[Rarebooks] FS: Crowley, THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS, 1936

[Michael John Thompson]

We can offer:

CROWLEY, Aleister.

THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS. The Official Organ of the A.:.A.:. Vol III No. III.

London: Issued by the O.T.O., BM/JPKH September MCMXXXVI E.V. [1936].

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Large quarto, 
original cream cloth titled & decorated in gilt 
on spine and front panel. pp v, [138], together 
with the 65 loose page facsimile manuscript of 
The Book of the Law, in card covers with titles 
printed in red and black, inserted in a pocket at 
the end of the book. Printed on Japon vellum 
paper with untrimmed edges. The small errata 
slip, usually tipped in to the final page, has 
been neatly removed. Two colour plates showing 
the Stele of Revealing, plus additional pictorial 
title pages for Liber Al vel Legis and Genesis 
Libri Al. This is the correct first issue, issued 
in 1936; there is a second issue which is very 
similar but has a publisher's label to the title 
page changing the date to 1937. The original 
advertisement and order form - a single sheet 
printed on both sides and folded twice - is 
loosly inserted. Some very minor dust-soiling to 
the cream cloth, tiny bruised spot at the front 
edge of the outer spine, slight browning to the 
overhanging yapp edges of the folder at the rear, 
some foxing to top page edges but overall a near 
fine, bright copy, remarkably clean and certainly 
one of the best copies of the true first issue extant.

¶ The Equinox of the Gods was Crowley's first 
published study on the origins of The Book of the 
Law - it includes the text of Liber AL, essays on 
its history and meaning, reproductions and 
translations of the "Stele of Revealing" (her 
rather famously misnamed the 'Stele of 
Revelling'), and a full size facsimile of the 
original manuscript of the book. A magnificent 
example of book production. 1,000 sets of sheets 
were printed on Japanses Vellum, but Crowley's 
diaries of the time record disappointing sales 
and rejection by formerly friendly booksellers. 
The 1937 issues appear to be unsold copies of the 
1936 edition with the new label affixed to the 
title leaf, but sales were poor and a vast 
quantity of the sheets remained unbound and were 
sent to Karl Germer in the States, where they 
appeared in a myriad hybrid forms until as late 
as 1987. It is estimated by Timothy D'Arch Smith 
(Books of the Beast, 1987 & 1991) that 900 sets 
of sheets were sent to Germer, leaving fewer then 
80 copies to have been issued in both the first 
(1936) and second (1937) issues (W.T. Smith 
having received 20 sets of unbound sheets as 
well). This may or may not be accurate, but 
certainly Germer had 500 sets of sheets bound up 
by booksellers Samuel Weiser in 1955, so the 
amount of unbound sets must have been quite high. 
A major publication, and - in this first issue - a very rare book.

$3,750.00 Cdn / $3,500.00 US. Postpaid.

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Michael John Thompson, Antiquarian Bookseller
Imladris House
5275 Jerow Road
Hornby Island, BC
Canada V0R 1Z0
Ph:  250-335-1182
Fax: 250-335-2241

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