Seven Friends.
Thame, England: Mandrake Press Ltd, 1992. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 172pp. Original black cloth with gilt title, etc. to spine. B&W Ills. in text. Edition limited to 750 numbered copies. Short memoirs of seven of the author's literary friends: Oscar Wilde. Frank Harris, Aleister Crowley, John Cowper Powys, T. F. Powys, Llewellyn Powys, & William Somerset Maugham. The author was 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." Wilkinson was one of Aleister Crowley's closest friends. The two had an extensive and intimate correspondence, and Crowley respected Louis's literary skills to the extent that he engaged him to prepare a popular edition of his own Commentaries on "The Book of the Law" (posthumously published as "The Law is for All. The Authorized Popular Commentary to the Book of the Law" - 1996). 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. Crowley, in tandem with John Cowper Powys, is said to have shared the honour of being the godfather of one of Louis's sons, Oliver. A dramatist, author, and educator, Oliver Marlow Wilkinson (1915-1999) got to know Crowley quite well through his father, indeed he was the one that found Crowley the lodgings at Netherwood in Hastings that became his final home. 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 this new edition of his father's book "Seven Friends" which Naylor published under his Mandrake Press Ltd. imprint in 1992. As new. A fine copy in fine dust jacket, the jacket now protected by a mylar sleeve). Item #69812
Price: $20.00