NY: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1971. First American edition. Xix, 236pp.; bibliography. 8vo. Gray boards, orange quarter-cloth; gilt spine titles; dust jacket. Softened spine ends; bottom corners lightly tapped; penned notes on half-title; neat ink underlining occasionally throughout. Unclipped (“$6.95”) jacket with moderate wear and short closed edge tears, light fading to spine. Very good in a like jacket. Signed and inscribed by Bonewits on the ffep, which is printed with a faux ownership plate: “Allen Spraggett Watch out for those platypusses! P E I Bonewits.”
Presentation copy of this work surveying magical phenomena and their relationships to commonly accepted laws of nature. Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits (1949-2010) was an American Neo-Druid who served in the 1970s as leader of the Reformed Druids of North America, and in 1984 founded Ar nDraiocht Fein, “a specifically neopagan form of druidism” (Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, 8th ed., p. 842). Real Magic was published when Bonewits was twenty-two, a year after he’d garnered certain fame by graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Magic. The inscribee of this copy, Allen Spraggett (1932-2022), was a Canadian writer and television host, noted for his works on matters occult and paranormal. An uncommon first, particularly signed.
