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Requests - Crowley in an asylum?
nosfastus - Sep 14, 2007 - 04:52 PM
Post subject: Crowley in an asylum?
Does anyone have any idea if the story of Crowley ending up in a mental assylum for four years after raising Pan in Paris with someone called Macaleister (who died as a result) is true? Can't seem to find much on this one. No mention in Confessions or Sutin's account. Would be interested if anyone can shed any light. I am assuming it is a fable.
lashtal - Sep 14, 2007 - 05:25 PM
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It's nonsense, originally published by Dennis Wheatley, apparently as the result of a tale told to him by Tom Driberg.
I'd recommend that you read Robert Anton Wilson's introduction to the Aleister Crowley reader, Portable Darkness, where he points out that this tale is only one of many told about the man.
Aum418 - Sep 14, 2007 - 05:31 PM
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Assylum. 
achad - Sep 14, 2007 - 05:54 PM
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yes to what Paul said, it is nonsense, Wheatley's tale is repeated a few times with slight variations in some of his writings, and none of it checks out even on a basic level so far as the date range implied.... i've researched this extensively in one of my books. Dead end; Wheatley was a fantasist and worked for the Intelligence services as a disinformation generator in the war, which skill he carried over into his postwar literary efforts
dave
mrsix - Sep 14, 2007 - 06:19 PM
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Doesn't the story also include a character called 'Z' as well?
Has all the hallmarks of Amado Crowley, vague, sensationalist and verifiably wrong.
I'm sure he's rattled it out a few times but you're right, I'm sure it was Wheatley that originally started it.
achad - Sep 14, 2007 - 06:24 PM
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hi GFp : )
is actually one of the few bits of rehashed gibberish that i *dont* recall Amado pumping out.....
seeyouintheentity - Sep 14, 2007 - 07:00 PM
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I've heard an interview with Dennis Wheatley in which he mentions Montague Summers, Rollo Ahmed and AC as people who provided him with useful information for what are known as his "black magic stories". I've always assumed that Crowley was no more than a passing acquaintance of Wheatley's, if that. Do we know how often they met and when these meetings took place?
achad - Sep 14, 2007 - 07:14 PM
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Wheatley and Summers were regular dinner partners, and gifted eachother with numerous signed copies of eachother's books. Crowley and Wheatley met several times, and ate together a fair bit etc Wheatley's autobiography (a hefty three volume set which is lurid and quite tedious) mentions various meetings with AC and Summers
seeyouintheentity - Sep 14, 2007 - 07:33 PM
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achad wrote: › Wheatley and Summers were regular dinner partners, and gifted eachother with numerous signed copies of eachother's books. Crowley and Wheatley met several times, and ate together a fair bit etc Wheatley's autobiography (a hefty three volume set which is lurid and quite tedious) mentions various meetings with AC and Summers
Thanks, Achad. I've had a look on Amazon and the relevant volume would appear to be Drink and Ink 1919-1977. I hope it has a good index.
achad - Sep 14, 2007 - 07:42 PM
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Wheatley's book indexing is pretty good, and it comes from the days when it was done manually by some poor underpaid editorial assistant! If you can find it this http://www.denniswheatley.info/others3.htm#bc (see far right of page, Blackwells catalogue) is very useful too, as it details a lot of the signed books DW owned at his death; he made a small career out of swapping signed first editions with other famous authors, it seems. That site http://www.denniswheatley.info/ is an excellent resource for Wheatley matters
dave e
seeyouintheentity - Sep 14, 2007 - 08:39 PM
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achad wrote: › Wheatley's book indexing is pretty good, and it comes from the days when it was done manually by some poor underpaid editorial assistant! If you can find it this
http://www.denniswheatley.info/others3.htm#bc (see far right of page, Blackwells catalogue) is very useful too, as it details a lot of the signed books DW owned at his death; he made a small career out of swapping signed first editions with other famous authors, it seems. That site
http://www.denniswheatley.info/ is an excellent resource for Wheatley matters
dave e
Thanks again, Achad. I've visited this site before but didn't explore it very thoroughly. Seems like the last word for Wheatley aficionados. I was aware that he owned a considerable library which he put to good use when researching his historical fiction.
I happened on this in the last few minutes. Click on the link and scroll roughly three quarters of the way down the page to the item headed "Dear Wheatley". The tone of the inscription would suggest the two men were on quite easy terms with one another.
http://www.harringtonbooks.co.uk/crowley.html
For Wheatley's bookplate, see here
http://www.bookplatesociety.org/writers.html
93.
nosfastus - Sep 14, 2007 - 10:42 PM
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thanks for the info.
Caradoc - Sep 16, 2007 - 04:44 PM
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I remember reading that the story's original protagonist was an associate of Gilles de Rais, and that Tom Driberg changed the names and told it to Dennis Wheatley. Unfortunately I don't recall where this information came from.
Perhaps this post will jog the memory of someone else?
N.C.Bishop-Culpeper - Jul 08, 2008 - 07:42 AM
Post subject: Dennis Wheatley
Hi, the other Driberg / Wheatley 'tall story' is the one about A. C. at Cambridge, a Master at St. John's & a wax figure. This is also in "To the Devil a Daughter" & is also told by Wheatley in his "Drink and Ink" & "The Devil and all his Works". Do anyone know if there is any truth in this one?
Nick.
Maldoror - Jul 08, 2008 - 04:27 PM
Post subject: Re: Dennis Wheatley
N.C.Bishop-Culpeper wrote: › Hi, the other Driberg / Wheatley 'tall story' is the one about A. C. at Cambridge, a Master at St. John's & a wax figure. This is also in "To the Devil a Daughter" & is also told by Wheatley in his "Drink and Ink" & "The Devil and all his Works". Do anyone know if there is any truth in this one?
Nick.
It's years since I saw it but I seem to recall that there is a photo of Wheatley's personal copy of "Magick" inscribed to him by Crowley in "The Devil And All His Works".
sethur666 - Jul 10, 2008 - 11:09 AM
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Wheatley was certainly happy to make money out of Crowley. In the 1970s he "edited" (which seems to have involved nothing more than lending his name and introducing ) the "Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult", a series of paperbacks that included Crowley's Moonchild.
Incidentally, a play on the BBC yesterday, "Fooling Hitler" about the British Intelligence service's successful disinformation campaign in WWII, based, I believe, upon recently released archives, had the actor Peter Pacey playing Wheatley. Apparently all he seems to have done (apart from inspecting a few places) was to sit around proposing ludicrous schemes that no-one took any notice of.
666TSAEB - Jul 11, 2008 - 10:32 PM
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One may read the twisted tale here, as part of a book ad:
http://www.denniswheatley.info/lo_intro ... nchild.htm
lashtal - Jul 11, 2008 - 11:50 PM
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666TSAEB wrote: › One may read the twisted tale here, as part of a book ad
Not a "book ad", it's actually the text of Dennis Wheatley's introduction to his "Library Of The Occult" edition of Crowley's "Moonchild" which, of course, helped enormously to popularise this rather delightful novel.