CROWLEY, Aleister. The Stratagem and Other Stories
London, The Mandrake Press, [1929].
£ 350
FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, pp. (i-viii) 9-139 (cxl: imprint), original boards decorated with gold and black scales in a snake skin pattern, black cloth spine with white paper label. Binding very slightly bowed; book and dust jacket in near-to-perfect condition. A fine copy.
This is Crowley’s only collection of short fictions, which includes ‘The Testament of Magdalen Blair’: “a description of after-death experiences as the brain decays. One of the most horrible stories ever written.” Sullivan (ed.), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 106-07; “a remarkable achievement, as one of the most unpleasant stories in the genre.” Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, p. 457.