Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck - "White Box C"
New York: Samuel Weiser, (1978). First or Early Printing of Second Full Color Printing. Set of cards with booklet in original folding cardboard box. The cards measures 5 1/2" x 3 3/4"; the box a fraction of an inch larger. Complete set comprising the 78 tarot cards, plus an additional "Caliph Card" with a short history of the deck, and an extra card with Crowley's unicursal hexagram on the recto. Also a 48 page stapled booklet (the "LWB" - "Little White Booklet") titled "Instructions for Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Deck' by James Wasserman, with two essays by Frieda Harris with commentary and footnotes by Stuart R. Kaplan. A first or early Weiser printing of the deck sometimes known as "White Box C". Following the success of the original Llewellyn and Weiser printings of the Thoth deck ("White Box A", Llewllyn; "White Box B" Llewellyn and Weiser) arrangements were made to rephotograph the original tarot designs in London, to produce a more accurate deck. It was co-published by US Games Systems Inc. and Weiser in 1978, with distribution initially done by Llewellyn. The deck was very popular, with at least three printings done in the "White Box C" form, but with subtle differences between them. As far as we can establish this is an early printing of the Samuel Weiser version of "White Box C" - with Weiser identified on the box as the publisher and the distributor, but with no ISBN printed on the box. The printing number sequence of the "LWB" is complete in series from 10 -1, indicating it is a first printing, and the Caliph Card has neither address or copyright information on it. (Thanks to R. Leo Gillis for his help with the information on which this listing is based.) The deck itself is unused and thus Fine, the booklet has some minor creasing to the front wrapper, and the box is lightly rubbed particularly at corners. Uncommon to find an unused early printing. Item #66116
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