Item #67184 Hail Mary. Aleister CROWLEY.
Hail Mary.
Hail Mary.

Hail Mary.

London: The Equinox / Wieland & Co, ND (1911). First Edition Thus. Softcover. Small Octavo. 96pp. Original pale blue wrappers with dark blue titling to upper wrapper. The first edition in this form of a book which probably stands as Crowley's most famous practical joke. In 1908 Crowley anonymously submitted the text of this book of devotional verse to the well-known Catholic publishers Burnes and Oates. Rather remarkably the publisher's reader managed to overlook the dubious theology and strong lesbian undertones of the book, and accepted it as a straightforward work of Marian piety, and the book went to press with the title "Amphora." At around the the same time Crowley published his own private edition of the book, but with an additional obscene epilogue. Somehow Burnes and Oates found out who the author was, and apparently withdrew their edition after only a small number of copies had been bound, giving (or perhaps selling) the unsold sheets to Crowley. Crowley had a new title page printed, and reissued the book in the present form as "Hail Mary" under his Equinox imprint. The binding of this edition was far from sturdy and it is seldom seen intact. This copy is amongst the nicest that we have seen. Wrappers a little faded at the spine and outer margins of covers, edges lightly rubbed and creased, top edge darkened and pages lightly browned. Still an unusually clean VG+ copy. Item #67184

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