Offered is a 1931 first edition of the book Fate in the Making by the author Cheiro that was owned and heavily notated and underlined by Elvis Presley. This might be the most heavily written-in book owned by Elvis Presley that has ever become available! The book is also signed by the author (pronounced "Ki-ro) in 1931, the year of publication. Elvis has underlined on 20 pages of the book and actually written on four of those pages!
Larry Geller's heartfelt, signed letter on his personal stationary tells the entire story of this book, and more. It reads:
I am writing this letter to confirm that the book you have in your possession, Fate in the Making by Cheiro (Count Louis Hamon aka Wiliam John Warner), comes from Elvis Presley's personal library. I am the person who originally purchased and introduced this book to him.
From the time I met Elvis in 1964, until his death in 1977, it was my position and responsibility, along with being his personal hair stylist, to bring Elvis spiritual and metaphysical books. This shared quest was our most significant bond. We amassed an impressive library spanning the great teachings of the world's great spiritual, metaphysical and religious wisdom. Together we studied ancient wisdom and philosophy, religions of East and West, exoteric and esoteric. Nothing was off bounds for our inquiring minds.
Elvis was a deep, sensitive person who was a voracious reader. His search and connection to God was the single most significant aspect and bedrock of his entire life and career. This is reflected in his music and the overwhelming outpouring of love and adoration from his fans worldwide. Elvis pored over his beloved books, often underlining and making marginal notes that were meaningful to him.
This copy of Fate in the Making was personally autographed by the author to a young woman in 1931, and he made the notation that this was "Presentation Copy No. 9." Cheiro was a colorful occult figure of the early 20th century who was celebrated for use of palmistry, astrology and Chaldean numerology. He used these forms of divination to make personal predictions for famous clients and to foresee world events.
Elvis was an admirer of all of Cheiro's books, especially the ones on numerology, because of his own every-deepening fascination with numbers and their meaning. I devoted an entire chapter of my book Leaves of Elvis' Garden to Elvis and numerology. This book was unique in terms of Elvis' interest. Rather than being purely philosophical and metaphysical, this book fascinated him with its history of Cheiro's life. He became very excited aobut the idea of making a movie based on the book. He even considered himself as a possibility to play Cheiro. Ther are 20 pages with underlined passages, including 4 pages of his personal writings. For the most part, his underlining relates to characters and stories that he thought would make a great movie.
There is an interesting back story to Elvis' desire to make a movie based on this book. During filming at Paramount in 1964, I met a woman at a bookstore across the street from the studio. As it turned out, she was the last living student of Cheiro himself. I brought her to Elvis' home in Bel Aire one evening, where she read his palm. This made a powerful impression on Elvis, and later was the catalyst for his desire to make the Cheiro movie.
Also included with the book are copies of an email exchange between a collector and Larry Gellar form 2016 when Geller re-confirms that this is indeed the book that he purchased for Elvis and that Elvis gave back to him years later. The book measures 6 1/4 x 9 inches and presents with heavy wear to the original dust jacket, which has several separations and distresses throughout. The book itself is in much better condition, with expected wear to the binding of the well-studied tome. Excellent condition, with the jacket lesser.