The Heart of the Master.
London: Privately issued by the O.T.O., 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Small Octavo. 40pp. (+ viii pp. adverts at rear). Original yellow buckram, purple stamped title and A .'. A .'. seal on front board. Crowley wrote the bulk of the text of these magico-mystical reflections in Tunisia in 1925 although the book was not published until 1938 when it appeared in this edition, in a print run which some have said was as small as a 100 copies. Whatever the exact print run was there is no doubt that it was small as this is a genuinely scarce book (there was also an issue 11 numbered copies bound in suede). There are two binding variants of the buckram issue - in one the "S" in "MASTER" on the front board is a classic rounded serif font, in the other the "S" is still serif, but has a longer "tail." This copy has the former version (precedence of the issues has not been established). In his introduction to a later edition Kenneth Grant refers to this "small and cryptic volume" as containing "the One True Occult Tradition" and says that it "declares openly the Magical formulae of the New Aeon." Grant explained Crowley's choice of pseudonym by observing that Crowley was "inspired by the spirit of Khaled Khan while on the 'Holy Hill' of Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia, the present site of ancient Carthage. Khan was a great warrior who delivered the Arabs from the stranglehold of Christianity at the battle of Damascus. Both the Khan and Crowley were therefore avatars of the anti-Christian Current represented in the Apocalypse as the Beast 666." Yellow buckram darkened as almost always. The cloth is rubbed through (nibbled?) for a small (quarter inch) section of the top edge of the top board - see photograph. Endpapers toned. Otherwise a solid, clean VG+ copy, of one of Crowley's scarcer and more important works. (No dust jacket - as far as is known, none was issued). Item #69565
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