Ritual Magic In England (1887 to the Present Day).
London: Neville Spearman, 1970. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 224pp. Original purple cloth with gilt title, etc. to spine, b/w illustrations. Appendices, biblio and index. The first edition of Francis King's entertaining history of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, its derivatives, and other English magical Orders. This copy from the library of British artist, writer and musician DAVID TIBET (founder of the music group Current 93) with his OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE on the front blank. The author Francis X. King (1934–1994) was a British popular historian of the occult, whose books played an important part in the renewal of interest in Western Magical traditions in late twentieth century Britain and beyond. Subsequent scholarship has brought to light a few errors in the text, but it remains a valuable and amusingly-written work. Boards very lightly warped, otherwise just a hint of shelfwear, page edges unevenly browned and foxed, very faintly musty, else a tight, clean VG+ copy in about VG dust jacket. (Dust jacket is lightly worn with some modest chafing to the edges, upper panel and spine. Some offset to reverse side from the purple cloth covers, not clipped. Now protected in mylar sleeve.). Item #68364
ISBN: 085435400x
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