Prof. A.F. Seward: 1541 Boardwalk Atlantic City, NJ. Circa August 1945.
Staple-bound wrappers. 17 pp., 2 pgs. of pub. ads. Text and illus. printed inside wrappers. Paginated as a wall-mounted calendar. Text printed at rectos only. Blue inkstamp at first page reading “Prof. A.F. Seward, Atlantic City, N.J. Send here for Quick Service.” Three pages with underlining in pencil and checkmarks. CONDITION: Good, two horizontal creases, one 1.5” tear at front wrapper, one 1.5” tear at rear wrapper, text and illus. clean and clear.
An apparently unrecorded calendar written by a major mail-order astrologer, providing all manner of pseudo-scientific advice, from matters psychological and occupational to dietary and marital.
Seward’s calendar provides a detailed astrological forecast for the month between August 22nd and September 23rd, the season of Virgo, in addition to a broad review for the remaining months of 1945. His “Life Character Reading” for Virgos deals with one’s “temperament, vocation, marriage, children…health,” and so forth, and by the traits provided we believe that the brunt of Seward’s subscribers were women, including the previous owner of this calendar. For instance, Seward commends Virgos for their “graceful and charming” demeanors and “well proportioned figure…full lips, and…perfect teeth.” The previous owner made particular note of Seward’s mention that Virgos “demand personal freedom…insist upon being treated with respect…and the surest way to win their esteem and confidence is to pay court to their intelligence.” This owner also noted Seward’s comment that “Virgo women are very loving and affectionate, yet often appear cold and distant.” Regarding medical advice, Seward claims that “the Virgo person needs no medicine, and should take none” besides “exercise in the open air amidst pleasant surroundings.”
“Professor” Alfred F. Seward was a prolific mail-order and boardwalk psychic of the twentieth century. As a young man “in 1893, at the ‘Columbian Exposition,’” in Chicago, Seward witnessed “a distinguished gentleman” in a “Prince Albert Coat and scull cap, with a large telescope and a Chart of the Zodiac” read the fortunes of “a skeptical and suspicious group.” Seward was quite taken by this performance, and, after moving to Atlantic City at the turn of the century, he began “lecturing beachgoers on the destiny of the stars.” In addition to boardwalk prattling and issuing astrology calendars by the post, Seward made a fortune selling “one-dollar horoscopes to countless vacationers,” and drove “a specially customized thirty-two-foot ‘land cruiser,’ sporting astrological symbols, brocade draperies, wooden griffins, and seven…loudspeakers” until the late 1960s.
Sources Consulted: Mitch Horowitz, “My Occult Boyhood,” at MediumOnline; Mitch Horowitz, Occult America (New York, 2010), p. 223.
Prof. A.F. Seward: 1541 Boardwalk Atlantic City, NJ. Circa August 1945.
Staple-bound wrappers. 17 pp., 2 pgs. of pub. ads. Text and illus. printed inside wrappers. Paginated as a wall-mounted calendar. Text printed at rectos only. Blue inkstamp at first page reading “Prof. A.F. Seward, Atlantic City, N.J. Send here for Quick Service.” Three pages with underlining in pencil and checkmarks. CONDITION: Good, two horizontal creases, one 1.5” tear at front wrapper, one 1.5” tear at rear wrapper, text and illus. clean and clear.
An apparently unrecorded calendar written by a major mail-order astrologer, providing all manner of pseudo-scientific advice, from matters psychological and occupational to dietary and marital.
Seward’s calendar provides a detailed astrological forecast for the month between August 22nd and September 23rd, the season of Virgo, in addition to a broad review for the remaining months of 1945. His “Life Character Reading” for Virgos deals with one’s “temperament, vocation, marriage, children…health,” and so forth, and by the traits provided we believe that the brunt of Seward’s subscribers were women, including the previous owner of this calendar. For instance, Seward commends Virgos for their “graceful and charming” demeanors and “well proportioned figure…full lips, and…perfect teeth.” The previous owner made particular note of Seward’s mention that Virgos “demand personal freedom…insist upon being treated with respect…and the surest way to win their esteem and confidence is to pay court to their intelligence.” This owner also noted Seward’s comment that “Virgo women are very loving and affectionate, yet often appear cold and distant.” Regarding medical advice, Seward claims that “the Virgo person needs no medicine, and should take none” besides “exercise in the open air amidst pleasant surroundings.”
“Professor” Alfred F. Seward was a prolific mail-order and boardwalk psychic of the twentieth century. As a young man “in 1893, at the ‘Columbian Exposition,’” in Chicago, Seward witnessed “a distinguished gentleman” in a “Prince Albert Coat and scull cap, with a large telescope and a Chart of the Zodiac” read the fortunes of “a skeptical and suspicious group.” Seward was quite taken by this performance, and, after moving to Atlantic City at the turn of the century, he began “lecturing beachgoers on the destiny of the stars.” In addition to boardwalk prattling and issuing astrology calendars by the post, Seward made a fortune selling “one-dollar horoscopes to countless vacationers,” and drove “a specially customized thirty-two-foot ‘land cruiser,’ sporting astrological symbols, brocade draperies, wooden griffins, and seven…loudspeakers” until the late 1960s.
Sources Consulted: Mitch Horowitz, “My Occult Boyhood,” at MediumOnline; Mitch Horowitz, Occult America (New York, 2010), p. 223.
![[Portrait of a domestic servant in Ottoman Turkey].](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/687efeb0f3827b1e917a0b60/6487c241-402e-4aca-8016-484e8cd26687/TurbanManWatercolorScn.jpg)
