The Winged Beetle.
Chicago / York Beach: The Teitan Press, 1992 / 2012. Facsimile Edition / Edition Deluxe. Hardcover. Octavo. 16 + x + 228 (+ iv) pp. Full brown morocco leather binding with gilt titling and winged scarab design on top board. Raised bands and gilt-titling on spine. Patterned silk endpapers. Housed in a custom-made felt-lined cloth slip case. This specially-bound deluxe issue was limited to twenty copies: the first thirteen copies, un-numbered, were released shortly after the original publication in 1992. The remaining seven copies, numbered I - VII and signed by the editor on a special new colophon leaf, were completed at the beginning of 2012 to mark the twentieth anniversary of this edition. This is copy number "II" of those seven copies .
"The Winged Beetle" is a collection of poetry by Crowley with some extremely memorable dedications (see D'Arch-Smith, "The Books of the Beast"). The "Glossary of Obscure Terms" gives an alarming and rather blasphemous alternative meaning to the third stanza of the main dedication, which at the time of the book's original publication (1910) could probably have only been printed in this encrypted form.
From the collection of Clive Harper with his discrete 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.
Beautifully bound and produced. Fine in Fine slip-case. Item #67140
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