Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Alexander (Claude Alexander Conlin). The Inner Secrets of Psychology, Vols. 1 - 5. Los Angeles: C. Alexander Publishing, 1924. Five volumes in publisher’s blue embossed cloth stamped in gilt. Portrait frontispiece of Alexander in each volume. 8vos. Faintest rubbing to bindings; near fine. Rare as a complete set. Offered at the high price of $25 per set in 1924, few copies of Alexander’s “magnum opus” were sold, and this is the first complete set we have encountered. The books were issued as a way to parlay Alexander’s success on stage into a profitable mail order business that offered crystal balls, horoscopes, and other “mystical” products. This “self-help” course was meant to assist readers in discovering their innate mental powers. The text dispensed many common sense (and some uncommon) ideas in its 900 pages. What readers did not know is that the course was “written” by Alexander after his assistants, the Nartell Twins, did research on his behalf by cutting the most interesting passages from other published psychology books found at public libraries while on tour with his show.