let's hope that's just birthing pains.  I gave a tour of AC sites in Berlin last weekend and had a great time doing it as the weather was wonderful.  Put it this way - without Cora Germer, life in 1930's Berlin would have been almost impossible for the entire crew 😉

Just had this from Amazon (uk):

Unfortunately, the release date for the item(s) listed below was changed by the supplier, and we need to provide you with a new estimated delivery date based on the new release date:
Churton, Tobias "Aleister Crowley - The Beast In Berlin: Art, Sex, and Magick in the Weimar Republic"
Estimated arrival date: July 31 2014

That's cutting it fine - I was going to take it with me at the beginning of August when visiting family in Berlin.

I got this date.....
  Churton, Tobias "Aleister Crowley - The Beast In Berlin: Art, Sex, and Magick in the Weimar Republic"
    Estimated arrival date: August 07 2014 - August 09 2014

Thanks for the heads up Lutz, just downloaded the Kindle copy myself.  Indeed, there seem to have been goblins in the OCR program - countless umlauts and other letters have been transmogrified into odd characters or combinations thereof.  Nonetheless, a large part of the text is readable.

From first impressions the text is as expected; colorful, with dramatic writing bulking up the bare facts. I suspect anyone who enjoyed Churton's earlier Crowley biography will enjoy this. Those who are looking for a more measured, "academic" approach, will find this a bit overripe. More Daniel P. Mannix than Marco Pasi 😉

😉

"... to Paul Feazey of the peerless LAShTAL  'Aleister Crowley Appreciation Society' website;"
- from the Acknowledgments
Well, look at that!  🙂

Crikey! I'll have to download the Kindle version!

'Aleister Crowley Appreciation Society'? Oh well, close enough...

It's a nice thought non-the-less! 🙂

93
Hamal

Been excited for this for a while!  As you all know I love Germany since I grew up there for a time and I love Crowley, so the two together?  Very tasty 🙂
I hope the print version comes out soon.
I Appreciate You All 😉

Oh well, close enough...

might be a fitting review. 

Read on last night and despite the OCR problems the book is a fun read with lots of background for those less familiar with Weimar, Berlin or AC. Churton treats the available material with his usual 'flare' and also brings to light previously neglected or unavailable resources.  I would recommend it for the members of the 'Aleister Crowley Appreciation Society' (though i'm sure they'd be gobbling it up no matter what).

This is my best information. The official British launch of THE BEAST IN BERLIN - Art, Sex and Magick in the Weimar Republic, is pegged for Thursday 31st July 2014.

Best Wishes,
Tobias Churton

Thanks for the Information Tobias.  Will there be a Book Launch in the UK or Berlin?

I have my preorder locked and loaded.

My first impressions of the book from its Kindle release are very positive. Full review will follow.

The Universe guided my hand in a lovely way today.  I was in a Barnes and Noble bookshop with my only goal being to buy 2 specific books for my Dad's birthday when I decided to check out the New Age section for some books by Otto Rahn, or about him.  I was unable to find any BUT I thought I was hallucinating at first because it was such a surprise, for lo and behold this new Churton book was staring at me from the shelf, cover out!  So I of course had to snap it up.  I was surprised to see it in a mainstream bookshop, especially when usually Crowley bio's are not stocked by chains around here, especially not new ones so close to their release date, so thank the Gods! 🙂
I will post my impressions too; it will make a great airplane book for my departure Friday!

So I of course had to snap it up. 

You snapper you!

Yes, please post a review...as I am thinking of getting this. It's still not for sale on Amazon though.

I pre-ordered it in 1944! Still not received it!  😮

😀
93
Hamal

I pre-ordered it in 1944

they must have lost the order in the confusion during D-Day...

for those interested in AC's interactions with Gerald Hamilton (the two were busy spying on each other) I can also recommend a new book by Tom Cullen

*The Man Who Was Norris: The Life of Gerald Hamilton*

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1909232432

and if you're not familiar with the life of Gerald Hamilton, you are in for a treat 😉

Waiting for mine.....

*The Man Who Was Norris: The Life of Gerald Hamilton*

Was he not Crowley's spook or handler?

no, Hamilton was another British expat/journalist/gourmand who traveled about the world getting in and out of trouble.  In the early thirties Hamilton was in a communist phase and AC was informing on his activities to Col. Carter, while Hamilton was relaying intelligence to Willi Munzenberg. Amusingly, they also lived together for several weeks -  while trying to scrape by in Weimar Berlin and keep themselves in cigars, fine wines, rich foods, and lovers of various genders...

If You want the book immediately, order it over any other seller than Amma's son, because they blackmail publishers for more percentage by delaying the delivery of their books. B&N, Book Depository etc. You name it - they have it already in stock.

Got it. I am going to save it for some August vacation reading...if i can stop myself.

while no longer available for purchase, this postcard from the latest Weiser's catalog dates from this period:

Aleister Crowley, A truly extraordinary postcard from Aleister Crowley to Colonel J. F. C. Carter, of Scotland Yard, to whom he was reporting on Communist and other activities in Weimar Berlin. Superbly absurd and obscene text, handwritten by Crowley, on a period postcard with a photograph of "Voo-doo's Bar" on the recto. NP: NP, [circa 1931 / 1932]. A 5.5 x 3.5 inch postcard. The recto has a delightful sepia photographic view of a lavish and decadently decorated cafe in Weimar period Berlin. Printed text on the verso identifies this as "Voo-doo's Bar, sum kleinen Lowen, Berlin S.O. 36." 
Written across the back in pencil, in Crowley's handwriting, is: “Dear Carter. When you have finished worrying about my wife, let us have a chat about Welt-politiken. 1 Civilization must understand artists (expand this) 2 Communists fuck hellishly ugly whores. Written vertically down the side of the card, in ink, also in Crowley's writing, is "Seven wigs a week!" A truly astonishing piece. The "Carter" to whom it was addressed was without doubt Colonel J. F. C. Carter, of Scotland Yard's Special Branch. Crowley had been introduced to Carter by their mutual friend Gerald Yorke in 1929, who hoped that by meeting him in person the police officer would quickly realise that Crowley was not as bad as his reputation suggested and advise his colleagues accordingly. The pair struck up an unlikely friendship - or perhaps better acquiantance. When Crowley moved to Berlin for a time in the early 1930s, he reported on the activities of various left-wing writers and activists who regarded him as their friend, to Carter. In recent terms this has been glamourised as Crowley being a "spy", but the truth of the matter seems to have been that he was the lowest level of paid police informant, passing on information on friends for the occasional cash payment or favour. Carter is known to have been troubled by the fact that Crowley had abandoned his wife Maria Theresa de Mirimar who had ended up in a lunatic asylum, and he urged "the Beast" to "cease knocking around the continent and come back to your wife" lest he face prosecution for ignoring his obligations to her (Kaczynski, "Perdurabo", p. 455). This is presumably the meaning of the line "When you have finished worrying about my wife" at the start of the postcard. The line to the effect that "Communists fuck hellishly ugly whores" must surely have been a jocular allusion to his activities as an informant. Crowley was also known to revel in the decadent atmosphere of Berlin cafe life, dressing up, putting on make-up, etc. It is possible that his activities gave him a justification for his penchant for "disguises", and the "Seven wigs a week" is to be taken literally - that he had worn seven different wigs in the course of one week. Voodoo's Bar, was apparently a Crowley haunt: his diary records evenings there with Karl and Cora Germer and Gerald Yorke. At one stage he disparagingly described it as "where desperate bourgeois drank coffee" and elsewhere wrote - probably approvingly - of the "comic dirt" there; one hopes a reference to the floor-show.
The pencil is a little faded, and the writing somewhat difficult to read. Sadly the card is not signed, although there is absolutely no doubt that it is in Crowley's writing. Few artifacts of this period of Crowley's life appear to have survived and one like this, that is so central to its various facets, is genuinely rare, if not unique. (48083) SOLD

http://www.weiserantiquarian.com/catalogonehundredandtwentytwo/

the catalog has now been archived so the image links have been updated:

"To Stranbad Wannsee--real pagan life." - A.C., Sun 7.June.1931

[flash=420,315:13yqhlp8] https://www.youtube.com/v/FE-2twnFm4Y [/flash:13yqhlp8]

Here's a short film showing Berlin ca. 1936. The amount of traffic on the roads is amazing. Though not exactly AC's time, it is close enough to give us an idea what he would have seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEPsURmQanU

Markus

You can see how much the 3rd Reich has taken hold of life in Germany in that point. When AC was there, the Nazi were merely another party, in 1936 their power was fully consolidated and established.

Yes it was the Swastika flags on the sand-castles that got me!

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😀
Hamal

Started reading it, couldnt wait for my vacation . So far its great, easy to read and packed full of interesting tidbits for even the jaded over reader.

I did finish it, a great read. I have read nearly every biography of Crowley and this is a good one.

Got mine a week ago and am slowly reading it. Am also enjoying it. It gives me an entirely different perspective on Crowley that I don't know how comfortable I am with. It might just be the way its written but it certainly seems to show Crowley as having all these big  plans and kind of pressuring others to buck up the money for them. Plans that don't pan out I might add. It makes me wince.

A bit too human perhaps. But nothing wrong with that.

-joe

That's a fair summary.

It gives me an entirely different perspective on Crowley that I don't know how comfortable I am with. It might just be the way its written but it certainly seems to show Crowley as having all these big  plans and kind of pressuring others to buck up the money for them. Plans that don't pan out I might add. It makes me wince.

Sounds about right to me too. AC wasn't perfect, not by a long way.