Magick Without Tears.
NP: Privately Printed, ND [ circa 1985 ]. Facsimile Edition. Hardcover. Large Quarto. xxviiipp + 400pp. Plain off-white textured composite boards. "Magick Without Tears" is in essence Crowley's personal commentary on magical work and training, offered in the simplest and most straightforward terms, in the form of 80 letters addressed to students. It was first published by Karl Germer, in 1954, with a print-run that almost certainly did not exceed 100 copies. Israel Regardie, republished the work in 1973, and his edition has since been reprinted a number of times, however he removed substantial sections of the text which he felt to be redundant. The present edition, was probably produced in the late 1980s, and has the full text, being a near-facsimile of the Germer edition. It is bound in an off-white "faux-leather" and has an additional title page that appears to have been produced using a laser printer. The text itself is reproduced from photocopies, but these are very sharp, and without any of the fading that we would expect from xeroxes of the time. Whoever published this edition obviously went to considerable trouble: they have retained the original format, but on occasion have inserted a blank page at the end of each chapter, so that each new chapter started on the recto of a leaf (ie the right hand page). While aesthetically pleasing, the insertion of the blanks has had the effect of interrupting the page numbering sequence. One leaf of the text is missing (p. xxix with text and p. xxx blank), presumably a printing or binding flaw (we have supplied the missing page in the form of a new, photocopy that has been loosely inserted). The few other copies of this edition that we have seen have also lacked this leaf, so presumably it is missing from all copies that were produced. Otherwise complete. The edition is completely anonymous, and we have been unable to find out anything of its history, other than the approximate age, and the fact that it must have had a very small print run, as copies very seldom appear on the market. Boards a bit darkened and rubbed, bruising to spine ends, page edges & margins a bit darkened, still a VG+ copy in the original somewhat torn glassine wrapper. Item #58735
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