THE WESTERN MORNING NEWS

Plymouth, Devon, England

14 December 1922

(page 8)

"The Diary of a Drug Fiend" (W. Collins, Sons, and Co., 7s. 6d.), by Aleister Crowley, is stated in the preface to be a true story, rewritten only so far as was necessary to conceal personalities. Told in autobiographical form, it is a terrible and searching account of the wild exaltation and the awful consequences of the "dope" habit. The three books are named "Paradiso," "Inferno," and "Purgatorio," and the final one is a story of hope and of beauty, as the two preceding parts reveal the depths of the debauchery to which the drug victim may descend. The author claims that the story is also true not only of one kind of human weakness, but (by analogy) of all kinds, and for alike there is but one way of salvation. The pointing of that road is the true motive of the books.