CROWLEY, Aleister. In Residence: The Dons Guide to Cambridge.

CROWLEY, Aleister. In Residence: The Dons Guide to Cambridge.
Cambridge: Elijah Johnson, 1904

£ 1,000

Small 4to (225 x 140mm), pp. x, 94, 14 (advertisements), [5], with the detachable entry form for a £100 prize on ‘The Works of Aleister Crowley’. Edges uncut, unopened pp.15-22, internally clean. In original blue wrappers, faded around edges and spine; in custom chemise and gilt blue morocco-backed slipcase.

First edition of this poetry collection, which derives most of its poems from earlier magazine publications such as the Granta, Cantab, Cambridge Magazine and Silver Crescent. The detachable form at the end of the volume is the one for the infamous competition of essays held by Crowley, with the winner (and apparently only entry) to have been J. F. C. Fuller (1878 -1966). His review was published several years later as The Star in the West (1907), and he became a close member of Crowley’s esoteric order A∴A∴, albeit a short-lived membership due to disagreements with Crowley in 1911.

Reference
Yorke 17