Some Mistakes of Moses
Book given to James Branch Cabell by Beatrice Houdini, from her collection. <br /><br />The book was originally given by the author, Robert Green Ingersoll to his friend, John G. Mills on June 24, 1880. Harry Houdini acquired the book and added his bookplate opposite Ingersoll's inscription. James Branch Cabell wrote his name on the page above the inscription. <br /><br />Robert "Bob" Ingersoll was a famous orator, nicknamed "The Great Agnostic." A friend of Walt Whitman, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at Whitman's funeral. His inscription to Mills in this book is of special note as <a href="http://gutenberg.polytechnic.edu.na/3/8/8/1/38812/old/orig38812-h/main.htm#link0041" target="_blank">Ingersoll's oration </a>at Mills' funeral (April 15, 1883) was considered scandalous for declaring that Mills was not a Christian; "Humanity was his God."<br /><br />Beatrice Houdini gave this to James Branch Cabell in exchange for his autograph on a copy of Cabell's <em><a href="https://gallery.library.vcu.edu/items/show/79860" target="_blank">The Music From Behind the Moon: An Epitome.</a></em> The letter from Beatrice Houdini requesting Cabell's autograph may be <a href="https://gallery.library.vcu.edu/items/show/79859" target="_blank">found here</a>.<em><br /></em>
Ingersoll, Robert Green
<a href="http://search.library.vcu.edu/VCU:all_scope:VCU_ALMA21358804600001101" target="_blank">BL 2725_S6 1879</a>
1879
Letter to James Branch Cabell from Beatrice Houdini
Letter from Beatrice Houdini, wife of Harry Houdini, to James Branch Cabell requesting his autograph on a copy of <a href="http://search.library.vcu.edu/VCU:all_scope:VCU_ALMA21354456030001101" target="_blank"><em>The Music From Behind the Moon</em></a> (which she misnames <em>The Music From Beyond the Moon</em>.) The letter is typed on mourning stationery (identified by the black border) that Harry Houdini had printed after his mother's death in July 1913.<br /><br />Cabell's book was published in 1926, the year Houdini died (October 31, 1926). This letter is dated October 10 A.L. III (year unknown, but not earlier than 1927). The <em>New York Sun</em> reported on <span>February 19, 1927 that </span>Beatrice Houdini purchased the 67 Payson Avenue property given as the return address.<br /><br />The letter <a href="https://gallery.library.vcu.edu/exhibits/show/jamesbranchcabell/item/79858" target="_blank">refers to a book</a> from Beatrice Houdini's collection which is now in the Cabell Room in James Branch Cabell Library.
Houdini, Beatrice
M 214, Box 2 <a href="http://search.vaheritage.org/vivaxtf/view?docId=vcu-cab/vircu00065.xml" target="_blank">The James Branch Cabell Papers, 1860s - 1960s</a>
October 10 (year unknown, not before 1926)