Item #67132 The Soul of Osiris. A History. Aleister CROWLEY.
The Soul of Osiris. A History.

The Soul of Osiris. A History.

London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1901. First Edition. Hardcover. Large Octavo. x + 130pp. Original brick-red boards, with linen spine and white paper spine-label. First Edition limited to 500 copies thus: on machine-made paper (there were also 6 copies on India paper). A collection of poetry in four "chapters." According to Richard Kaczynski "The Soul of Osiris" was originally part of a larger collection, but the editor at Crowley's publishers, Kegan Paul, thought it too large and recommended that he split it in two. This he did, with the first half published as "The Mother's Tragedy" and the second half as "The Soul of Osiris." The book was one of the few of Crowley's books of verse to attract critical acclaim: by his own account no less a luminary that G. K. Chesterton had "written a long congratulatory criticism" of it. Despite this the volume sold poorly with only seven copies being sold in the first three years following publication, at which point Crowley closed his account with Kegan Paul. It seems that many of the remaining copies may have met an unpleasant end - being either deliberately or accidentally destroyed - as the volume is considerably scarcer than its durabe binding and print-run would suggest it should be. Pencilled ownership signature of one "G. Back, Trinity Hall" on the front pastedown. It is tempting to speculate that this might have been Ivor Gordon Back (1879-1951), a contemporary and friend of Crowley's at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who supplied the notes in Crowley's "Collected Works" but this is by no means certain and would require further research. A previous owner (Back?) has placed pencil marks next to some of the titles in the contents page, which would be easily removed but are part of the volume's history. 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. Corners lightly bumped and rubbed, spine and boards grubby in places, spine label intact although darkened and with a few small spots. A little light foxing to the endpapers, otherwise a tight, internally-clean, better-than VG copy. Item #67132

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