Publications

The True History of Pepper’s Ghost

This title is now out of print and we have no remaining stock.

You may find second-hand copies in online auctions, or from the sales stalls at our Society meetings. Alternatively you could advertise for a spare copy in our regular members’ e-letter Connect.


J.H. Pepper, The True History of Pepper’s Ghost

London: The Projection Box, 1996

ISBN 978-0952394-17-4

60 pages, 8 illustrations, paperback, 15 x 21cm

The theatrical illusion known as ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ was a successor to the Phantasmagoria magic lantern show, and a key precursor of the cinema show on the British fairgrounds. It remained a recurring inspiration both to film-makers and those engaged in the timeless search for more sensational forms of public picture exhibition and portrayals of things beyond the natural and mundane.

This is a facsimile edition of Professor John Henry Pepper’s own account of the creation and development of the 1860s illusion that bore his name, first published in 1890 as The True History of the Ghost and All About Metempsychosis. Covering technical aspects (including the original patent for the illusion, in the name of Henry Dircks), contemporary responses, and personal recollections of the illusion’s use at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, Pepper’s story is presented here with an introduction by Mervyn Heard, one of the leading modern authorities on Victorian optical entertainments.