Freemasonry is the subject of perennial fascination-recently the cover story of a national newsmagazine, the premise of the movie National Treasure, and the anticipated basis of a forthcoming novel by Dan Brown. The twentieth century's great scholar of occult and esoteric ideas, Manly P. Hall was a Mason himself and nurtured a lifelong interest in the secret fraternal order, making it the focus of one of his earliest and best-loved books, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry. In this celebrated work, he examines the ethical training required of a Freemason, and the character traits a Mason must "build" within himself. Hall's 1923 volume is now reset and made available exclusively in this new edition, along with the author's two further classics on Masonry:
- Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptians (1937), which explores the roots of Freemasonry in the initiatory temple rites of Pharaonic Egypt; and
- Masonic Orders of Fraternity (1950), a fascinating work of short history that chronicles the reemergence of Freemasonry in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It surveys the lives of Masonry's modern architects and the secretive organizations that immediately preceded the brotherhood.
This three-in-one volume features the original illustrations of each book, for a total of nearly thirty images, including recreations of scenes and rites from Masonry's unusual history. It also includes a new index encompassing all three titles.
