Four bound volumes containing 30 issues of 'The International: a Review of Two Worlds' covering 1915 through to the final issue of the journal in 1918, with extensive content by Aleister Crowley.
New York: The International Monthly, 1915-1918. First Editions. 'The International,' was a small literary magazine devoted to publishing the work of both new and established poets and writers, when it was taken over by George Sylvester Viereck, in about 1912. Whilst retaining its general structure, the German-born Viereck also used the magazine to showcase developments in German literature, and after the outbreak of the First World War, as a mouthpiece for the German perspective on events.
In June 1915, a recent acquiantance of Viereck's, Aleister Crowley, began contributing occasional pieces to the magazine, and in August 1917 Crowely took the position of its "Contributing Editor." From then until he was dismissed prior to the issue of what would prove to be the final issue of the journal in May 1918, Crowley used 'The International' largely as a vessel to publish his own writings. It arguably became an extension of his original 'Equinox' series, and indeed he is known to have sometimes referred to his writings in 'The International' and other American journals as making up the 'missing' second volume of 'The Equinox' - although he more often declared it to have been a 'volume of silence.' His contributions to 'The International' included not only poetry, essays, short stories (including the first publication of a number of his 'Simon Iff' novellas), plays, and book reviews, but many important magickal writing, including the first publication of his Gnostic Mass, and pieces such as The Revival of Magick, The Message of the Master Therion, and The Law of Liberty. The exotic pieces on absinthe and cocaine that he contributed, and the sometimes striking cover art that emerged under his editorship, must have also come as something as a shock to the more staid readers of the magazine.
These copies were originally from the library of Crowley's American disciple Wilfred Talbot Smith (1885-1957), founder of "The Church of Thelema," head of Agape Lodge of the O.T.O. in California, a long term associate of Aleister Crowley, and more recently the subject of Martin Starr's biography "The Unknown God." After Smith's death these copies passed into the hands of Smith's widow, Helen Parsons Smith (1910 - 2003), ex-wife of Jack Parsons, long time member of Agape Lodge of the OTO, and founder of Thelema Publications. With some exceptions (noted below), only those issues with contributions by Crowley are included. Helen Parsons Smith copied into these issues the annotations that Crowley had added to the margins of his own set (now in the collection of the OTO). Helen Parsons Smith also had the issues bound by year into four sturdy, blue cloth bindings. Fortunately, the original - often highly-decorative - wrappers are all bound in.
The volumes contain:
1915. June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
1916. January, February*, March*, June*, July, August, October*, December.
1917. January*, February, April*, May, July, August, September, October, November, December.
1918. January, February, March, April, May*,
Thus the set comprises 30 issues in all, 23 issues of which have contributions by Crowley, 6 issues with no known contributions by Crowley (marked with an * above), and 1 issue, which although without Crowley content, contains a piece by his then ex-lover Leilah Waddell (marked ** above). As far as we can ascertain this amounts to a complete set of all the issues of The International that have contributions by Crowley, except for the April 1916 issue, which contained a short essay: "Pictorial Values in Literature," however, a colour xerox of the essay has been loosely inserted.
Weiser Antiquarian Books were entrusted with the sale of Helen's library starting in 2006, and in 2008 this set was put on the market and purchased by Mr. Clive Harper, and it is from his collection that it now comes. 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. Each volume has his discrete book-label neatly tipped in at the rear.
In the process of binding, the issues had about a quarter of an inch trimmed from the top, fore, and bottom edges by the binder (no loss of text). The last two issues of the journal were - to Crowley's chagrin - printed on cheap paper, and about half-a-dozen leaves in these issues have old tape repairs. There are a few scattered chips and tears to the margins (without loss), and as noted the magazines were lightly cropped for binding, but overall the issues are in VG+ condition - much better than could usually be expected of magazines of this vintage. Item #65116
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