An Appeal to the American Republic.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1899. First Edition. Stiff wrappers. Quarto booklet (11.5 x 9 inches). 12pp. Original printed paper covers laid down onto thin card wrappers, now housed in a modern custom-made protective folder: limp red cloth over thin card boards, with paper title-label. A rather jingoistic poem that Crowley wrote in 1898 calling for a closer Anglo-American relationship, at a time of strong Anglo-Russian rivalry. It was first published in book form thus in 1899, and was reprinted in journals a number of times. According to Duncombe-Jewell 500 copies of this booklet were printed, but the sales were staggeringly bad (Kaczynski notes that between 1902 and 1904 Kegan Paul did not sell as much as a single copy), which perversely may account for the rarity of the volume, as it seems likely that many were pulped. Crowley wrote of it in his "Confessions": "My 'Appeal to the American Republic' was begotten of a pleasant journey with two Americans from Geneva to Paris. The poem is still popular, though from time to time one has to change 'The Lying Russian cloke his traitor head' to 'Prussian', and so on." The original wrappers are heavily chipped at the edges, and have some old tape marks, but have been professionally restored by laying them down onto fresh wrappers. The first and last pages are quite dust-darkened and there is some minor chipping from the margins of a few leaves. The recent protective folder is near-Fine condition. In internally sound example of a very rare Crowley edition. Item #62346
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