Annie BESANT (1847-1933) and Charles Webster LEADBEATER (1854-1934).

[Theosophy & esoteric spirituality] Man: Whence, How and Whither. A record of clairvoyant investigation.

Adyar, Madras, & Benares, & London: [printed by the Vasanta Press for the] Theosophical Publishing House, 1913.

Octavo (9 ¼ x 6 ¼ inches). Pp. [i-iv; 1-]2-8[10;i-]v[-vi; i-ii, 1-]524. 1 double-page colored frontispiece, 3 plates. (Some light soiling, a few leaves with slight damage to blank margins). Original cloth (recased, endpapers replaced, short split to upper joint). Provenance: Major-General James Alexander Kenneth Mackay (1859-1935, inscribed ‘Kenneth Mackay / 1913”).

First edition with an appropriate provenance: Kenneth Mackay was an enthusiastic supporter of long standing and visited Adyar. Something of a polymath, he was a poet, a speculative fiction writer and an Australian military figure of importance whose death was recorded in the ‘Sixty-First Annua; General Report of the Theosophical Society’ (Dyar, Madras: May 1937, p.4). The Mackay family papers are in the National Library of Australia (MS 10290) and include correspondence which touches on the Mackay’s interaction with Theosophy.

The present work is co-authored by C.W. Leadbetter, a prominent theosophist, and Annie Besant, a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, and supporter of Indian and Irish self-rule. Published in 1913, it “presents their findings from their clairvoyant investigations into various aspects of human existence, including the origins, nature, and destiny of humanity. The book delves into topics such as reincarnation, evolution, the afterlife, and the spiritual hierarchy. Leadbeater and Besant claimed to have gained their insights through their abilities as clairvoyants, which they believed allowed them to perceive hidden dimensions of reality beyond the reach of ordinary perception. The book remains significant in the history of Theosophy and esoteric spirituality.”