Weiser Antiquarian Books Catalogue # 87
Aleister Crowley,
a Selection of Used & Rare Books and Ephemera.
may now be viewed at:
www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalog
www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalogeightyseven
Weiser Antiquarian Books is pleased to announce the release of the eighty-seventh of our on-line catalogues, this being another of our specialised Aleister Crowley lists. Most of the works in this catalogue are from the one collection, and are distinguished by their truly superb condition. We know that the owner read them, yet many of the recent printings, and even some of the early works, appear as new. The collection includes a number of First Editions published during Crowley’s lifetime, including four volumes of the The Equinox (1909-1913), The Heart of the Master (1938), Jephthah; and other Mysteries Lyrical and Dramatic (1899), The Mother’s Tragedy (1901), One Star In Sight (1935), Oracles. The Biography of an Art (1905), Orpheus. A Lyrical Legend (2 Volumes, 1905), and 777 (1909). A curiosity is a set of the original unbound sheets of the first edition of Konx Om Pax. Essays in Light (1907), which somehow never made it to the binder, yet rather miraculously remained together as a set.
Other unusual items include a truly superb copy of the First Edition of Liber Aleph (1962), in a near pristine example of the Freida Harris designed dustjacket, and “The Sacrifice, An Experiment in the Prosaic” (and other poems) a ninety page typescript of largely unpublished poetry by Crowley, including a collection of early homo-erotic verse and a long, spectacularly filthy tribute to Leah Hirsig in the fashion of “Leah Sublime” (the text of which is also included). A typed “Word of the Equinox” for March 1946, is handsomely presented on a sheet of letterhead emblazoned with the Sevenfold Star of the Beast printed in red, and impressively signed by Crowley as ” To Mega Therion 666 9° = 2° A.’. A.’. “.
The second part of the catalogue is devoted to works about Crowley and members of his circle, and features a good selection of books by Kenneth Grant, including deluxe, signed editions of four of his works. A number of the books in this section were previously owned by David Hall, an editor of “Sothis” magazine and author of various works, and contain loosely inserted pages with his manuscript notes. Of particular interest also are Two Large Original Greeting Cards, one with a portrait by Crowley, and another with a portrait by Austin Osman Spare, that were issued by guitarist and Led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page, in the early 1970s, one of which is inscribed and signed by Page with Thelemic Greetings. Of a different vintage altogether is a small group of letters about Crowley, that passed between his German follower Martha Küntzel and Edward Noel Fitzgerald in the mid-1930s.
The books in these catalogs represent just a minute fraction of our overall holdings. We currently list nearly 10,000 other occult and related titles on our main website: