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New book of short stories from Aleister Crowley

By Psyche | June 13, 2010

What’s this?

Wordsworth Editions, typically known for their cheap reprints of material that’s gone out of copyright, has released The Drug and Other Stories, a collection of forty-nine short stories by Aleister Crowley.

From the publisher’s website:

This volume brings together the uncollected short fiction of the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). Crowley was a successful critic, editor and author of fiction from 1908 to 1922, and his short stories are long overdue for discovery. Of the forty-nine stories in the present volume, only thirty were published in his lifetime. Most of the rest appear here for the first time.

Like their author, Crowley’s stories are fun, smart, witty, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling. They are set in places he had lived and knew well: Belle Epoque Paris, Edwardian London, pre-revolutionary Russia and America during the first World War. The title story ‘The Drug’ stands as one of the first—if not the first—accounts of a psychedelic experience. His ‘Black and Silver’ is a knowing early noir discovery that anticipates an entire genre. ‘Atlantis’ is a masterpiece of occult fantasy, a dark satire that can stand with Samuel Butler’s Erewhon. Frank Harris considered ‘The Testament of Magdalen Blair’ the most terrifying tale ever written.

The book contains an introduction by William Breeze and a foreword by David Tibet, followed by “extensive editorial end-notes give full details about the stories”.

How exciting!

I didn’t even realize these short stories existed, let alone that they’d come out of copyright. Should they be worried about a lawsuit, or does that only apply to his explicitly magickal works? Edit: As per LAShTAL’s comment below, Bill Breeze is the the copyright holder, which pretty much negates the possibility of a lawsuit. For a full list of titles, see this post in LAShTAL’s forums.

As an added bonus: Wordsworth Editions are always very reasonably priced. This little guy will set you back…6.99$US.

Cheaper than Starbucks. If you also order a muffin. Ok, cheaper than breakfast. If you eat out. At a restaurant where your meal costs more than…Ok, forget it. You understand. It’s cheap. It comes out September, 2010. Go buy it.

Spotted on LAShTAL.com.

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  3. Atheism, Donald Tyson and Aleister Crowley
  4. Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune the focus of new book published by Llewellyn
  5. Aleister Crowley, wicked in Life

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Comments:

  1. LAShTAL says:

    “I didn’t even realize these short stories existed, let alone that they’d come out of copyright. Should they be worried about a lawsuit, or does that only apply to his explicitly magickal works?”

    The book is being published with the active participation of the copyright holder: Bill Breeze has provided the Introduction and end-notes.

    For a full list of the contents of this 624 page book, see http://www.lashtal.com/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=50399#50399

    Current score: 0
  2. [...] Crowley goes classic [...]

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