The Path Of Discipleship. Four Lectures Delivered At The Twentieth Anniversary Of The Theosophical Society At Adyar, Madras, December 27, 28, 29, And 30, 1895. Besant, Annie.

First edition of this collection of four lectures given by Besant on self-purification, thought control, and spiritual advancement. This copy was gifted between two American theosophists and literary collaborators, Katharine Westendorf and Helen Campbell, and has their respective ownership inscriptions both dated "Denver 1897" on the front free endpaper. Helen Stuart Campbell (1839-1918) was a social reformer and prolific writer, whose works include several promoting household economics, occupational health and safety regulations, and fair wages for women. She also acted as an editor for numerous New Thought and women's rights journals, including co-editing the women's reform newspaper Impress with Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was a noted advocate of theosophy prior to her conversion to Baha'i around 1908. Katharine Westendorf was a theosophist, New Thought proponent, and founder of a school of elocution. The two women collaborated in January 1897 on editing The Heart of It: A Series of Extracts from the Power of Silence and the Perfect Whole by the New Thought religious leader Horatio Dresser. In their introduction Campbell was highly complimentary of Westendorf, describing her as "a profound student of religions, philosophies, and life, a worker of the noblest order". She added that Westendorf often annotated her books, "every salient point, every choice passage, was marked", a practice which can be seen throughout this copy with pencil linings in the margins of several pages. Annie Besant (1847-1933), a renowned socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, and supporter of Irish and Indian self-determination, would have held a clear appeal for both women. Besant was widely considered without peer among women public speakers, Beatrice Webb describing her as the only woman she had ever known with "the gift of public persuasion" (Rappapor, p. 71). She became interested in psychic phenomena from 1886 onwards and began researching different theories, converting to Theosophy in 1890. Alongside her theosophical work Besant was active in the labour rights and union movements, publishing the first account of the Bryant and May match-girl strike of 1888 in the Link, the journal of the Law and Liberty League. Helen Rappaport, Encyclopaedia of Women Social Reformers, volume 1, 2001. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black. Spine faintly browned, cloth a little soiled, light offsetting to endpapers; a very good copy.