Sword of Wisdom: MacGregor Mathers and the Golden Dawn.
London: Neville Spearman, 1975. First UK Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 308pp. Orange cloth with gilt titling to spine. Index. Colour frontis portrait. B/w plates, coloured endpapers. Ithell Colquhoun's biographical study of MacGregor Mathers and his involvement with Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Despite some factual shortcomings, it is still the standard source of information on Mathers. This British first edition is more desirable than the American edition, which does not reproduce the magnificent frontispiece portrait of Mathers in colour. This copy from the library of Aleister Crowley scholar Martin P. Starr - author of "The Unknown God", editor of a number of Crowley texts, and co-founder of the Teitan Press - with his OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE and acquisition details on the front endpaper, and seven lines of biographical notes about the author in pen on the blank facing the first page of Chapter One (p.15). and some pencil notes on the final blank. Light bump to fore-edge of upper board, top edge a bit darkened, bookseller's label on front blank. Otherwise a tight, VG+ copy in VG+ dust jacket (Dust jacket edges and folds a little chafed with a few tiny chips, not clipped. Now protective mylar sleeve). Item #68704
ISBN: 0854350926
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