The World's Tragedy.
Scottsdale, AZ: New Falcon Publications, 1991. Third Printing. Softcover. Octavo. xl + 114pp. Illustrated covers. This copy inscribed by editor Lon Milo Duquette to Clive Harper on the half title page: "Clive, Hope you enjoy! Lon Milo Duquette." "The World's Tragedy" was originally privately printed in Paris in 1910 in an edition of 100 copies, but most copies of this play were destroyed in a customs seizure or seizures, on account of the frank discussion of homosexuality in its Preface. The play itself was a work which Crowley particularly valued, writing in his Confessions that "This is beyond all question the high-water mark of my imagination, my metrical fluency, my wealth of expression, and my power of bringing together the most incongruous ideas so as to enrich my matter to the utmost. At the same time, I succeeded in reaching the greatest height of spiritual enthusiasm, human indignation, and demoniac satire." Regardie writes: "This long, almost epic poem/play is one of the most bitter and vicious diatribes against Christianity that I have ever read. Especially the preface written by Crowley also. Crowley's hatred of Christianity was not a blind unreasoned prejudicial emotion. It was indelibly rooted in his own personal experience, amplified and added to by extensive study and research all throughout his adult years." 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. Light bumps and creasing to corners - otherwise a tight clean near Fine copy. Item #65734
ISBN: 0941404188
Sold