The Tao Teh King. Liber CLVII A New Translation; The Equinox ..... Volume III, No. VIII
Oroville, California: The College of Thelema, 1993. First Edition Thus. Softcover. Quarto (11" x 8.5") 94pp. Black clip binding over plain white card covers lettered in black. Founded in 1973, this is a College of Thelema "Twentieth Anniversary Publication" of Crowley's version of the Chinese classic circulated amongst his students. The work remained unpublished until 1976 when Helen Parsons Smith and Stephen Skinner produced published editions almost simultaneously. This College of Thelema edition of Crowley version of "The Tao Teh King," was issued by Phyllis Seckler in 1993 some seventeen years later (by which time both earlier editions were well out-of-print) to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the College. The text is taken from a typescript that belonged to Jane Wolfe, which also seems to have been the source of the earlier printings. The texts are almost identical although we did notice one or two minor differences: thus the College of Thelema edition has the heading of Chapter LXXVI as "The Warning Against Rigidity", whereas both the Helen Parsons Smith and Stephen Skinner editions have "A Warning Against Rigidity". All editions have the Introduction by Crowley, but this edition has an additional diagram of the Tree of Life with Chinese symbols on it entitled "The Chinese Cosmos." We have seen two variants of this edition, one with a comb binding, and this, with clip-binding. We are not aware of the precedence. 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. Just a hint of light handling else a tight, clean near Fine copy. Item #67185
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