The Great Beast. The Life of Aleister Crowley.
New York, NY: Roy Publishers, 1952. First American edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. 316pp. Blue cloth with gilt title, etc. to spine, bibliography, index, b&w frontis and illustrations. The First American edition of Symond's biography of Crowley, 7the book which introduced the children of the 50s and 60s to the Great Beast. Early printings like this include, as an appendix, Gerald Yorke's ground-breaking Bibliography of Crowley. Oddly this copy is IN A DUST JACKET FROM THE BRITISH EDITION - which is identical to that of the US except it has the publisher's name "Rider" rather than "Roy" at the foot of the spine, and the price on the flap is in shillings rather than dollars and cents. Presumably the jackets were swapped at some stage, but we don't know the circumstances. The book has just a hint of shelf wear to boards. Fore-edge a bit darkened, top & bottom edges darkened & foxed. Paper a bit browned throughout, with very light foxing to first and last leaves, unmarked. Overall a bright, clean VG+ copy in near VG example of the scarce RIDER dust jacket. (Dust jacket is a bit chafed, creased and worn at all edges and points, rear panel a little darkened, not clipped. Now in protective mylar cover). Item #69157
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