The Book of Thoth. A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians. Being The Equinox Volume III No. V.
New York, NY: Samuel Weiser Inc., 1969. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Small Quarto, xii + 288pp. Blue cloth with gilt title, etc. to spine (some copies of this edition were also bound in pink). Colour frontispiece which was omitted from some later printings, color and b&w plates. The first printing (1969) of the Weiser edition of "The Book of Thoth," Crowley's masterwork on the tarot, with color and black and white reproductions of the card designs by Frieda Harris. This copy previously from the library of Robert North (1951 - 2010), a one-time O.T.O. member who founded his own magical order "The New Flesh Palladium" and authored a book of the same name. North is probably best known for the 1988 Magickal Childe publication of his translation of Paschal Beverly Randolph’s work "Sexual Magic". North has signed this copy of "The Book of Thoth" on the first-blank with his own name with Crowleyesque phallic initial letters, the eleven-fold-cross, a drawing of Crowley's Ankh-f-n-khonsu cartouche, etc. On the three blank leaves the precede the rear endpapers North has also copied out, in very neat writing in red and black ink, Crowley's "Liber LXX" (Stauros Batrachou), also known as "The Frog Ritual." "Liber LXX" was written by Crowley during his stay at Adam’s Cottage, New Hampshire, in 1916, and the original manuscript notebook containing it has long been in the Yorke collection. Copies of the ritual started to circulate in the 1960s, but the text remained largely unknown - and unavailable - even to serious Crowleyites until the late 1980s. It was obviously during the period its of rarity that North managed to obtain a copy of the text, which he then transcribed so neatly into this volume so as to preserve it. The cloth of the volume shows a little light shelfwear and aging, and the edges of the text block show some darkening. Annotations by North as noted (no others). Overall a tight, clean VG+ copy in Good+ dust jacket (Dust jacket is worn, chipped and chafed at spine ends, edges and folds. Inner flaps a bit browned, not clipped. Now in removable protective mylar sleeve.) An interesting association copy. Item #70177
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