The Great Beast The Life and Magick of Aleister Crowley.
London: Macdonald & Co., 1971. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Octavo. x + 414pp. Black cloth with gilt title, etc. to spine. Frontispiece, illustrations. The 1971 revised "gold foil dust jacket" edition of Symond's biography of Crowley. An EX-LIBRARY COPY but INSCRIBED BY SYMONDS on the front free endpaper: "Jack Dover Wellman / with good wishes / John / 15th September 1971." Symonds has additionally SIGNED the book on the title page. The inscription is to Jack Dover Wellman (1917-1989), vicar of Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, an authority on the paranormal and exorcism, with a particular interest in spiritual healing, who was also the author of "A Priest and the Paranormal" and "A Priest's Psychic Diary." Symonds lived close to Wellman's church, and they presumably knew each on account of a mutual interest in certain aspects of the occult. This revised edition of "The Great Beast" was published twenty years after the first edition and reflected the changed times, with the blurb on the dust jacket noting: "The author is now able to go into far greater detail about Crowley's use of sex and drugs than was possible before." It also included additional material that was originally published separately in the author's "The Magic of Aleister Crowley." Wellman or his heirs, donated it to a local library, who deaccessioned it in 2007. Unfortunately someone tried to erase Symond's inscription, and while it is still quite legible it is heavily rubbed. The book itself is better-than-average ex-library condition. There is no call number to the spine, and no marks on the edges save for a single small "texta line" (reminiscent of a "remainder mark") across the top edge near the headband. It has the usual abrasions to the endpapers where labels etc have been removed, and only two stamps: one on the front free endpaper beneath the inscription, and one on the verso of the title-page. There is also a small hole, slightly smaller than a cigarette end, on the front free endpaper evidently caused by a heavy erasure. Obviously read, but still tight and otherwise clean. The thin gold-foil dust jacket is a little chipped and creased as always, and there is a small faded spot at the base of the spine, presumably where a shelf-number sticker was removed. Still it is in suprisingly good condition and now protected by a removable mylar sleeve. An interesting and unusual inscribed copy, obviously somewhat the worse for wear but priced accordingly. Item #65765
ISBN: 9780356036311
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