A Prophet in his Own Country. Being the Letters of Stuart X.
Washinton, D. C. Privately Published, N.D. 1916. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 500pp. With a slip affixed to the front endpaper printed "Compliments of the author" underneath which is typewritten "Sent at the request of Henry Vincent". Navy blue cloth with white lettering. Portrait. A bizarre collection of letters mainly preoccupied with politics and finance - but touching on everything from the duties of the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces to the moral superiority of the Zulu warrior - written by New York businessman Henry Stuart Clifford to a number of luminaries including Lloyd George, President Woodrow Wilson, Sun Yat Sen as well as to various newspapers. Crowley, who spent the years of the First World War in the United States in relative penury, was apparently more than happy to take on the presumably reasonably-paid task of collecting, editing, and arranging the letters, as well as writing a 16 page introduction to them. Indeed he does so with considerable gusto, and it is difficult not to suspect that some of his more sycophantic observations are more than a little tongue-in-cheek. Their appear to have been two issues of "A Prophet in His Own Country." Both have identical bindings with "Author's Edition" printed at the foot of the spine. One issue has a limitation statement to the effect that the edition was: limited to 500 copies signed and numbered by the author (that is Henry Clifford Stuart), that was printed on the page opposite the title page. In the other issue - presumably a "trade edition" - the page is blank: i.e. it has no limitation statement and is neither signed nor numbered. This is the latter, "Trade" edition. From the library of English bibliophile and Aleister Crowley scholar Nicholas Bishop-Culpeper, with his bookplate on the front pastedown and name pencilled on front free endpaper. Corners and spine ends lightly bruised and chafed, light rubbing to boards and edges, small dark rectangular shadow at mid-spine, a few light marks to rear board, owner's names and a series of penciled numbers on front blank, penciled notes on verso of rear blank, some early pages roughly opened resulting in ragged edges and a few chips, otherwise a tight, unmarked VG+ copy. Item #39542
Price: $150.00