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AUMONT, Gerard. [i.e. CROWLEY, Aleister] (KUNTZEL,Martha. Trans.) Die Drei Schulen der Magie [The Three Schools of Magick] Zurich: Genossenschaft Psychosophia, 1956. [35947] SECOND SEPERATE EDITION. Small slim booklet (147 x 98mm) pp. 36, [2], [1 ads.] Plain card wraps in plain paper jacket with an original linoleum cut by O. Hopfer and Peter Mende printed in black. Small split to fold of jacket at the foot of the spine and light sunning to rear, though essentially a fine copy. A reprint of the rare 1927 Thelema-Verlags-Gesellschaft edition published by Karl Germer. It first appeared in English in Magick Without Tears in 1954. £95
VEREY, Rev. C. (CROWLEY, Aleister). Clouds Without Water. Edited From a Private M. S. by The Rev. C. Verey. London: Privately Printed for Circulation Among Ministers of Religion, 1909. [28660] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (160 x 125mm) pp. xxi, 139, [4] Original orange and white marbled card wraps, black titles to upper and spine. This copy printed on machine-made paper - there were some copies on handmade Van Gelder. Light rubbing to the head and foot of spine, otherwise an excellent copy of one of Crowley’s more fragile and uncommon items. From the collection of A. E. Richardson, a student of Crowley’s in the late 1920s and early 30s. Among the poems can be found acrostics to Lola (‘one of the most exquisitely beautiful young girls, by English standards, that ever breathed or blushed’) and, somewhat scandalous at the time, Kathleen Bruce, the sculptor and wife of Captain Scott. £750 Yorke [29]
VEREY, Rev. C. (CROWLEY, Aleister). Clouds Without Water. Edited From a Private M. S. by The Rev. C. Verey. London: Privately Printed for Circulation Among Ministers of Religion, 1909. [28286] FIRST EDITION. Small octavo (160 x 125mm) pp. xxi, 139, [4] Original orange and white marbled card wraps, black titles to upper and spine. This copy printed on machine-made paper - there were some copies on handmade Van Gelder. Old glue repair to upper joint, now splitting at foot of spine, small chip to fore-edge of rear cover. A very good copy of one of Crowley’s more fragile and uncommon items. Among the poems can be found acrostics to Lola (‘one of the most exquisitely beautiful young girls, by English standards, that ever breathed or blushed’) and, somewhat scandalous at the time, Kathleen Bruce, the sculptor and wife of Captain Scott. £600 Yorke [29]
Fine Collected Works
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley. Foyers: Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, 1905-1907. [29562] FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. Octavo. Three volumes in one pp. 269; 282, [1 epilogue]; vii, 248. Original white limp buckram, titled in gilt to upper only. Printed on India paper, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. A little light soiling to boards, but essentially a fine copy of a delicate edition. Bookplate of A. E. Richardson, a student of Crowley’s in the late 1920s and early 30s, to front pastedown. This Collected Works has the three volumes of the separately published Essay Competition edition (originally bound in camel hair wraps) bound together in one, without the portraits found in the vellum bound Traveller’s Edition. £675 Yorke [23]
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Diary of a Drug Fiend. London: W. Collins Sons and Co. Ltd., 1922. [34597] FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION. Octavo pp. x, 368, [6 ads.] Publisher’s blue cloth titled in red. Light rubbing to edges and corners, a little heavier to head and foot of spine, with a closed split to the head, touching the ‘H’ of ‘THE’. Pages clean with only a little light foxing to half-title. A very good copy of Crowley’s first published novel. £475 Yorke [50(a)]
The Book of the Law
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods. The Official Organ of the A.’.A.’. Vol. III No. III. Comprising LIBER AL vel LEGIS Sub Figura CCXX as Delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI and GENESIS LIBRI AL. London: Issued by the O.T.O. BM/JPKH, 1936. [30220] FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Quarto (290 X 220mm) pp. v, 137 together with 65 loose page facsimile manuscript of the Book of the Law in card cover, titles printed in red and black, inserted into a pocket at the end of the book. Publisher's white buckram, gilt titles and designs to upper and spine, white endpapers, printed on Japon paper with untrimmed edges. The small errata slip, usually tipped in to final page, has been removed. Original advertisement and order form loosely inserted - single sheet, printed both sides and folded twice. Two colour plates showing the Stele of Revealing and additional pictorial title pages for Liber Al vel Legis and Genesis Libri AL . A little bumped to head and foot of spine and some browning to boards as is often the case with the white buckram, though the gilt titles remain sharp and bright. A little spotting to top edge otherwise pages clean and without writing or other marks. The card cover for the Book of the Law is clean and undamaged, only a little browned at the fore-edges where it protrudes from the pocket. The facsimile sheets are all present and have only the occasional small corner fold. Published 19 years after Vol. III No. I (the Blue Equinox) The Equinox of the Gods was No. III in the series, No. II not reaching publication. In it The Book of the Law was printed for the first time in full size facsimile, as Crowley desired for magickal reasons, after five attempts during the previous 27 years. This work, received over three days in Cairo, 1904, was to become the basis of his Order the A.’.A.’. and the cornerstone of Thelema. A very good copy of this uncommon and important work. £1,250 d’Arch Smith: Books of the Beast [BL6]; Yorke [63C.3(b)]
‘... you may find yourself saddled with the whole responsibility of carrying on the work of the whole order.’
CROWLEY, Aleister. (MELLINGER, Frederic) A Collection of Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Frederic Mellinger, Student and O. T. O. Member. Comprising 20 Letters and 3 Envelopes; 1 Article Regarding Finances from the O.T.O.; 1 Poem/Song; 5 ‘Greetings of the Equinox’; 12 Photographs and 2 Thoth Tarot Cards. London and Hastings, 1943-47 [33589] Frederic Mellinger (1890-1970) was a German Jewish actor and theatre director in Berlin before the First World War. He became interested in Anthroposophy and met Rudolf Steiner and also studied Christian Mysticism, Buddhism and Astrology. He left Germany in 1934 during the rise of National Socialism, staying in London for two years, before sailing for America in 1936. In Hollywood, he witnessed a performance of the Gnostic Mass and he was initiated into the A.’.A.’. Agape Lodge in 1940. There he met W. T. Smith, Jack and Helen Parsons and Karl Germer. At the end of the War he worked for the U. S. Army in a civil capacity, based in Germany. He visited Crowley a number of times at Netherwood, Hastings and was among the last people to visit Crowley before his death on December 1st 1947. The letters are dated from 6th of July 1943 to 28th August 1947. Many are on printed A.’.A.’. stationary. 11 are signed ‘666’ and/or ‘Baphomet’, 9 are signed ‘Aleister Crowley’ or ‘Aleister’ and one is unsigned. Among the subjects Crowley discusses are Mellinger’s motto, thoughts on ‘Every man and every woman is a star’, racism, setting Crowley’s song ‘La Gauloise’ to music, the derivation of Crowley - ‘Please disillusion the local nobility and gentry about the name Crowley. It is De Querouaille - a Dukedom in Brittany’, musings on the Atomic Bomb - ‘...and it is certainly very significant that verses 7 and 8 of chapter 3 [of the Book of the Law] should have been fulfilled so exactly.’, the exclusion of W. T. Smith from the order (1945) - ‘Now I don’t want you to be quotable as one who is still playing around with Smith. You have got to make up your mind to cease all communication with him, or with me’ and in the same letter - ‘I am having to dismiss all these idiots ... They are like a set of ill-bred, ill-tempered fractious children ... or what A. has told B. that C. has said about D. when E. went over to see F., to tell G. what H. had done to I and J, in the matter of K., Louis Marlow working on commentaries to the Book of the Law and his book Forth Beast - ‘of course he has got me wrong in many ways...’, the proof copies of ‘Olla’ (Crowley’s last book to be published in his lifetime) and it’s production details, admonishments for sending copies of photographs of Crowley to various people - ‘Foul Creature of the Slime, No Greeting! What do you mean by sending people copies of my photograph with out my permission?’ his growing ill health (1947) - ‘My Illness was really very serious; on 8th March it was just touch and go whether I pulled through...’ and in a letter dated July 15th 1947 - ‘I am very anxious indeed that you should keep in close touch with me, if only because I think it quite possible that after Frater Saturnus [Karl Germer] and myself have moved on into the next stage, you may find yourself saddled with the whole responsibility of carrying on the work of the whole order.’ The O.T.O statement discusses financing, copyright of his material and a reference to Dion Fortune - ‘Furthermore, a few weeks ago our S. H. Sister, Dion Fortune died. With her we had an arrangement by which she acknowledges my authority...’ The poem/song is called ‘A Grammarian Croaks’ and is a comic piece about senility - ‘See the pen shake as I scribble this verse! How my voice creaks - I am trying to curse! Toilet in time? I’m in need of a nurse.’ It seems to be previously unpublished. There are 12 photographs taken by Mellinger at Netherwood, 7 of Crowley, 3 of Netherwood itself, and 2 of paintings by Crowley. There is also a studio portrait of Crowley which is inscribed on the back. Again some of these images are possibly unpublished. The two tarot cards were part of a few produced at the time of the Book of Thoth as examples, in this case The Hierophant and the Ace of Disks. £15,000
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods. The Official Organ of the A. A. Vol. III No. III. California: O. T. O. c.1950s [1936] [28347] GERMER RE-ISSUE EDITION. Large octavo pp. v, 137. Original full maroon cloth, A. A. sigil in gilt to upper, gilt titles to spine and plain endpapers. Very light rubbing to corners, otherwise in excellent condition. Bookplate to front pastedown of Gabriel Montenegro Vargas, a IX degree member of the O.T.O., and the last to be initiated in Agape Lodge. Label of Occult Research Press on the title page, and a small rectangle of blank paper pasted on verso of half-title page. This edition was bound from the original 1936 first edition sheets, printed on Japon paper, by Karl Germer. It was not published with the facsimile sheets of the hand-written Book of the Law, found at the rear of the original book. £225
CROWLEY, Aleister. Gargoyles. Being Strangely Wrought Images of Life and Death. Foyers: Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, 1906. [26723] FIRST EDITION OF 300 COPIES. Small octavo (160 x 90mm) pp.vi, 113. Original blue/grey cloth, titles stamped in red to upper and spine. White endpapers with all edges untrimmed. Title printed in red and black;final page in red. A little rubbing to extremeties, some browning to spine and a couple of very small ink spots to lower board. The pages are clean, without writing or other marks. As usual of Crowley, this was published in different formats: 2 copies printed on vellum and bound in red morocco, 50 signed copies in white wrappers and 300 in blue/grey cloth. A very good copy that shows well. £495 Yorke [24]
CROWLEY, Aleister. The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight and of His Following of the Questing Beast by Aleister Crowley Rightly Set Forth in Rime. London: Wieland and Company, 1912. [31038] FIRST EDITION. Octavo pp.viii, 113. Publisher’s white buckram with gilt titles to upper and spine. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Some browning to the spine and a little light grubbiness to the boards, but essentialy a fine copy with very clean pages. Written during a visit to Allan Bennett (his friend and early mentor on his magical path) in 1905, this long poem is an allegory of the path of an initiate towards the Great Work. An excellent copy of an uncommon Crowley title. £975 Yorke [35]
CROWLEY, Aleister. Liber Aleph Vel CXI. The Book of Wisdom or Folly in the Form of an Epistle of 666 The Great Wild Beast to his Son 777 being The Equinox Volume III No. vi by The Master Therion (Alesiter Crowley) West Point: Thelema Publishing Company, 1962. [28351] FIRST EDITION. Large octavo pp. xii, [errata], 219. Publisher’s bright red cloth with gilt titles to spine and white endpapers. Original pictorial dust jacket designed by Lady Frieda Harris. A few small white spots to boards, otherwise the book is in fine condition, with clean fresh pages. The jacket has some loss to the top of spine and rubbed corners, and there are one or two old tape repairs to the reverse, not visible from the printed side, but it still shows well. Crowley stated this was: ‘ an extended and elaborate commentary on the Book of the Law, in the form of a letter from the Master Therion to his magical son.’ £375
Copy Number One
CROWLEY, Aleister. [SYMONDS, John.; GRANT, Kenneth.] The Magical Record of the Beast 666. The Diaries of Aleister Crowley 1914-1920. Edited with Copious Annotations by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant. London: Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd., 1972. [35353] NUMBER 1 OF A LIMITED EDITION OF 250 COPIES, SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY SYMONDS AND GRANT. Octavo. pp. xv, 326, [2]. Publisher’s green buckram, facsimile signature stamped in gilt to upper, printed black label with gilt titles to spine, all edges green, marbled endpapers. Housed in a matching green buckram slipcase. Illustrated with 3 photographic reproductions of holographic pages from Rex De Arte Regia, unique to the limited edition. Astrological symbols and I-Ching hexagrams throughout the text. Book is in fine condition, the slipcase has a faint water-stain to lower corner of upper and the residue from a label to the lower board . Crowley’s fantastically entertaining and informative diaries, containing details of hundreds of sex magick operations and poetic drug and alcohol induced musings. £450 Bogdan [G4a]
CROWLEY, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. [Book Four, Part Three] By the Master Therion (Aleister Crowley). Paris, Published for Subscribers Only, Printed at the Lecram Press, 1929 (actually 1930). [26647] SUBSCRIBER’S EDITION WITH DUST JACKET. Large 8vo (260mm x 190mm). pp. xxxiv, 436. Publisher’s red buckram, gilt titles to spine, white endpapers and top edge gilt, in original mottled deep salmon pink dust jacket, decorated and titled in black. The appendices contain a number of tables and some diagrams in the text. The dust jacket has protected the boards well; the corners are sharp with no bumping and the gilt titles are clear and bright. A little browning to front and rear endpapers otherwise the pages are clean and fresh. The dust jacket is wonderfully preserved, with some fading to the spine as is almost inevitable, but still showing it’s original colour to front and back. Minor chipping to foot of spine. There is some neat early paper tape strengthening to the inside of the jacket, at the top of the spine, a couple of the folded corners and to a small closed tear at the middle of the top edge of the back. This is not visible from the outside. A near fine copy of Crowley’s masterwork, in a very good dust jacket. Scarce in this condition. £975 d’Arch Smith: Books of the Beast [pp.15-16];Yorke [62 C(b)]
Dear Wheatley...
CROWLEY, Aleister. [WHEATLEY, Dennis] Mortadello or the Angel of Venice. A Comedy. [Together With] A Three Page Signed Autograph Letter. London: Wieland and Company (Barabbas and Company), 1912. [28519] FIRST EDITION. RARE, PREVIOUSLY UNRECORDED ISSUE WITH TWO TITLE PAGES. LONG INSCRIPTION TO DENNIS WHEATLEY, WITH HIS BOOKPLATE. Octavo (210 x 167mm) pp. xvi, 2-110, 111-122 The Works of Mr Aleister Crowley. Bound in original grey cloth, untitled. Occasional light spotting, otherwise the pages are clean. The second title page, with an imprint of Barabbas and Company, has the lower corner cut to denote a cancel leaf, and is bound after the dedication page. Wheatley’s fabulous allegorical bookplate to front pastedown. Twelve line inscription to Dennis Wheatley to the verso of regular title page, apparently as a reciprocal gift having received a first edition from Wheatley: ‘May 14 ‘34 e.v. | Dear Wheatley | Most ingenious, but really a | little Ely Cuthbertson, to advertise your | love of rare editions in a thriller | blurb! | At least my (underlined) heart was touched, | and I hope you will appreciate this | ‘sample’ copy with the double title. | I don’t know how many were printed like | this: I have a vague idea that there were | six. But where the others are no man - except the ‘Occult Committee’ of the | ‘Magic Circle’- knows. | Yours Aleister Crowley’ The autograph letter to Wheatley is on blue Claridge's Hotel headed note-paper dated 16 June (no year). Crowley has crossed out Claridges and written his address at 21 Upper Montague Street (for a few days). The letter is "mourning" Wheatley’s absence at a recent lunch and informing him that "Liveright is interested in Black August - in case you haven't placed it in U.S.A..". Wheatley's third novel Black August, which first introduced the character of Gregory Sallust, was published by Hutchinson in London and by Dutton in New York in 1934. A truly rare Crowley item with a wonderful association. £6,000 Yorke [49]
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Mother’s Tragedy and Other Poems. London: Privately Printed., 1901. [30931] FIRST EDITION. Octavo pp. xii, 111. Original blue paper boards with white cloth spine and paper title label. Staining and soiling to boards and cloth spine, corners rubbed, chipping to the title label, not affecting text. Some browning to pages and occasional spotting. A very good copy. The uncommon first edition, of which 500 copies were printed, but probably only a small number bound and distributed. The remaining sheets were published as a ‘New Edition’ in 1907 under his S.P.R.T. imprint. Although having suffered a little, this is still a presentable copy of one of the more difficult early Crowley titles. £475 Yorke [7(a)]
CROWLEY, Aleister. Olla. An anthology of Sixty Years of Song. London: O.T.O., 1946. [27892] FIRST EDITION. Quarto pp. 128. Publisher’s brown cloth, gilt titles and design (upside down!) to upper and spine, white endpapers, with Frieda Harris designed dust jacket. Frontispiece portrait by Augustus John. A little white marking to the fore-edges of the boards, otherwise a near fine copy with clean pages. The uncommon white dust jacket is a little grubby, more so to the back with small losses at the corners and about an inch missing from the top of the spine, not affecting the titles, but is overall in much better condition than normally seen. A very presentable copy of Crowley’s last work to be published in his lifetime. One of 500 copies printed. £375 Yorke [45]
“Borrowed Plumes”
CROWLEY, Aleister. [GARDNER, F. Leigh.] 777. Vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicandae, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 1909. [24968] FIRST EDITION. Limited to 500 copies. Slim octavo (220 x 140mm). pp. x, 54. Publisher’s scarlet buckram over bevelled boards, 777 in gilt to upper, white endpapers, edges untrimmed. A little bumping to corners, light water staining to top of front board and spine, not affecting pages, small 777 written in black ink to spine. Browning to endpapers, otherwise pages are clean. Lacking the perforated Equinox subscription form at rear, the remaining stub has been cut out, with an early processed copy of the errata slip with the Tree of Life diagram looselt inserted. A very good copy of Crowley’s extensive tables of magical correspondences, based on Allan Bennett’s notes from material gathered by Macgregor Mathers, and assisted by George Cecil Jones. F. LEIGH GARDNER’S COPY, WITH HIS PERTINENT INSCRIPTION TO FRONT PASTEDOWN: “Borrowed Plumes (underlined) | a valuable book written by | a Renegade Frater, who passed | off & posed as a Hierophant. | F. L. Gardner.” Gardner (De Profundis Ad Lucem) was a member of the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, joining in 1894. He contributed to the writing of rituals and also sponsored the research of MacGregor Mathers’ (Deo Duce Comite Ferro) translation of The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, published in 1898, the same year that Crowley (Perdurabo) also joined the Golden Dawn. Gardner however sided with the majority of members against Mathers and Crowley in the split of 1900. He was also a confidante of W. Wynn Westcott’s (Sapere Aude), a founding member of the Order, who supplied introductions to Gardner’s three occult bibliographies on Rosicrucian, Astrological and Masonic books. £1,250 Yorke [57]
CROWLEY, Aleister. Songs of the Spirit. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1898. [28079] FIRST EDITION, one of 200 copies. Publisher’s blue/grey cloth, titles in red to upper and spine. All edges untrimmed with plain endpapers, title page printed in red and black. A sharp, near fine copy with just some browning to spine and minimal foxing to the otherwise clean pages. Crowley’s first regularly published book, since The Tale of Archais, number 3 in Yorke’s bibliography; Songs of the Spirit is number 4, was actually issued in January 1899. (See ‘Perdurabo’ by Richard Kaczynski [2002] note 6 of chapter 3) £975 Yorke [4(a)]
CROWLEY, Aleister. Tannhauser. A Story of All Time. Foyers: Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, 1907. [28345] NEW EDITION. Slim quarto (290 x 220mm) pp. 141, [1], [2 ads.] Publisher’s bright blue cloth; gilt titles to upper. Plain endpapers with top edge trimmed; others left. A little light rubbing to edges, spine faded. Occasional light foxing; no writing or other marks. First published by Kegan Paul in 1902, this was among some earlier works that Crowley re-issued under his S.P.R.T. imprint. A lovely copy. £450 Yorke [10.(b)]
[CROWLEY, Aleister.] White Stains. The Literary Remains of George Archibald Bishop A Neuropath of the Second Empire. [London: Leonard Smithers.], 1898. [33161] FIRST EDITION being number 3 of 100 copies. Octavo (217 x 174mm) pp. 131. Bound in recent full black morocco, five bands and gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed, with plain endpapers. A little occasional light foxing and thumbing to pages and a small closed tear to the fore-edge of title page. Bookplate of George F. Harding retained from previous deteriorated binding. The majority of copies seen are unnumbered; this copy has number three in black ink to limitation page. Among Crowley’s most notorious works, Smithers had the anonymous manuscript printed in Amsterdam, a number of copies finally fell foul of British customs in 1924/5, when cases of his books and manuscripts were sent from Italy during the winding down of the Abbey of Thelema. Although certainly uncommon, White Stains appears more often than his other two ‘erotic’ works: Snow Drops from a Curate’s Garden and Bagh-i-Muatter. A very good copy of this infamous collection of poems. £3,750 Yorke [46]
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