Description
Stephensen, P. R.; Crowley, Aleister; King, Stephen J.
Helios Books and Ordo Templi Orientis, Sydney, Australia 2007. New Edition. Softcover. 8vo. 200 pages. Limited Edition of 500 copies. Near Fine.
Originally published by the Mandrake Press in 1930, this is the first modern edition authorized by the Stephensen estate and makes substantial use of surviving Stephensen papers from the period. P.R. Stephensen was a young Australian who went to Britain as a Rhodes Scholar to study at Oxford. He became manager of the Mandrake Press of London in the 1920s. The much younger Stephensen eagerly signed up with the middle-aged Magus Crowley. Stephensen would describe The Legend of Aleister Crowley as both a “short literary biography” and “a study of the documentary evidence relating to a campaign of personal vilification unparalleled in literary history.” Crowley dedicated his Confessions to Stephensen. This new edition includes the first publication of the opening “Epistle” that was suppressed from the first edition as being too risky. It comes with a comprehensive introductory narrative by Stephen J. King, a senior member of the Australian O.T.O., which provides the background to The Legend, and examines the press campaigns against Crowley, the history of the Mandrake Press, the Stephensen/Crowley collaboration, and Stephensen’s ongoing association with Crowley’s colleagues Karl Germer, Gerald Yorke and Israel Regardie after Crowley’s death. Also included is a collection of Aleister Crowley’s autobiographical newspaper articles, 1933-35. A number of Crowley and Stephensen collections were consulted in preparing this edition, including access to the O.T.O. International Headquarters central archives, providing the reader with new research and information about this important period in Crowley’s life. This new edition makes available an important if often overlooked book-the only biography written during Crowley’s life that addressed his character and the press campaigns against him.
