Description
Lapidus
Salamander and Sons, Brisbane, Australia, 2011. Hardcover. Revised and expanded edition. A Brand New copy, fine in fine mylar protected unclipped dust-jacket.
Additions, extractions and foreword by Stephen Skinner. Biographical introductory essay by Tony Matthews. Edited by Paul Hardacre. Writing under the nom de plume of Lapidus, David Curwen (1893-1984) was one of the most mysterious personalities of modern alchemysticism, and one of the very few practicing laboratory alchemists residing in the United Kingdom during the latter half of the 20th century. In the decades since the publication of the first edition of In Pursuit of Gold in 1976, many have speculated regarding the true identity of Lapidus, and a few individuals have even laid claim to be the enigmatic adept. An intensely private man, very little information has been publicly available about Lapidus prior to the publication of this revised edition of In Pursuit of Gold. Upon its publication in 1976, In Pursuit of Gold – written by the enigmatic Lapidus – was hailed as a rare work by one of the few practicing laboratory alchemists writing in English during the mid-to-late 20th century. Primarily building upon three alchemical texts – namely The Sophic Fire by John Pontanus, The Secret Book of Artephius and Sir George Ripley’s long poem, Twelve Gates – and more than two dozen of Theodor de Bry’s masterful engraved emblems from Michael Maier’s 1618 Atalanta Fugiens, Lapidus proffers his own observations and practical conclusions drawn from decades of quiet alchemical work in his subterranean Melcombe Street laboratory. Contemporary alchemists with an interest in the confection of the star regulus of antimony will assuredly gain from reading and re-reading In Pursuit of Gold. Beyond simply confirming the true identity of Lapidus as David Curwen, this revised and expanded second edition includes a foreword from Stephen Skinner, responsible for the “additions and extractions” of the first edition, along with an introductory biographical essay on Lapidus – his life, family, alchemical work, and writings – by Tony Matthews, grandson of Lapidus. This second edition of In Pursuit of Gold also features intimate personal and family photographs, facsimiles of correspondence between Lapidus and the great alchemical historians F. Sherwood Taylor and E.J. Holmyard, and original oil paintings by Lapidus.
