MAY, Betty [ Aleister Crowley - related works ] .

Tiger-Woman. My Story [ Tiger Woman ].

London: Duckworth, 1929. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 232pp. Orange cloth with light blue titles etc. to spine. b&w frontis and illustrations. The memoirs of Betty May, one-time wife of Raoul Loveday, the former Oxford student who died whilst staying at Aleister Crowley's Abbey in Cefalu. The chapters on Loveday, Crowley, and the Abbey run to over 70 pages, and whilst clearly biased, they are not as vitriolic as many suggest and give an interesting first-hand account of life in the Abbey. This copy was owned by one Adeline N. B. Smith, who met Betty May one night in June 1936, and was evidently deeply impressed by her. Smith made copious notes about here in small, legible handwriting that fill three pages: both sides of the front-free endpaper and the recto of the half-title page. The first page contains lengthy passages about May transcribed from the autobiography of Jacob Epstein "Let There Be Sculpture." The second contains detailed instructions on how to get to the "Fitzroy Tavern" and "The Marquis of Granby" (both public houses frequented by Betty May) by public transport, and a passage from the second volume of "Oil Paint and Grease Paint" by Laura Knight. The third page describes in detail a meeting between May and Adeline Smith, that took place on the night of June 24th, 1936, that clearly had a very profound effect on her. So much so, in fact, that there is a rather plaintive note in the bottom of the second page that that Smith "Went back to Fitzroy (Tavern) again every year but didn't see B. M." again although in "1946 & 1947" she saw Sylvia Gough,
a diamond heiress, model, and former dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies, who was evidently acquainted with Betty May (both were tangentially connected to a bizarre murder that took place in 1936). Smith has also signed her name on the back of frontispiece. 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. Perhaps because of its rather racy and sensational nature, copies of the book were usually much-read, and it is a book that is almost never found in really nice condition. This example is in reasonably typical condition. The cloth is lightly rubbed and discolored although, unusually, the spine titling - which is often very faded - is quite legible. The corners are bruised, the head and tail of spine and points a little frayed, and there is a singly ink-line across the bottom edge of the text block (not affecting the margins. Front endpaper hinge splitting, but still holding firm. Small date stamp and remains of bookplate on rear paste-down. No dust-jacket. An obviously well-read but still solid better-than VG copy of a book that is almost never seen in better condition. With a most interesting history. Item #67685

Sold