Skeptical Inquirer: the Zetetic: the journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Vol. 1-, 1976- and Theosophical History, No.1- , 1985-.

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