CROWLEY, Aleister (1875–1947). The Winged Beetle. London: privately printed, 1910.
8vo. “Glossary of Obscure Terms” inserted at end. Original gilt–decorated white buckram, top edge gilt, others uncut (spine heavily darkened, covers toned or soiled, front hinge cracked, front free endpaper starting). Provenance: ALEISTER CROWLEY’S LIBRARY COPY (inscription on front free endpaper); French advertisement pasted below inscription detailing the Oscar Wilde statue at the Pere–Lachaise cemetery to be unveiled by Aleister Crowley.
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, number 1 of 50 copies on hand–made paper and bound in buckram, from a total edition of 350. “The first edition is scarcer than its limitation implies; a circumstance explained by its non–durable binding and the loss to flood damage of nearly a third of the print run” (see Martin Starr’s Introduction to the facsimile edition).
CROWLEY’S PERSONAL COPY, HEAVILY ANNOTATED IN HIS HAND including 39 poems with annotations identifying where and when he wrote the poem and to whom it was about. The Wings, p. 34: “Written at Boleskine after shooting a seagull and sending wings to Dot Lowe”; A Slim Gilt Soul, pp. 110–111: See Harris’ book on Oscar Wilde”; In Memoriam, pp. 142–44: “I forget E.R. E.H. was one Emily Hitchcock. They killed themselves, as described, at Brighton. I forget the date”; The Jew of Fez, pp. 147–48: “Written at Tangiers when with Tauberville. Winston Churchill had called”; Prologue to Rodin in Rime, p. 153: “To Kathleen Bruce, the Greek is an anagram Kathleen + Aleister”; In Manu Dominae, pp.168–71: “Written after a masturbation in a [indecipherable] by a girl named Anna Grossman”. A RARE WORK ONCE OWNED BY THE MOST FAMOUS OCCULTIST OF THE 20TH CENTURY. Yorke 33.