Rare 1891 First Edition Vampire The Strange Story Of Dr. Senex E. E. Baldwin
Item History & Price
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Rare 1891 First edition Vampire The Strange Story of Dr. Senex E.E. Baldwin original first edition Minerva series No. 54 price 25 ct. Published in 1891 by the Minerva Publishing Company in New York, Doctor Senex opens in upstate New York when a lawyer, George Marsh, is summoned out on "a dark and stormy night" by an old man in Revolutionary War era clothes to visit the mysterious Dr. Senex. Taken to an ancient mansion, he encounters the Doctor in a strange d...omed room lit by a lamp fashioned as a silver skull whose only furniture is a huge clock "with a dial as unique as the lamp. It was marked off in circles and segments in e xact counterpart to the [four colored circles on the tiled] floor, but with the addition, that at the end of each segment were carved figures, representing the four epochs in man's existence, beginning with a child at the upper; a youth at the right; a man in his prime at the lower, and old age at the top." He then meets the Doctor himself, a man with long white hair, strong features and a piercing eye who informs him that he, Senex, has less than a day to live, as measured by the strange clock.Senex takes Marsh to a laboratory where he tells him that as he has known his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and perhaps earlier ancestors, he has chosen Marsh to be his executor and trustee. Senex then mixes a few drops from two vials and sprinkles some powder on it and drinks the mixture — which transforms him in a virile young man for a few minutes until the clock strikes four, whereupon he just as suddenly becomes an incredibly old man, and dies. Marsh is left in the alchemical laboratory with the inevitable manuscript which tells Senex's story, which he is to read a year later after the Doctor's funeral.Doctor Senex is a story of a Hermetic mage who discovered the secret of long if not eternal life, and not an unusual plot — except that we find that Senex came to America as a teenager aboard the Mayflower in 1620! Son of one Sebastian Senex and his wife Mary, the boy grows to rebel against the strictures of Plymouth Colony life, refusing to keep the Sabbath. Summoned by the elders, he goes to the log meetinghouse where he declares "I prefer the green fields and shady forests to this gloomy, artificial, narrow prison which you are pleased to call the `Temple of the Lord.' I loathe this structure, I loathe your canting creed, I loathe the unnatural regulations you seek to impose upon us as individuals and as a community. I have nothing to extenuate, nothing to regret—save the anguish my public punishment may cause my parents. I prize first my liberty, and next to that my honesty of conviction; if they are in conflict with your ordinances, punish me for them, but never hope for my retraction or repentance. Do your worst !"Sentenced to be whipped in the pillory, he is pardoned through the entreaties of his father and is sent back to Europe where he enters the service of a Dr. Frederick Heingardt in Amsterdam. It is here that Senex learns about alchemy and assists his master in a fatal experiment to achieve physical regeneration. Following the death of Heingardt, the novel follows the usual pattern of such stories and has no further Plymouth connections. Senex travels to Alexandria as an older man where he encounters a strange old librarian, Artixus, who has inherited the last few hundred books from the great Library of Alexandria which are hidden away under some ruins. Senex follows the old man and sees the collection (much to the Librarian's distress) just before it and its custodian are lost in a fire.Senex however saves two scrolls which give him the secret of renewing life through certain drugs and the transfusion of the blood of a younger person into the body of the older. After some further wandering he arrives in England where he is able to save the life of a young Dr. Novus. They become partners in the quest and Senex convinces his friend to try the experiment for the sake of knowledge and science. However, once it is underway and Novus' vitality restores youth to Senex, Novus repents his decision and curses his mentor before dying as a worn out husk. Senex, now quite different in appearance, escapes detection and takes up with Novus' girl friend who doesn't recognize him. He falls in love with her and later saves her from death through his knowledge of esoteric medicine, but the curse has its effect as the girl becomes demented and later dies. Senex then moves to Paris where he is able to take the vital force out of a young would-be Rosicrucian who is an inmate in a mental institution. Following this last depredation he re-emigrates to America and settles in the upstate New York town where he repents his vampiric career and the story passes to lawyer Marsh.
