[ CROWLEY, Aleister ] contributor, Editors: Anonymous.

[ Granta ] Aleister Crowley contributes a poem: "A Ballad of Burdens" to The Granta, Vol. XIII. No. 275. In a bound volume comprising issues: Vol. XIII, No. 265, Saturday, October 14th, 1899 - Vol. XIII, No. 288, Saturday, June 9th, 1900 ( Bound Volume ).

Cambridge, England: The Granta, 1900. First Edition. Hardcover. Quarto. [394pp.] Original publisher's blue cloth illustrated and bordered in black, both upper cover gilt-lettered. Numerous b/w illustrations. A bound volume of the periodical, 'The Granta, from issues 265 to 288 inclusive. "The Granta" is the well known journal founded by students at Cambridge University in 1889, dubbed "A College joke to cure the dumps", and which over the years published the juvenilia of a number of now-famous editors and contributors. This handsomely bound volume includes Vol. XIII. No. 275 (February 3rd, 1900), which contains the first - and apparently only - publication of an anonymous poem by Aleister Crowley, "A Ballad of Burdens." The poem is clearly a parody of the poem with the same title by Algernon Charles Swinburne but rather than mournfully exploring the general causes of human grief, as did Swinburne, Crowley focused specifically on the miseries that beset the Cambridge University rowing crew! While it was well known to Crowley aficionados that he had made a number of contributions to "The Granta" this particular poem was unidentified until it was discovered by English bibliophile, part-time bookseller, and dedicated Aleister Crowley scholar Nicholas Bishop-Culpeper, who referred to it in a listing in his spring 2009 bookseller's catalogue. Crowley wrote a further related parody: "Suggested Additional Stanzas for 'A Ballad of Burdens'" (published in his "White Stains"), although in that work he concentrated on sexual woes such as venereal disease and the fading of desire (a photocopy of that poem, with a note at the top in Bishop-Culpeper's handwriting, is loosely inserted). From the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper is well- known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. A bit of light general shelf rubbing with some faint marks from handling, spine ends - corners and edges bruised & chafed, spine heavily rubbed and darkened, page edges darkened, endpapers unevenly browned, pages toned - more so at margins, unmarked. Overall a well-preserved, clean VG+ copy (no dust jacket). Scarce. Item #69173

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