The Magic Island.

SEABROOK, William Buehler.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 124734

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929.

First edition of occultist William Buehler Seabrook’s account of his time spent among Voodoo practitioners in Haiti, credited with introducing the concept of a zombie to popular culture. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with drawings by Alexander King and photographs by the author. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Yolanda Billia with best wishes W. B. Seabrook.” With an original black and white glossy photograph tipped in annotated “W. B. Seabrook before a Voodoo Altar” and an additional original black and white glossy photograph of him laid in. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Exceptionally rare signed by Seabrook.

In 1924, Seabrook travelled to Arabia where he sampled the hospitality of various tribes of Bedouin and the Kurdish Yazidi. His account of his travels, Adventures in Arabia: among the Bedouins, Druses, Whirling Dervishes and Yezidee Devil Worshipers was published in 1927; it was sufficiently successful to allow him to travel to Haiti, where he developed an interest in Haitian Vodou and the Culte des Mortes, which were described at length in his book The Magic Island.