Oracles. The Biography of an Art. Unpublished Fragments with Explanatory Notes by R. P. Lester and the Author.

Beschreibung:

First edition, rare, especially so in collectible condition. Compiled by Crowley at Boleskin House, Loch Ness, the volume collects poems he wrote between 1886 and 1903, including his translations from Baudelaire. This copy is from the collection of the comedian Barry Humphries (1934-2023), who had a bewitched fascination with the occult, with his bookplate. Best known for his occult writings, Crowley also had an extensive career as a poet; much of his literary output was sentimental and romantic in nature. His biographer Lawrence Sutin describes how he was "a prolific poet who displayed, intermittently, a pure and genuine talent, writing some of the most daringly original poems of the century" (Sutin, p. 4). Baudelaire was an important literary influence: "Crowley's boundless admiration for the works of Charles Baudelaire began when he was a Cambridge undergraduate in the late 1890s, and continued throughout his life" (Starr, p. ix). In his "autohagiography", published 20 years after his death, Crowley reflected on his relaxed efforts at publishing his writing in the first decade of the 1900s. "I had simply no idea of business. Besides this, I was in no need of money; my responsibility to the gods was to write as I was inspired; my responsibility to mankind was to publish what I wrote. But it ended there. As long as what I wrote was technically accessible to the public through the British Museum, and such places, my hands were clean" (Crowley, p. 406). We trace only two other copies in commerce in the last 50 years, one which we handled. Yorke 20. Aleister Crowley, The Confessions: A Hagiography, 1969; Martin P. Starr, ed., Little Poems in Prose, 1995; Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley, 2000. Octavo. With 16 pp. publisher's advertisements, Original black handmade wrappers, spine lettered in white, edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom white and blue slipcase and chemise. Tiny chips to spine ends, front joint neatly repaired, short split to head, short closed tear to foot of front wrapper repaired with tape to verso, final leaf (perforated order form) partly detached but holding. A very good copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 186693

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