The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Comprising the Metrical Translations By Edward Fitzgerald & E.H. Whinfield, and the Prose Version of Justin Huntly McCarthy.
New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1900. First Edition Thus. Hardcover, Small octavo (6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches), xxxxi + 290 pp. Limp brown pebbled leater boards, gilt title, etc. to spine and front cover. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Frontispiece, title-page in red and black. A pleasant small-format edition of the poetic classic attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia". From the library of O.T.O. luminary Wilfred T. Smith inscribed to him on the second blank: "To be romantic is to / have an inkling of the / infinite in appearances. / To Wilfred / from Leota / Xmas 1925." Wilfred Talbot Smith ("Frater Omnia Velle Nihil" = "Frater V.O.V.N." = "Frater Voven" / "Frater 132", 1885-1957), was a pioneer of Thelema in North America: an early member of British Columbia Lodge No ! of the O.T.O., head of Agape Lodge of the O.T.O. in California, founder of "The Church of Thelema," a long term associate of Aleister Crowley, and subject of Martin Starr's biography "The Unknown God." The person who inscribed it was Leota Hazel Schneider (1897-1992), the first wife of Max Schneider ("Frater V.I.A.T.O.R." - 1887-1948), was a long term follower of Crowley's who was one of the founding members of the second Agapé Lodge of the OTO, a IX° member of that order and an initiate of the A .'. A .'. as was Leona. Max Schneider played an antagonist's role in various of the sexual dramas that beset Wilfred T. Smith and Agapé Lodge and Leota soon went on to divorce him, marrying John Bamber, another A .'. A .'. and O.T.O. member. Written on a blank at the rear of the volume, also in Leona's hand, are the words "May the 'Goddess of the Starry blue' shower her sweet treasures upon you." Leather quite rubbed on front hinge, and rubbed and chipped along the edges. Still, the joints and hinges are uncracked, and boards firmly attached. Internally a fresh and VG+ copy. A solid copy with a remarkable provenance that places it in the midst of the strife and sexual tensions that disrupted Agape Lodge in the 1930s and 1940s. Item #68186
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