The Light Invisible. Benson, Robert.

First edition, first impression, presentation copy, inscribed by the author to his brother and fellow writer of horror Edward Frederic Benson, "E.F.B. from the author. 1903". This "very popular semi-mystical" collection of ghost stories was the author's first work (ODNB). It was published in the year he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism, a choice that was not popular among his siblings. His family, who were a highly successful coterie (all the siblings, of which he was the youngest, were published authors), "felt the conversion made him 'smug and insufferably pontifical', however much they continued to love him" (ibid.). This presentation copy speaks to the continued warm relationship between the two brothers despite their religious differences. Robert Benson (1871-1914) first decided to take Holy Orders while an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge. At Trinity, he held "Wagner, Swedenborgianism, mesmerism, and climbing in the Alps among his interests", influences that were visible in his later writing (ibid.). This collection is told "through the personality of a (somewhat heretical?) old Roman Catholic priest" and includes mystical visions, "a diabolic, gloating, cat-like head", and a visit to a surviving pagan Scandinavian community complete with "a vision of a Valkeryrie-like being" (Bleiler). Alongside this collection Benson wrote other works containing "many mystical touches" including The Lord of the World (1907), a sensational description of the coming of Antichrist, and The Necromancers (1909) on spiritualism (ODNB). Bleiler, A Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 148. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover in white on dark blue landscape, publisher's device on rear board in blind. Spine gently cocked, minor rubbing to edges, book block a hint shaken; a very good copy.