Pratum Memoir 2016

 

The story of the world’s largest and most sophisticated occult library in private hands. A collection of 23 academic papers including my 67pp memoir. 

Pratum Octagon II

 

“Todd, I did read your memoir, first, and found it gripping from beginning to end. I had no idea that your life had been so adventurous and enterprising, from the very start.” (Joscelyn Godwin).

OCTAGON II, The Quest for Wholeness, Edited by Hans Thomas Hakl. Gaggenau: Scientia Nova 2016, 1st ed, glossy picture boards, 456pp, sewn signatures, illustrated with photographs, new book, 300 copies only, autographed. This is volume two of an ongoing four volume series that documents the history and practice of esotericism as seen through the lens of the largest occult library in private hands, The Octagon, located in Graz Austria. It contains my 67 page memoir ‘Dark Impressions,’ plus 21 other essays and papers in English by some of the most respected authorities on esotericism (see list below). Volume one–the German language texts–has already been published and is in stock ($100.00), volume two, just released, contains the English language texts. The third volume will contain the French texts and volume four the Italian texts. An historic publishing event, nothing like it has ever been done. My memoir includes descriptions of some special rare books, libraries I’ve purchased and sold, my seven bookshops and my extensive catalog business, and accounts of noteworthy customers (good & bad) and their collecting predilections; other occult dealers, book hunting in exotic lands, battles with the FBI, and how the gods forced me into the book business in the first place. With a postscript on ‘Collecting Books in the Internet Age.’ This four volume series will not be distributed in North America. Besides volume one and two I can also supply volume three and four as they are published, please inquire.

$100.00 nett, post paid in the US. I also have a few copies with a slight bump to one corner of the binding, otherwise mint, $85.00 nett.

Contents of Octagon II

  • Hans Thomas Hakl: There once was a young man who left home in order to buy lots of books, and even as an old man hadn’t got any wiser and still diligently kept buying them … The History of a Library and the Personal Reflections of a Collector.
  • Wouter J. Hanegraaff: ‘Ad loca secretiora’: Rejected Knowledge and the Future of Libraries.
  • Hereward Tilton: The Urim and Thummim and the Origins of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz.
  • Peter J. Forshaw: Unexpected in the Octagon: Heinrich Khunrath’s Presentation Copy.
  • Henrik Bogdan: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the George E.H. Slater Collection.
  • Joscelyn Godwin: A Walk through the Speculative Music Section.
  • Christopher McIntosh: Searching for the Gods in the Octagon
  • Aaron Cheak: The Alchemy of Desire – The Metaphysics of Eros in Renè Schwaller de Lubicz  (A Study of Adam l‘homme rouge).
  • Konstantin Burmistrov: Kabbalah in the Doctrine of the Order of the Asiatic Brethren.
  • Roberto Fondi: The Holistic Factor in Biological Evolution.
  • Riccardo Bernardini: The Historiography of Eranos: An Homage to Hans Thomas Hakl.
  • Mac Linscott Ricketts: Glimpses into Eliade’s Religious Beliefs as Seen in his Portugal Journal.
  • Jeffrey Kripal: How I Came to the Study of Western Esotericism: And Why I Think It Is So Important.
  • Andraž Marchetti: Dharma.
  • Giuseppe Baroetto: The Illusion of Reincarnation.
  • Arthur Versluis: Parahistory and Madame Blavatsky’s Progeny.
  • Alexander Bruce: Arcana Arcanorum: From the Rituals of Egyptian Freemasonry to the Kremmerzian Corpus.
  • Alexandra Nagel: The Enigmatic Mentalist Wolf Messing.
  • Gregory Shaw: Archetypal Psychology, Dreamwork, and Neoplatonism.
  • Frank Julian Gelli: Julius Evola and I.
  • Christian Giudice: ‘For a Spiritual Understanding of Life’ – Arturo Reghini’ís Theosophical Years (1898–1907).
  • Todd Pratum: Dark Impressions – 35 Years as a Dealer of Books on the Occult

Order from Todd Pratum. 263 Athol Avenue, No.8

Oakland California 94606. 510.835.1766 (24 hrs),

Knowledge@Pratum.com.

Exclusive US distributor. 

 www.pratum.com

Thanks for reading!

My memoir has been brilliantly described and summarized by James Fergusson in the latest edition (Winter 2016) of the esteemed The Book Collector. It begins on page 19, link here.

More ordering details here