The identity of "Magnus Incognito" has been found!
In part 5 of my Atkinson bibliography I followed the common consensus and included _The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians_ by "Magnus Incognito" (1918) among Atkinson's pseudonymous works.
This seemed like a reasonable thing to do, since (as others have remarked) the work seems to echo passages in Atkinson's _Arcane Teaching_ volumes, and since it was published and kept in print by the same publishers (Advanced Thought Publications, later Yogi Publication Society) who also published and kept in print most of Atkinson's undoubted works.
However, while digging through the catalogs of registered copyrights published by the Library of Congress and through the enormous _National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints_, I happened upon records that name the actual author of this book. In these records, made when the copyright was renewed, the author's name is given as Clifford Edgar Brooksmith. (No other book seems to have been published or copyrighted by any person of that name.)
It was the *renewal* of the copyright that I found entered in the _Catalog of Copyright Entries_ for 1949. The original copyright seems never to have been entered in that _Catalog_ when it was first asserted some 30 years earlier.
This is not uncommon. For a copyright to be entered and published in these _Catalogs_, the copyright holder must not merely assert copyright in the publication itself and file a form with the Library of Congress, but thereafter he must also deposit two copies of the newly copyrighted work in that library. If the copies go astray in the mail, or if the copyright holder carelessly forgets to send the copies to the Library of Congress, then the copyright, while still valid, never shows up into the published _Catalogs_.
This is probably also why no copyright records can be found in any volume of the published _Catalog of Copyright Entries_ for a few of Atkinson's undoubted works: the required two copies probably went astray in the mail, or were never mailed at all through sheer carelessness.
This seemed like a reasonable thing to do, since (as others have remarked) the work seems to echo passages in Atkinson's _Arcane Teaching_ volumes, and since it was published and kept in print by the same publishers (Advanced Thought Publications, later Yogi Publication Society) who also published and kept in print most of Atkinson's undoubted works.
However, while digging through the catalogs of registered copyrights published by the Library of Congress and through the enormous _National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints_, I happened upon records that name the actual author of this book. In these records, made when the copyright was renewed, the author's name is given as Clifford Edgar Brooksmith. (No other book seems to have been published or copyrighted by any person of that name.)
It was the *renewal* of the copyright that I found entered in the _Catalog of Copyright Entries_ for 1949. The original copyright seems never to have been entered in that _Catalog_ when it was first asserted some 30 years earlier.
This is not uncommon. For a copyright to be entered and published in these _Catalogs_, the copyright holder must not merely assert copyright in the publication itself and file a form with the Library of Congress, but thereafter he must also deposit two copies of the newly copyrighted work in that library. If the copies go astray in the mail, or if the copyright holder carelessly forgets to send the copies to the Library of Congress, then the copyright, while still valid, never shows up into the published _Catalogs_.
This is probably also why no copyright records can be found in any volume of the published _Catalog of Copyright Entries_ for a few of Atkinson's undoubted works: the required two copies probably went astray in the mail, or were never mailed at all through sheer carelessness.