From the inner sleeve
Aleister Crowley is beyond doubt the most influential occultist of the 20th century. While he is hailed as one of the giants of the esoteric sciences, very little attention has been devoted to Crowley’s years as a Cambridge undergraduate (1895 –1898), when the author wrote and published an incredible amount of verse: this
poetry, firmly planted within the vogue of the day, tells the tale of his doomed love affair with actor and female impersonator Jerome Pollitt and of his first steps towards occult sciences. The two themes of homosexual love and spiritual yearning paint a magnificent picture of a taboobreaking poet, right when these twin pivotal
ideas were just budding. The four works included in this anthology of early poetic production are Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, Jezebel and Other Tragic
Poems, Songs of the Spirit and The Tale of Archais: A Romance in Verse. In these verses, the reader will find many facets of the young Crowley: echoes of Oscar Wilde, the tortured homosexual lover; W.B. Yeats, the seeker of spiritual truths; Arthur Symons, the prurient Decadent poet; and A.C. Swinburne, the searcher of masochistic
adventures and forbidden pleasures.
poetry, firmly planted within the vogue of the day, tells the tale of his doomed love affair with actor and female impersonator Jerome Pollitt and of his first steps towards occult sciences. The two themes of homosexual love and spiritual yearning paint a magnificent picture of a taboobreaking poet, right when these twin pivotal
ideas were just budding. The four works included in this anthology of early poetic production are Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, Jezebel and Other Tragic
Poems, Songs of the Spirit and The Tale of Archais: A Romance in Verse. In these verses, the reader will find many facets of the young Crowley: echoes of Oscar Wilde, the tortured homosexual lover; W.B. Yeats, the seeker of spiritual truths; Arthur Symons, the prurient Decadent poet; and A.C. Swinburne, the searcher of masochistic
adventures and forbidden pleasures.
Book Specifications
Cover art by Cristina Francov
Foreword by Henrik Bogdan
Edited, Annotated & Introduced by Christian Giudice
333 standard copies; Royal Quarto; dust jacket; black cloth cover; 16 pages of photos of Crowley, Pollitt, Beardsley, Smithers et al.; red ribbon; stitched; black end-papers; 304 pp. £25
31 deluxe copies; goat skin cover; ribbed spine; Royal Quarto; 16 pages of photos of Crowley, Pollitt, Beardsley, Smithers et al.; red ribbon; stitched; 304 pp. £156
[Postage and packaging is an additional £5.00 within the UK, £9.00 within the European countries outside of the UK, and £14.00 elsewhere.]
Preorders starting on 1 October 2019.