Little Poems in Prose.
Thame: First Impressions, 1993. Special Edition - Cloth Bound. Hardcover. Small octavo. xii + 146pp. Black cloth with gilt titled and decorated spine. Illustrated in colour and b&w with drawings by Jean de Bosschere. Only SEVEN COPIES issued thus. In 1993 A. R. Naylor of the publishing company "First Impressions" planned to issue a special facsimile edition of the 1928 Edward W. Titus edition of "Little Poems in Prose" with the Jean de Bosschere illustrations. What was to be special about the edition was that the text would be a facsimile of Aleister Crowley's own copy (now in the Yorke collection) and would reproduce Crowley and Yorke's annotations as they appeared in it. On top of that the illustrations would be facsimiles of those in Anais Nin's personal copy, which she had enhanced by colouring with watercolour paints. However, due to a production error the initial printing reproduced the unaltered text of Anais Nin's copy, along with the embellished drawings, rather than the Yorke/Crowley annotated text. The publisher "rescued" 14 copies of this unintended edition, 7 of which were bound in leather as deluxe copies, and 7 in regular cloth (as this copy). The remaining copies were destroyed. The publisher, A. R. Naylor, gave a brief account of this history on a short Errata, which he signed, and had tipped onto the half-title page. Obviously a genuinely rare, and amusing, example of yet another of the in the long line of mishaps in Crowley publishing. So to be clear, this issue includes the facsimiles of the Anais Nin embellished drawings, but NOT the Crowley / Yorke annotations. From the collection of Clive Harper with his discrete book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper is well-known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. The label can easily be removed without affecting the page, although it would be a shame not to preserve this record of the book's provenance. A very slight blemish to fore-edge, otherwise appears "as new", thus in Fine condition (no dust jacket issued). Item #64840
ISBN: 1872736335
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