The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion

New York: MacMillan company, 1935. 3rd Edition, New American Edition. Hardcover. Otherwise very good condition. A complete 12 volume set, with original dust jackets.

Sir James George Frazer [1854 - 1941] was a Scottish social anthropologist whose study of myth and religion became his area of expertise. His work was influential in the early stages of modern studies of mythology and comparative religion; his descriptions have met with current day criticism. When Sir James George Frazer began his investigation of the legend of the hunted priest in the sacred grove at Nemi in 1889, he hoped to draw a "picture or moving panorama of the vanished life of primitive man all over the world, from the tropics to the poles." The result was The Golden Bough, a twelve-volume masterpiece that became the classic study of the origins of magic and religion — and, in the words of Time magazine, "one of the twentieth century's most influential books."

This extraordinary anthropological work covers the development of man's behavior from the dawn of human thought through civilized times. The author addresses such themes as primitive art, culture, myth, and folklore. The Golden Bough is still the standard reference source on early cultures, religions, and occult practices. An unusually fine set. Garrison & Morton 184; Printing & the Mind of Man 374.

Vol I [Part I] The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, 1935, xxxii, 426pp.; Vol II [Part I] The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, 1935, xi, 417pp.; Vol III [Part II] Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, 1935, xv, 446pp.; Vol IV [Part III] The Dying God, 1935, xii, 305pp.; Vol V [Part IV] Adonis Attis Osiris, Vol I, 1935, xv, 317pp.; Vol VI [Part IV] Adonis Attis Osiris, Vol II, 1935, x, 321pp; Vol VII [Part V] Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, Vol I, 1935, xvii, 319pp; Vol VIII [Part V] Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, Vol II, 1935, xii, 371pp;
Vol IX [Part VI] The Scapegoat, 1935, xiv, 453pp.; Vol X [Part VII] Balder the Beautiful, Vol I, 1935, xx, 346pp.; Vol XI [Part VII] Balder the Beautiful, Vol II, 1935, xi, 389pp.; Vol XII Bibliography and General Index, vi, 536pp.

8vo, publisher's green cloth with gilt title on spine and design on front. Covers are clean, bindings straight and strong, internally clean. Dust jackets are toned and some slt chipped, now encased in archival mylar.