One reason for the sporadic posting on this ersatz weblog (aside from sloth) has been the preparation and publication of my Catalogue 19, American Itinerant Ministers, Evangelists & Missionaries, Including Conversion Narratives and Controversial Works (with an additional section of material relating to American Spiritualism). 148 items, ranging from John Gilbert Adams’ The 450 Mile Street of Hell (Greenville, Texas, ca. 1905) to L. H. Ziemer’s Story of my Conversion and Relative Experiences (Toledo, ca. 1936), wherein the Lutheran minister documents his unlikely conversion to Pentecostal views — a transition which turns Ziermer’s dealings with his disgruntled flock in Mansfield, O., into “a furnace of affliction.”
The catalogue has done well in the week since I’ve sent it out. The material is for the most part modestly priced and has proven tempting to a few discerning librarians and a smattering of collectors and members of the trade. Certainly, cataloguing material from wild-eyed evangelists bent on the propagation of the gospel is enjoyable enough (Theophilus Gates alone might occupy me for a day), while the chance to make a modest profit on such happy zealotry is even more so.
A small number of printed copies of the catalogue remain and will be available to those who apply to the proprietor. PDF copies will also gladly be emailed. Contact me at gscott [at] gsbbooks [dot] c o m.
It may interest you to know that the True Light Church in NC and SC believe Theophilus Gates was an angel sent of God to perform a special work. His work is foretold in Revelation.