The Medusa's Head. Or Conversations Between Aleister Crowley and Adolf Hitler.
Thame, England: Mandrake Press Ltd., 1991. Limited edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 216pp. White buckram with gilt title, etc. to spine, gilt medusa device on front cover. This copy being no. 15 of the deluxe edition, limited to 50 hand-numbered copies, SIGNED by John Symonds on the title-page. A publisher's note on the reverse of the title-page states: "The Edition is limited to 350 copies, numbers 1-50 being signed by the author and bound in white Aberlave buckram with a matching slipcase, numbers 51-350 are bound in blue Abergave buckram with a laminated dust-wrapper." This copy does not have the slipcase - it was either lost or it is possible that some copies were issued without one (slipcases are notoriously expensive to produce so it may be that the publisher did not have them made for all copies).
The book itself is a bizarre novel about Crowley set in Germany during the rise of the Nazis. John Symonds, the best known of Crowley's early biographers, has borrowed the names of a number of Crowley associates of the time: Heinrich Traenker, Karl Germer, Albin Grau, Max Schneider, Martha Kuntzel, etc. and woven them into this truly odd fictional work.
From the library of Oliver Marlow Wilkinson (1915-1999) dramatist, author, educator and raconteur. Oliver was the son of Louis Umfreville Wilkinson (1881-1966) an English man-of-letters who wrote a number of satirical autobiographical and fictional works, mostly under the pseudonym "Louis Marlow." Louis Umfreville Wilkinson was a good friend of Aleister Crowley's, the two had an extensive correspondence, and Crowley respected Louis's literary skills to the extent that he engaged him to prepare a popular edition of Crowley commentaries on "Liber AL." Crowley also made Louis one of his executors, and it was Louis Wilkinson who caused some uproar amongst the more excitable members of the press by reading from Crowley's "Hymn to Pan" and other of his works at the Beast's funeral. Louis's son Oliver also knew Crowley well; indeed he was the one that found Crowley the rooms at Netherwood that became his final home and Crowley, along with John Cowper Powys, is said to have jointly shared the honour of being Oliver's godfather. Oliver Wilkinson inherited many of the Crowley books and papers that had belonged to his father Louis, including a number of signed and inscribed items, etc. etc. In the 1980s Oliver refreshed his interest in Crowley, meeting with a number of contemporary Crowley afficiandos including Hymenaeus Beta, Clive Harper, Tony Naylor, Keith Richmond, Martin P. Starr, et al. At Tony Naylor's urging he also wrote an Introduction to a new edition of his father's book "Seven Friends" (which included a chapter-long reminiscense of Crowley) which Naylor published under his Mandrake Press Ltd. imprint in 1992. Oliver Marlow died in 1999, and in 2021 Weiser Antiquarian books acquired the remains of Oliver's Crowley collection, which comprised some of the books and pieces of ephemera that had belonged to his father, as well as books, such as this, that he himself had bought or was given in the 1980s and 1990s. A small posthumous book-label, tipped in at the rear, identifies it as having come from his collection. No slipcase - as noted above. Some modest foxing to the front cover and a touch of discoloration to the rear. A little dust and light flecking to the edges of the text-block, otherwise a tight, clean, seemingly unread VG or better copy. Item #69733
ISBN: 1872736068
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