THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LINCOLN STEFFENS

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1931). First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good in a soiled, edgeworn, near Good dustwrapper, the front flap detached but present. Fifth Printing. Complete in one volume, illustrated. Superbly INSCRIBED and SIGNED by Steffens, filling the front pastedown, to wealthy Boston surgeon and socialite, Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon, and his wife, Mina "Margery" Crandon, perhaps the most famous psychic medium of her time who claimed that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson. In addition, a typescript of a letter from Steffens is pasted on the front endpaper opposite the inscription which transcribes Steffens's somewhat difficult handwriting. The inscription reads in full: "To L. R. G. and Margery Crandon, & to/Walter, my old friends:/You, Crandon, you know all of this, you are/of some of it, as I am a part of your unwritten/Life, & of Margery's, & Walter's. That I may/say, may I not? And surely I may sat that/we, all four of us old friends -- we have looked/& looked again, at life, & at death, too, trying/to see clear through to the quiet smile/that is back of & before it. At any rate, you/three will understand perfectly why it is that/mine is a smiling tale./Yours affectionately/Lincoln Steffens/Carmel, California/March, 1932."

Margery Crandon became well known as her alleged paranormal skills were touted by Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and were disproved by legendary magician Harry Houdini. Crandon was investigated by members of the American Society for Psychical Research and employees of Scientific American who concluded that she had no genuine paranormal ability and likely was involved in outright deception.