[ CROWLEY, Aleister ] Anthony Naylor, compiler, essay by Louis Umfreville Wilkinson.

Mandrake Press Ltd. Catalogue [ Includes the text of "The Book of the Law" and the first publication of Louis Wilkinson's "Introduction to the Abridged Commentary of the Book of the Law." ].

Thame UK: Mandrake Press Ltd., [ 1992 ]. First Edition. Softcover. Octavo. 110pp + xxii index. Black glossy paper covers, lettered in white, b&w illustrations. Index. A catalogue that details the works that the Mandrake Press Ltd had published up to that time (including some notable ones by Crowley), as well as listing books by other publishers that they distributed, or otherwise had available for sale. Somewhat strangley (presumably as means of inducing people to buy the catalogue) it includes the text of "The Book of the Law" and the "Tunis Comment," along with the first ever "real" publication of Louis Wilkinson's "Introduction to the Abridged Commentary of the Book of the Law". In the early 1940s Crowley had arranged for Jack Parsons, then head of the O.T.O. in the USA, to commission his friend, Louis Umfreville Wilkinson, to prepare an abridgement of the "Commentary of the Book of the Law." Wilkinson (1881-1966) was an English literary figure and good friend of Crowley's, who made him one of his executors, and it was 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. Wilkinson prepared the abridgement, and wrote the Introduction, but Crowley died before he could arrange its publication. The recent discovery of a set of page-proofs by Weiser Antiquarian reveals that Karl Germer and Alexander Watt almost managed to bring the book to press in 1955, but for reasons unknown that edition never made it beyond proof-stage. Then, in the late 1980s Anthony Naylor of the Mandrake Press Ltd, befriended Louis Wilkinson's son, Oliver, who consented to the publication of his father's "Introduction" to the Commentary in this catalogue. This was, thus, the first true publication of Louis Wilkinson's "Introduction." Some five years later, in 1996, the O.T.O., in conjunction with New Falcon, produced a new edition of "The Law is for All" which for the first time included the full publication of both Wilkinson's Introduction and the Commentaries abridged by him. From the collection of Clive Harper with his discreet book-label neatly tipped in at the rear. Harper is well- known as the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare, for updating the Aleister Crowley bibliography in the 2011 Teitan Press collection of Gerald Yorke's writings, and as someone who has lent his expertise to numerous other publications. British occult book distributor's labels placed over the Mandrake Press address details on the decorative pre-title and the rear cover. A little wear to the edges, lightly creased overall, but still VG or better condition. Item #71001

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