NP [ Oxford, England ]: Black Lodge Publishing / Mandrake Press Ltd, 1991. First Edition - First Issue. Softcover. Stapled booklet. Octavo. Not paginated [16pp. & adverts on inside rear cover ]. Stapled grey card stock covers, titled & illustrated in black, before applying clear laminate to seal the covers, text printed on matching grey paper. A collection of fragments, loosely themed around "Black Magic" said to have been assembled from unpublished writings of Aleister Crowley. The following printed note appears at the end of the booklet: "The above excerpts and fragments were copied by Cosmo Trelawny from a mass of papers and typescripts left in his rooms by Macgregor Reid. The originals were then sold to a bookseller, and lost when his shop was bombed during the war." The typescripts from which this edition were printed are in the Yorke collection, however, some have questioned whether they are actually Crowley's work. If not they are certainly clever forgeries, as they do read as if he had written them, although they are of course deprived of context, and it is possible that they are actually fragments of fiction. They were first published in this edition. The publisher initially printed a few copies (like this) on grey paper stock, and then laminated the covers, but this proved to be far too time-consuming and he thus switched to simple, unlaminated, buff wrappers and text pages. The laminated copies thus were almost exlusively distributed to the publisher's friends, so they might really be termed a private issue. A tight bright copy in near Fine condition. Quite scarce. Item #70909

Price: $75.00