CROWLEY, Aleister. Edited With An Introduction By John Symonds - SIGNED.

White Stains [ Uncorrected Proof Copy ].

London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., ND [ 1973 ]. Uncorrected Proof Copy. Softcover. Octavo. xvi + 118pp. Beige wrappers with titling etc. and "Uncorrected Copy" printed in black on front wrapper. SIGNED by the editor John Symonds on the title page under his printed name. An Uncorrected Proof Copy of the 1973 Duckworth edition of this title, with a new Introduction by Crowley's first major biographer, John Symonds. This was the first edition to be published since the original 1898 edition was limited to 100 copies, many of which are thought to have been seized and destroyed by British Customs on account of the book's allusions to bestiality, necrophilia, paedophilia and sodomy, and kindred subjects. The editor, John Symonds (1914–2006), was an English author and journalist who met Crowley shortly before his death, and whom Crowley appointed his literary executor. Symonds is most widely remembered on account of the various iterations of his biography of Aleister Crowley, "The Great Beast", which were largely responsible for introducing a new generation to Crowley in the 1950s through 1970s, and also for his editing and publishing, mostly in co-operation with Kenneth Grant, a number of works by Crowley in the late 1960s and 1970s. From the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet 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. Wrappers a bit darkened and slightly grubby, edges rubbed and curled with a few tiny closed tears and chips, light foxing to page edge. Pages toned and with a dozen or pin-sized puncture marks to the first twenty leaves: it appears as though someone has stabbed the volume a dozen times with a pin or needle, sometimes the puncture only runs through only a few leaves, on the deepest it is nearly twenty. The pin-holes are largely un-noticeable, and aside from some other light signs of modest use it is unmarked. Otherwise a better-than VG copy. A genuinely uncommon proof of this important edition. Item #65685
ISBN: 0071560680

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