no title provided

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1881. First American Edition. Octavo. 17.5cm. Publisher's slate grey cloth titled and decorated in maroon and gilt to spine and front board. 196pp. Scuffing and abrasion to corners and spine ends with some thumbing of the cloth there and there and a little group of cosmetic pinholes to the cloth of the rear spine hinge, strong and handsome, a very good copy with some minor wear. Internally clean. Coated brown endpapers.

A rather peculiar little weird novel involving reincarnation, soul mates, some kind of unbreakable linkage between people that defies death, and an early grasp of what Steiner, Cayce et al referred to as the Akashic Records, although the concept was introduced in a complete form by Madame Blavatsky a little in advance of the publication of this novel. The idea is essentially that records of everything humanity has ever experienced are stored in a kind of collective archive that we can all have access to if we simply learn how ("This handy correspondence course will have you walking the Boughs of Agartha within 10 simple lessons!"), although in the case of this novel it is more concerned with there being a mysterious framework for steering two lovers back together again after death and time have separated them.

A distinct oddity from a man who joined the Union Army as a Chaplain during the US Civil War, found the duties of battlefield chaplain too tedious for his tastes, and had himself transferred to the 4th Louisiana Native Guards or the Corps D'Afrique, an African American regiment of freed slaves and free men of color which later became the 76th United States Colored Infantry, and who took part in the Mutiny of Fort Jackson in 1863 after the regiment was stationed with white Union troops. Hepworth was a strong voice for the better treatment of veterans of color, and his unimpeachable depictions of the lives of people of color in Louisiana and during the Civil War made some mainstream contribution to the gradual changing of attitudes and responsibilities. Chaplain Hepworth was clearly not a man to shy away from asking the big questions. (Inventory #: 82549)