London: First Impressions, 1992. Edition Deluxe. Hardcover. Small quarto. (ii)+ xvi + 122 pp. Black quarter leather, over cloth boards. Gilt stamping to spine. Marbled endpapers, black ribbon marker. All edges gilt. The quarter-leather edition deluxe of this "First Impressions" printing, limited to 50 hand-numbered copies of which this is number 35. A play originally published by Wieland in 1912. Crowley hoped to persuade the renowned American actor and singer Paul Robeson (1898-1976) to put on a production of the play, in which Robeson would take the part of the character Orlando, 'a Negro of the Tunisian Sudan.' Robeson read the play but declined, explaining: "I'm afraid it's no use. You see, there are certain lines and gestures which the British public would not care to see enacted between a Negro and a white woman. As for the American stage, why, if I were to produce it over there, someone in the audience would get up and shoot me with a revolver!" Slightest bruising to corners, otherwise appears unused, thus a near-Fine copy (no dustjacket - none issued). Item #56097

Price: $195.00