Jim Tresner, 33°, Grand Cross
P.O. Box 70, Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044–0070
Book Reviews Editor, The Scottish Rite Journal

It is always a good day when I get a phone call from my friend Ill. Richard E. Fletcher, 33°, P.G.M. of Vermont, Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association of North America and Secretary/ Treasurer of the Masonic Information Center. He goes through books like a tornado through an Oklahoma wheat field, and when he likes something well enough to call and tell me about it, two things happen as soon as he hangs up. I go on the Internet to order whatever he has recommended. Then I send a "feather alert" to a few friends who are as anxious for a good book as I am. (We call it a "feather alert" because a fletcher is a person who makes arrows, and feathers are an essential part of an arrow. It made sense at the time). The first two books are from a recent "feather alert," and the other two books reviewed are also worth your time.

Lisa Jardine, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Sir Christopher Wren, New York: HarperCollins 2002, Hardbound, 600 pages, heavily illustrated, including many in full color. ISBN 0-06-019974-1, cover price $34.95, but available for less on the Internet. Order from your local bookstore or on the web.

No one can or does doubt that Sir Christopher Wren was one of the greatest architects of all time. When fire destroyed London, Wren was the man entrusted with its rebuilding. He designed structures which still inspire awe today. It was a massive job, and he did it well. That much I knew. And I knew that there was controversy in the Masonic community as to whether he was actually a Freemason, let alone a Grand Master, as some believe. But of the man himself, his life, his tastes, the vortex of royal and church politics which swirled around him, I knew virtually nothing.

Lisa Jardine has taken care of that. She is an internationally respected historian, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, author, television commentator, reviewer, and an exceptionally good writer. The book is thoroughly researched, but its scholarly dimension never gets in the way of the story. You come to know this interesting, complex man who combined a wicked sense of humor with a strong sense of responsibility. In fact, London and most of England come into focus around him in this book. You will probably agree with the author that Wren, who made major contributions not only to architecture but also to art and to science, deserves every bit as much respect and honor as the era's other major figure, Sir Isaac Newton.

As to Wren's membership in the Craft, to quote from pages 468 and 469: "Wren joined the fraternity of London speculative freemasons in 1691, in a ceremony associated with St. Paul's Cathedral itself. 'Memorandum. This day (May the 18th. [sic] being Munday 1691 after Rogation Sunday) is a great Convention at St. Paul's Church of the Fraternity of Adopted Masons where Sr. Christopher Wren is to be adopted as a Brother. . . . There have been kings that have been of this Sodality.'"

This is a good book to give to your Lodge for its library and to your local public library. I am sure they will accept it since this book is both a well-researched study and a great read.

Iain McCalman, The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason, New York: HarperCollins 2003, Hardbound, 272 pages, illustrations. ISBN 0-06-000690-0, cover price $25.95, available for less on the Internet.

The second "feather alert" book is just as impressive for its research and information, and as different from the first as it could be. McCalman is also an internationally respected historian, and he is the Director of the Humanities Research Center at the National University of Australia. If Freemasonry gets a passing mention in Jardine's book, it takes center stage in this one. Depending on your point of view, Count Cagliostro was either the world's greatest fraud and imposter or a man of deep spiritual ability. He unquestionably was a forger, a swindler, a procurer (with his own wife as the object of procurement), a con man from whom others could and did learn, as well as an accomplished apothecary, alchemist, student, street magician, and practitioner of the healing arts-all with great success. It's safe to say that the preponderance of opinion in this century has been to see him as a fraud, but that dismisses too easily the man's genuine abilities. Whatever he was, he was in the center of the Masonic world and left his mark on its history.

Giuseppe Balsamo, born into a peasant family in Sicily, had transformed into Count Joseph Cagliostro, colonel of the Thirteenth Brandenburg Regiment and Prince of Trebisond, when, on April 12, 1776, he was admitted as a Freemason into Esperance Lodge No. 289, London, under the Rite of Strict Observance. Since the Rite of Strict Observance also allowed adoptive Lodges-Lodges for men and women-his wife, the Countess Seraphina Cagliostro, also joined the Lodge.

McCalam suggests that the initiation "took" with Cagliostro. It seems to have made a profound impression and redirected his life in many ways. Masonry may have offered the spiritual connection he had always wanted and thought never to have. Shortly after that, he found a copy of an old book which claimed that Masonry truly arose in ancient Egypt, but had become corrupt in its modern versions. He therefore created a new Masonic Rite, the Egyptian Rite, and set out to establish it. The book is carefully researched, written with flair, and accented with more than a little humor. If it were a novel, critics would attack it as too wildly improbable. But it's all true.

Two other books reviewed in this month's column are also very much worth reading.

Harold R. Abelson, Musings and Prayers: Reverent Thoughts of an Irrelevant Man, Shoreview, Minn., Cabin 6, Inc., 2003, paperbound, 107 pages, ISBN 0-9728945-0-0, $12.95. Available from the author for $15.00, shipping included. Please make check payable to: Harold R. Abelson, 3490 N. Key Dr., Apt. 308C, N. Ft. Myers, FL 33903-7090. E-mail: halabelson@aol.com

The blurb on the back of this little book reads: "After a business career in credit and financial management, teaching as an adjunct faculty at Franklin University, and having almost 20 years of self-employment as seminar presenter and consultant, Harold Abelson has turned his attention to what he planned to do in retirement years-read and reflect. That naturally led to writing. What started as the 'Prayer Corner' in a church newsletter grew into this little book."

Ill. Harold R. Abelson, 33°, performs a unique service for the Rite. Each month, he records the Grand Commander's Message and selected portions of the Journal onto an audiocassette which is then distributed to the Florida Valleys and on to vision-impaired members throughout the state. This book reflects that kind of grace.

I normally would not recommend a book of devotional thoughts in this column, especially devotional thoughts obviously deriving from one particular religion. But while the author is obviously Christian, he carefully avoids sectarianism. With the exception of a few meditations which link to specific religious holidays, the book deals with the thoughts of a man who learns from the errors of each day and embraces the opportunities of the next. I enjoyed the book with its gentle reminders that one can do better, and I plan to read it again, soon.

Franz Hartmann, (Introduction by R. A. Gilbert) With the Adepts: An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians, Berwick, Maine, Ibis Press, this edition 2003, paperbound, 183 pages, ISBN 089254-076-1, cover price $16.95, slightly less on the Internet. Order from your bookstore or through the web.

This book is a novel, first published in 1910. Hartmann, who was a writer in many esoteric areas, used the form of a novel to teach in simple terms many of the tenets of the Rosicrucian movement. Rosicrucian imagery occurs often in Masonry, and it is good to have some background information.

The publisher's release tells the plot: "The narrator of this delightful and instructive tale . . . escapes to the magnificence of the Tyrolean Alps for a much-needed respite from the angst of his life. There, he encounters a dwarf who seems to understand the dilemmas that cloud his brain. The dwarf leads him to the Brothers of the Golden and Rosy Cross, where he commences monastic study. Hartmann writes poetically about the beauty of the Alps and skillfully weaves the actual beliefs and practices of the ancient Rosicrucians into a tale that includes magic and an alchemical laboratory, mind-reading dwarfs, and an unexpected revelation."

With the Adepts is a fun as well as informative read, and the new introduction by R. A. Gilbert helps to pull it all into perspective.