Count Louis Hamon, 'Cheiro' Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer c.1932
SOLD
Origin: English
Period: Early Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1932
Length: 9.5 inches
Width: 6.5 inches
Pages: 302+, Published by Jarrolds, London
Condition: Some wear, binding firm in most places. Very occasional loose page, plates clean though some pages with foxing. Slightly bumped and creased corners. No Dust Jacket.
In this hard to come by volume Cheiro reminisces about his life including interviews with King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, the Czar of Russia; King Leopold of Belgium; the Infanta Eulalie of Spain; the President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland; W. E. Gladstone, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum; Lord Balfour, Sir H.M. Stanley, the explorer, Cecil Rhodes, "Boss" Croker of Tammany Hall, Julia Ward Howe, Melba, Nordica, Lillian Russell, Joe Leiter, and Mata Hari, Rasputin.
William John Warner, known as Cheiro, (November 1, 1866 - October 8, 1936) was an Irish astrologer and colorful occult figure of the early 20th century. His sobriquet, Cheiro, derives from the word cheiromancy, meaning palmistry. He was a self-described clairvoyant who taught palmistry, astrology, and Chaldean numerology. During his career, he was celebrated for using these forms of divination to make personal predictions for famous clients and to foresee world events.
Cheiro had a wide following of famous European and American clients during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He read palms and told the fortunes of famous celebrities like Mark Twain, W. T. Stead, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, the Prince of Wales, General Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, and Joseph Chamberlain. The book "Titanic's Last Secrets" includes a detailed account of one of Cheiro's palm readings with William Pirrie, chairman of Harland and Wolf, builders of the Titanic. Cheiro predicted that he would soon be in a fight for his life, talking about the battle surrounding the Titanic sinking. He also predicted the date of Queen Victoria's death, the year and month when King Edward VII would pass away, the grim destiny that awaited the late Czar of Russia, the assassination of King Humbert of Italy, the attempt on the Shah's life in Paris, and in thousands of well-known persons' lives he foretold with equal accuracy the outstanding events of their careers.