Eight Lectures on Yoga. The Equinox Volume III, Number Four.
London: The O.T.O., 1939. First Edition. Hardcover, Large Quarto (11 ¾ x 9") 84pp (+ 4pp. adverts.) Original - but most unusual - publisher's beige buckram, with title and sigil gilt stamped on upper board, Edges untrimmed. Erratum tipped following advertisements at rear. Portrait frontispiece with original tissue guard. 1 diagram (Tree of Life). The book is widely regarded as one of Crowley's best works, and as one of the wittiest and most insightful studies of the subject ever written by a Westerner. Although Crowley gave the work a number in his Equinox series (Volume III., Number Four) it was effectively an independent monograph, and is complete in itself. This is an extremely unusual variant of the first English edition, being bound in a fine beige cloth (buckram), rather than the typical brown buckram. As with the more commonly seen brown version it has title "Eight Lectures / On Yoga" (all in caps) gilt stamped across the front cover, above a large (approx. two and a quarter inches in diameter) gilt stamped A .'. A .'. seal. The corners are bruised and there is some bubbling to the cloth of the back board. Internally it is an unusually bright and clean copy: the portrait, which is sometimes heavily browned, is barely toned and has not offset onto the title-page (as common), the volume is free of the usual foxing, etc. etc. Were it not for the bubbling to the back board it would rate as a tight, bright and clean better-than VG+ copy (lacks the dust jacket). Item #65267
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