White Stains.
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd, 1993. Reprint. Hardcover. Octavo. xvi + 118pp. Black boards with white titling to spine and design to upper board. The 1993 reprint of the 1973 Duckworth Edition, with an Introduction by Crowley's first major biographer, John Symonds. The original 1898 edition was limited to 100 copies, and it is commonly believed that most of those were seized and destroyed by British Customs on account of the book's allusions to bestiality, necrophilia, paedophilia and sodomy, and kindred subjects, although no-one has been able to pinpoint exactly when this destruction took place. The Symonds edited version was first published in 1973 in a limited edition, which was the first ever reprint of the book. This is the third printing of that edition (it was also reprinted in 1986). The editor, John Symonds (1914–2006), was an English author and journalist who met Crowley shortly before his death, and whom Crowley appointed his literary executor. Symonds is most widely remembered on account of the various iterations of his biography of Aleister Crowley, "The Great Beast", which were largely responsible for introducing a new generation to Crowley in the 1950s through 1970s, and also for his editing and publishing, mostly in co-operation with Kenneth Grant, a number of works by Crowley in the late 1960s and 1970s. Appears unread, thus a tight, unmarked near Fine copy in lightly rubbed mylar protected near Fine dust jacket. Item #69068
ISBN: 0715606808
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