CROWLEY, Aleister.

The Goetia [ The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King ].

United Kingdom: Hell Fire Club, ND ( 2004 ). First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Small folio, eccentrically paginated, but approx. 94pp. Quarter black goatskin with black buckram boards, printed paper label to upper board. Marbled endpapers, coloured page edges. This edition limited to 72 numbered copies - this copy not numbered, but in its place the publisher has pasted a hand-drawn goetic talisman, on vellum, on either side of which he has written a quote in Latin. Underneath the talisman he has neatly inscribed "for / the Instruction / of Friars [Illegible] / of the Order." The Order was presumably the "Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe," the full name of the original Hell Fire Club, whose nomenclature the publisher had adopted. The text of the "Hell Fire Club" edition was a direct copy of that of the 1993 First Impressions edition, which was a facsimile of the 1904 first edition of Crowley's "Goetia," but reproducing the annotations and drawings preserved in two of Crowley's personal copies. The "Goetia" was apparently the first volume "published" under the Hell Fire Club imprint (ca. 2004/2005). This deluxe edition was advertised as limited to 72 copies thus, bound with leather spine and buckram boards, although it seems there were also some copies in wrappers, and a few in full leather. Loosely inserted original rather simply-produced publisher's prospectus (appears to be photocopied from a computer printed typescript). Also an autograph letter, signed, from the publisher, presenting the copy (and another book) to a friend. Later from the library of English bibliophile and Aleister Crowley scholar Nicholas Bishop-Culpeper. A bright copy in Fine condition, still in the somewhat frayed glassine wrapper.;. Item #39764

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