The Heart of the Master.
Montreal, Canada: 93 Publishing, 1973. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Small octavo. (iv) + 44pp. White buckram with gold titling and Crowley's Baphomet seal design in red gilt the front cover. Red endpapers with a large A.'. A.'. sigil stamped on the front free endpaper. Title-page in red. The Kenneth Grant / 93 Publishing edition of "The Heart of the Master". Crowley wrote the bulk of "The Heart of the Master" in 1924, although the book was not published until 1938 when it appeared in a very small edition. In his introduction to this edition Kenneth Grant refers to this "small and cryptic volume" as containing "the One True Occult Tradition" and says that it "declares openly the Magical formulae of the New Aeon." Grant explains Crowley's choice of pseudonym by telling that Crowley was "inspired by the spirit of Khaled Khan while on the 'Holy Hill' of Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, the present site of ancient Carthage. Khan was a great warrior who delivered the Arabs from the stranglehold of Christianity at the battle of Damascus. Both the Khan and Crowley were therefore avatars of the anti-Christian Current represented in the Apocalypse as the Beast 666." There were two issues of the Grant / 93 Publishing Edition of "The Heart of the Master", one with ordinary blank endpapers, and one, somewhat scarcer, with a large A.'. A.'. sigil neatly-stamped on the front free endpaper. This copy has the stamp. 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. Cloth lightly rubbed and somewhat darkened (as common), fore-edge lightly thumed, otherwise a tight, bright and unmarked VG+ copy. Item #67743
ISBN: 0919690009
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