Item #58218 A four page typescript carbon draft of a letter regarding his criminal conviction for receiving stolen letters, with manuscript additions in Crowley's handwriting. Aleister CROWLEY.

A four page typescript carbon draft of a letter regarding his criminal conviction for receiving stolen letters, with manuscript additions in Crowley's handwriting.

London: NP, 1935. A four page typescript carbon with pencil additions in the hand of Aleister Crowley, typescript on rectos only of four leaves, pencil notes on recto of first leaf and verso of final leaf. A draft letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding Crowley’s criminal conviction in the case REX v. EDWARD ALEXANDER CROWLEY in July 1934, on charges of receiving stolen letters. The stolen letters, which belonged to Betty May, were purportedly supplied to Crowley for use in his court case against Constable and Co., in which he claimed that passages in Nina Hamnett's "Laughing Torso" which they had published were libellous. The letter, which purports to have been written in German by his follower Martha Küntzel and translated into English (but was in fact the work of Crowley himself), argues that he was the victim of a conspiracy, and had been deliberately "set up" - presumably by people acting on behalf of the publishers. It is addressed to the Director of Public Prosecutions, above and below which Crowley has added in pencil "Home Secretary" and "Law Soc[iety]" as additional recipients. On the reverse of the final leaf Crowley has written, also in pencil, a number of names, addresses and telephone numbers. Old rust marks from a paper clip at top inside edge, creases from having been folded, but still VG+ condition. Item #58218

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