Maud Allan and Her Art.
NP: NP, (circa 1916). First Edition Thus. Softcover. Large Quarto. (24)pp. Stapled in original printed wrappers. Illustrated throughout with black and photos and drawings. A handsomely produced program of controversial early twentieth century dancer Maud Allan (1873 – 1956) who was termed by a biographer "Canada's Isadora Duncan." It contains a number of articles by and about Allan, including "My Aims and My Ideals" by Allan herself and "The Dancing of Maud Allan" by Frank Harris. Also various poetic tributes, including a previously unrecorded appearance - probably the first published - of the poem "To Maud Allan" by Aleister Crowley (the work was to have been included in his ill-fated "The Giants Thumb" which was not published until 1992) along with reprints of glowing theater reviews of her dating from 1907-1915. Allan is most widely remembered today for her risque performance in Oscar Wilde's play "Salome", and later the attacks made on her by MP Noel Pemberton Billing who in a stunningly- titled article ("The Cult of the Clitoris") accused her of being a lesbian (she was) and of being involved with German-sympathisers during the war which was just then coming to a close. She sued for libel, but in the course of the trial her image was yet further tarnished when it came out that her brother had been executed for the murder of two young women in a San Francisco church. She lost the case and returned to the USA, where she lived in relative obscurity as a dance teacher and choreographer. This souvenir program was reproduced in various times and places, and presumably it was revised from time to time. This edition clearly dates from 1916 or after, as that is the date on the Frank Harris essay. It may well be that it is the first edition to contain that and the Crowley poem, but copies of the program are so scarce (and mostly undated) that this is not known. 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. Overall VG condition with moderate wear at the edges of the wrappers with tears and chips. Rare. Item #65118
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