CERVÉ, W. S. “Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific” [Rosicrucian Press, 1935]

CERVÉ, W. S. Lemuria: The Lost Continent of the Pacific. San Jose, California: Rosicrucian Press, 1935. Second edition. 7.75” x 5.5”, 288pp. Publisher’s orange cloth lettered in gilt to spine and front board with Rosicrucian emblem stamped in gilt on upper cover. Illustrated throughout with maps. Contemporary ownership inscription and 1935 Cleveland bookseller stamp to front free endpaper. Spine ends and corners lightly rubbed with a few small marks to cloth; text block clean with mild toning to endpapers. Lacking dusts jacket. Very Good+. An appealing Rosicrucian-era exploration of the mythical lost continent of Lemuria, a hypothetical submerged landmass once proposed by nineteenth-century zoologists to explain similarities between species found in Madagascar and India before the development of plate tectonic theory. By the early twentieth century, the concept had been absorbed into occult and esoteric traditions, especially Theosophy and Rosicrucianism, where Lemuria evolved into a spiritually advanced prehistoric civilization comparable to Atlantis.