The Making of the Big Book: The Monumental Publishing of Manly P. Halls The Secret Teachings of All Ages
I was first referred to the Special Collections Library of the Oakland Scottish Rite for the purpose of examining an “especially bound volume” of Manly P. Hall’s famous work, widely known as The Secret Teachings of All Ages. An associate I had met through my antiquarian book business, The Rose Books & Obscurities, made me aware that the volume held at the library was unlike any edition he had ever examined, either online or in person.
Through my contacts at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, I was able to connect with Executive Director and Library Curator Adam Kendall. We agreed on a time to meet, with the intent of helping establish the origin and historical significance of this remarkably distinct version of Hall’s monumental classic. After a few synchronistic moments between my accompanying host, Tigran, and myself, the three of us finally sat in the quietude of the library examining the book’s details and discussing several peculiarities of this most unique volume. Almost immediately I recognized it as one of the two full-vellum copies Hall had commissioned John Henry Nash to produce when the work was first announced. Until that visit the only copy I had ever read about was the one presented to the Crown Prince through the minister of Sweden at the time of its release.
This masterfully bound book did not disappoint. Photographs do little to justify the precision executed in its formation. Shown here, professionally photographed for the first time.Only two existing copies of the specially full-vellum-bound Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages. 1928, H.S. Crocker & Co., San Francisco. This copy was presented to the Oakland Scottish Rite Temple by John Henry Nash.
One of only two existing specially full-vellum copies of Manly P. Hall’s 1928 The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Commissioned by the author. (see additional photos below,)
Characteristics of the Book
The book held at the Oakland Scottish Rite Temple Library is indeed as unique. At first glance, it is stunning, instantly exhibiting the hallmarks of a master bookbinder at the height of his craft. The volume is bound in full contemporary vellum as an elephant folio, measuring 18½ inches in length and 12½ inches in width. It is housed in an equally remarkable custom clamshell case.
The spine is decorated with five raised bands, with the title impressed on a soft goatskin label, embellished with 24-karat gold border frames tooled between each band. The clamshell case is bound with matching vellum along the spine, bordered in gold, and covered in fine custom marbled paper. This same marbled paper is used as the interior endpapers and fittingly exhibits fiery, phoenix-like patterns. Elegant gilt edges protect the book on all sides.
While the exterior of the book is especially unique and possibly the only example of its kind; the interior pages appear to derive from the same text block as the originally circulated Subscriber’s Edition (the first edition, limited to 550 personalized copies bound for Hall’s original subscribers while he was minister at the Church of the People). The exception is an additional preliminary leaf dedicating the book to the “Scottish Rite Bodies” as well as the marbled end papers.
Although the association of the book is clearly that of John Henry Nash the preliminary leaf states:
“Presented to the Oakland Scottish Rite Bodies by John Henry Nash, M.A. 32°, who planned this book, and now has added this special classic vellum binding, in appreciation of his membership in these Scottish Rite Bodies.”
The Backstory
It is a well-established fact that Manly Palmer Hall was a prominent collector of occult books and manuscripts during the past century. Over the course of his lifetime, he assembled one of the most impressive private collections ever formed in the realm of occultism. Given Hall’s devotion to collecting, it is only fitting that the making of his monumental volume, An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, was intended to exude an air of splendor. The result was indeed a masterpiece of the bookmaker’s art.
The final cost of publishing the book was $145,000 in 1928 equivalent to roughly $2.4 million in today’s economy. The vast majority of Hall’s production was funded through advance subscription, with copies reaching readers largely by word of mouth.
Publication of his first major work was commissioned to H.S. Crocker & Company of San Francisco, under the direction and skillful hand of John Henry Nash, the notable fine-book printer who was, at one point, commissioned by the Vatican. Nash came to be regarded as one of the master book designers and printers in America, a figure whose own story merits separate consideration.
In 1916, Nash established his own press in San Francisco and helped elevate the city as a respected center of fine printing. Among his peers, he was dubbed “the Aldus of San Francisco.” It is easy to see why Nash stood at the top of Hall’s list when selecting a craftsman capable of bringing his magnum opus to life. Enlisting Nash proved to be the correct decision, as the book would come to be regarded as one of the great esoteric treasures of modern literature.
Hall was initially determined not to issue the work in a cheap edition, believing it to be, as he wrote, “…a monumental work, for without the colored plates, engravings, and other expensive features, the text would lack its necessary embellishment and elucidation.”²
Reflecting later in life, Hall famously remarked:
“The greatest knowledge of all time should be available to the twentieth century not only in the one-shilling editions of the Bohn Library in small type and shabby binding, but in a book that would be a monument, not merely a coffin. John Henry Nash agreed with me.” - Manly P. Hall
by Ernest J. Rose
