Clouds Without Water. Edited from a Private M. S. By the Rev. C. Verey.
London [ Actually Paris ]: Privately Printed [ Renouard ], 1909. First Edition. Wrappers. Small Octavo. xxii + 144pp. Original mottled salmon-coloured soft paper wrappers, with title across upper wrapper, lettered up spine, and with publisher's device in centre of rear wrapper (all printed in black). Printed on machine made paper. "Clouds Without Water" has a complex and chequered history. Despite the statement on the title page that it was published in London, "Clouds Without Water" was actually printed by Renouard of Paris (who had earlier published Crowley's obscene homo-erotic parody, "The Bagh-I-Muattar") The book is poetry with some erotic undertones - which is presumably why Crowley playfully published it under the name of a fictitious Priest "The Rev. C. Verey" and had the words "Privately Printed for Circulation Amongst Ministers of Religion" printed on the title page! Wrappers lightly chafed at all edges, and lacking some chips, particularly at spine ends and corners. Some small closed vertical splits where the spine meets the wrappers (as common with this volume). Small blue label of the "Aries Press" (occult book publishers and distributors in the first half of the twentieth century in the US) on the half-title page. Overall a clean VG or better copy of a work which is seldom encountered in better condition due to its cheap text paper and soft paper wrappers. Item #70453
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