CROWLEY, Aleister. Transcribed by David Kennedy - Inscribed to by Kennedy to Meeka Aldrich [ Meeka Aldritch / Meeka Anderson ] .

Typescripts [ Commentary to the Book of the Law, Parts # 1, # 2 & # 3] An Extenuation of the The Book of the Law being Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX as Delivered by: (LXXVIII) XCIII unto DCXLVI with a Commentary by:The Beast To Mega Therion 666 [in three parts, &] The Collected Holy Books ( Four Volumes in Total ).

USA: Privately produced, ND [ Circa 1966 ]. Softcovers. Four volumes. Quartos. (11.5 x 9 inches). "An Extenuation of The Book of the Law" is consecutively paginated (pagination, like the text, is on the rectos only). Part # 1: (iv) 1-93pp; Part # 2: (ii) 94-227pp; Part # 3: 228-312pp.; and the six shorts works by Crowley that make up the volume entitled "The Collected Holy Books" are each separately paginated 4pp, 37pp, 24pp, 9pp, 6pp, 7pp. Each volume of the four is bound "report" style in "Smead" brand press board (a sort of plasticized card) covers, with the pages secured by metal clips clamping through three holes punched in the left margin. Each volume has a gold bordered typed paper label affixed to the front cover. Parts 1 and 2 have dymo labels with the titles on the spines. The text, like the pagination, is on the rectos. Neatly photo-copied from a typescript. The four volumes were prepared by Dave Kennedy, a student of Louis T. Culling (1894-1973) who had for a short been a member of Russell's Choronzon Club / G .'. B .'. G .'. but left the group and instead signed up for both Crowley's A.'.. A.'. and the O.T.O. in 1937, and remained active in US occult circles after the demise of Agape Lodge in the late 1940s. The first three volumes comprise two of Crowley's most important commentaries on "The Book of the Law", the so-called "Old Comment" and "New Comment." The work which became known as the "Old Comment" was Crowley's first lengthy Commentary on "The Book of the Law" and was first published in "The Equinox" in 1912. The "New Comment" - also referred to by Crowley as "the Extenuation" - was written in 1920, and circulated in various typescript forms but despite Crowley's hopes remained unpublished during his lifetime (in fact it was not properly published until 1974 when Kenneth Grant used one of the typescripts as the basis for his "Magical and Philosophical Commentaries on the Book of the Law.")
By the mid-1960s the "New Comment" remained unpublished, and copies of "The Equinox" volume containing the "Old Comment" were extremely hard to find as it had been out-of-print for over fifty years and had never been reprinted. Evans evidently had access to a typescript that combined the two "Comments", most likely originally from Agape Lodge of the O.T.O., and retyped a copy for himself or his mentor in three volumes. At the same time he put together a fourth volume comprising five of Crowley's "Holy Books": "Liber Israfel"; "Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente"; "Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli"; "Liber Ararita"; "Liber Stella Rubeae" and his poem "The Wizard Way" which he had collected from various volumes of "The Equinox" and "Thelema" (or a typescript thereof).
Evans made a second four volume set of the works by having his new typescript photocopied, and bound in office binders - the set here discussed. He presented this set to his friend Meeka Anderson - better known as Meeka Aldritch (born Anna Mary Aldrich, 1903-1996) - who was then the mistress of his mentor, Louis T. Culling. An opera performer and occasional film actress in Hollywood, Aldricth began visiting Agape Lodge in the 1930s, and joined in the 1945. In later life she became well-known in west coast occult circles, and became a good friend of Israel Regardie's. Both the the first of the 3 volumes of "The Commentary" and the (rather misnamed) "Collected Holy Books" are inscribed on their title-pages by Kennedy to Aldrich. The former inscription reads "Transcribed by Dave Kennedy and presented to Meeka Anderson with best wishes" and the latter "To Meeka with kindest regards, Dave Kennedy, 15 June 1966."
Most recently from the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet book-label neatly tipped in at the rear of each volume. 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. Some overall wear and darkening to covers: a few bumped corners, creases, marks from handling etc. Metal binding clips a bit rusty with some offset to inside covers, pages lightly thumbed etc but no internal marking. Overall a clean VG+ group dating from the decade before the reconstruction of the O.T.O. Item #69177

Sold