Description
Crowley, Aleister
100th Monkey Press, 2012. Limited Edition, limited to 150 hand-numbered copies, this being number 87. Bound by hand in a Japanese style binding and measuring 5 1/2” x 8 1/2″. 48 pages. Printed in blue and black on acid-free paper and bound in an acid-free, glued-up composition cover consisting of textured black faux leather over custom printed endpapers.
Illustrations include reproductions of the original covers from The International and a self-portrait by Crowley of him evoking the great demon Paimon to visible appearance.
Also comes with a hand-bound copy of Crowley’s “The Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic”. Each copy also includes a handsome themed bookplate and bookmark.
Aleister Crowley’s essay “The Revival of Magick” was originally published under the pseudonym “The Master Therion” in a four part series in The International: A Review of Two Worlds from August through November 1917. Crowley’s affiliation with The International occurred during his five-year stay in America from 1914 through 1919. Not long after his arrival, Crowley found himself in financial straits and found a partial solution in the form of George Sylvester Viereck, a writer and editor who owned two journals, The Fatherland and The International.
The Fatherland was a propaganda journal funded by the German government designed to promote pro-German thought and to help keep America out of World War I. Crowley began by writing pro-German articles for The Fatherland and soon began writing for The International as well in July 1915. Over the ensuing years he contributed various articles and poetry and became managing editor of The International in August of 1917. At this point the journal became a primary outlet for Crowley’s writings and he began writing a large portion of the journal employing various pseudonyms to disguise the fact that he was the primary contributor. Besides being an outlet for his poetry and short stories, The International provided him a vehicle to advocate the message of Thelema through such essays as “The Revival of Magick.”
