[Rarebooks] Offering: Three Books by Aleister Crowley

[Michael John Thompson]

Three Books by Aleister Crowley.

20% off to the trade. Buy all three and I will 
extend a 30% trade discount for the lot.



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1.  CROWLEY, Aleister [writing as Frater 
Perdurabo]. LIBER CCCXXXIII. THE BOOK OF LIES 
Which is also Falsely Called Breaks. The 
Wanderings or Falsifications of the One Thought 
of Frater Perdurabo, Which Thought Is Itself 
Untrue. London: Weiland and Co. 33 Avenue 
Studios, South Kensington. 1913-a lie, it was 
1912 First Edition. 12mo (145 x 90 mm), original 
black buckram titled in gilt on spine, decorated 
with an Egyptian design in gilt on front panel. 
[131] pp, two tipped-in photogravure plates with 
plain tissue guards [Aleister Crowley as Frater 
Perdurabo on the Deosai Plateau, End of his first 
Himalayan Expedition (pp 14-15) and Leila Waddell 
as "L.A.Y.L.A.H." (pp 94-95)]. The Errata slip 
inserted between pages 60 and 61 is present in 
this copy (it is lacking in many). Notes, Pro and 
Con Tents and 15 pp catalogue "The Excreta of Mr. 
Aleister Crowley" at rear, included in the 
pagination. Very slight rubbing to the cloth at 
the edges, one faint mark to front panel. A 
bright, near fine copy. $2,250.00 US
¶ An A.:. A.:. publication in Classes C and D. 
The book consists of 93 chapters, each of which 
consists of one page of text. The chapters 
include a question mark, poems, rituals, 
instructions, and obscure allusions and 
cryptograms. The subject of each chapter is 
generally determined by its number and its 
corresponding Qabalistic meaning. One chapter is 
supposed to hold the secret of the IXth degree of 
the Ordo Templi Orientis, according to Theodore 
Reuss, although he apparently referred to this 
chapter during a visit in 1910 (two years before 
the books publication); Crowley neatly 
sidestepped this indiscretion by referring to it 
as an event that "could not possibly have 
occurred". In addition, Chapter 44 of the book is 
the important ritual "The Mass of the Phoenix".

[]


2.  CROWLEY, Aleister. MOONCHILD. A Prologue. 
London: The Mandrake Press 1929. First Edition. 
Crown octavo, publisher's original green cloth, 
spine titled and ruled in gilt. 335 pp. Printed 
by the Crypt House Press. Very mild browning to 
endpapers, as is common with this title. Lower 
corners slightly bumped, otherwise and overall a 
fine, fresh copy, in a fine example of the 
original colour pictorial dust wrapper designed 
by Beresford Egan, one of the most beautiful 
art-deco jackets of the period, The jacket has 
slight browning to the white paper areas, 
principally on the rear panel, but has no chips 
or tears, and is rarely encountered in such 
superlative condition. A stunning copy.  $2,500.00 US
¶ Crowley's major occult novel about a war 
between a group of white magicians and a group of 
black magicians over the soul of an unborn child, 
the "Moonchild". Numerous acquaintances of 
Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional 
characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as 
the primary villain, including him as a character 
named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' 
magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a 
villain named Arthwaite, and the unseen head of 
the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member, 
"A.B." is theosophist Annie Besant. Among 
Crowley's friends and allies Allen Bennett 
appears as Mahatera Phang, the dancer Isadora 
Duncan appears as Lavinia King, and her companion 
Mary D'Este (who helped Crowley write his magnum 
opus "Magick: Book 4" under her magical name 
'Soror Virakam') appears as Lisa la Giuffria. Cyril Grey is Crowley himself.

[]


3.  CROWLEY, Aleister. THE BOOK OF THE GOETIA OR 
THE LESSER KEY OF SOLOMON THE KING. From Numerous 
Manuscripts in Hebrew, Latin, French and English 
by the order of the Secret Chief of the 
Rosicrucian Order.... Chicago: The Occult 
Publishing House ND [circa 1910]. First American 
Edition. Small octavo, publisher's original black 
cloth with gilt titles and a design in gilt on 
front cover. (x) + 82 pp + (ii) pp adverts, 3 
double page plates of sigils and magical circles. 
Internally, 4 pages have irregular browning from 
old newspaper articles left inside (now removed) 
which have browned the pages. A very good, bright 
copy, nice condition. Note: there are apparently 
two binding issues on this book, one with a gilt 
design and GOETIA in gilt on spine, and this 
issue, with a plain spine. No priority of issue 
has been established. $500.00 US
¶ Although Crowley's name does not appear in the 
book, it is actually a pirated version of his 
edition of the famous grimoire of talismanic 
magic, the Lemegeton of Solomon. Crowley first 
published the book at Boleskine in 1904, under 
the title The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the 
King in an edition of only 200 copies using 
translations which had been prepared by S. L. 
MacGregor Mathers, his former mentor in the 
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. A copy was 
evidently acquired by The Occult Publishing House 
who used it to produce this presumably 
unauthorised edition, the first to be published 
in the United States. Although undated, 
advertisements in the rear of the volume, and 
other evidence, suggest that it was published 
around 1910.


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Michael John Thompson, Antiquarian Bookseller

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