| Title | Thomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New Life : [microfilm] books, pamphlets, serials and manuscripts, 1854-1942.
|
| Published | Glen Rock, N.J., Microfilming Corporation of America, 1974.
|
| Description | 14 reels : positive ; 35 mm.
|
| General Note | Microfilm of the books, papers, and memorabilia of T.L. Harris in the Wagner College Library (reels 1-9) and the Columbia University Library (reels 10-14).
|
| Summary Note | Summary: Thomas Lake Harris was a spiritualist seer. He first founded the agricultural colony, Mountain Cove in Virginia in 1851. After its failure, he studied Swedenborgian philosophy and began to write spiritualist poetry. In 1861 he then established the Brotherhood of the New Life at Wassaic, N.Y., but moved the colony to Brocton, N.Y., on the shores of Lake Erie in 1867. The society was a celibate colony, based on spiritual marriages, the utilization of special breathing techniques to commune with God, and the concept of the bisexuality of the Crator and the need to locate one's sexual counterpart, or misplaced sexual half. Harris was the divine center of the colony, the Avatar, and his communications with the spirit world formed the mystical basis of his philosophy. English journalist Laurence Oliphant and his mother, Lady Maria Oliphant, were among the followers at Brocton, but they later rejected the Brotherhood. In 1875, Harris began a new community near Santa Rosa, Calif., Fountain Grove, which, like Brocton, included extensive vineyards. Here Harris lived in a sumptous setting, but stories of moral improprieties led to Harris' departure from Fountain Gove in 1892 to retire into isolation to prepare himself for greater divinity and immortality. Harris died in 1906, his followers awaiting his resurrection. Included in the collections are materials authored or edited by Harris, works about Harris, works by his contemporaries, unpublished manuscript texts, correspondence, subject files, and photographs. There is much correspondence addressed to Edwin Markham, Harris' biographer, and correspondence between Bortherhood members. Also included are the works of Laurence Oliphant and materials relating to Oliphant and his wife, Rosamond Dale Owen Oliphant Templeton.
|
| Pub. Note | Publications: With accompanying Guide to the microfilm edition, edited by Jack T. Ericson.
|
| Subjects | Brotherhood of the New Life.
Collective settlements -- California.
Collective settlements -- New York (State)
Harris, Thomas Lake, 1823-1906.
Mysticism -- United States.
Oliphant, Laurence, 1829-1888.
Sex -- Religious aspects.
Spiritualism -- United States.
|
| Other Authors | Ericson, Jack T.
Harris, Thomas Lake, 1823-1906.
Oliphant, Laurence, 1829-1888.
Templeton, Rosamond Dale Owen Oliphant.
Markham, Edwin, 1852-1940.
Harris, Jane Waring.
Arai, Osui T.
Berridge, E. W.
Freeman, James Harris.
Nagasawa, Kanaye.
Cuthbert, Arthur A.
Hart, Robert M.
|
| Organizations | Brotherhood of the New Life.
Wagner College. Library.
Columbia University. Libraries.
|
| Call Number/Copies | |
| | WRHS Research Library: Microfilm (Cab. 56:4)
mq15086: Positive microfilm, microform room [status: NON-CIRCULATING] |
| [Record 8635] |
|