THE WEST LONDON OBSERVER

London, England

12 May 1933

(page 9)

AUTHOR LIBELLED.

BOOKSELLER TO PAY £50 DAMAGES.

Mr. Arthur Gordon Gray, bookseller, of Prued Street, Paddington, was ordered to pay £50 damages, with costs, by Mr. Justice Bennett, in the Chancery Division, on Wednesday, in an action brought by Mr. Ed. Alexander Crowley, alleging libel in a notice attached to plaintiff’s novel “Moonshine,” [Moonchild] exposed for sale at Mr. Gray’s shop.

he notice complained of was “Aleister Crowley’s (Mr. Crowley’s non-de-plume) first novel, ‘The Diary of a Drug Fiend’ was withdrawn after an attack in the sensational Press.”

Mr. Gray admitted the libel, expressed his complete apology and said he had no intention to injure Mr. Crowley.

Mr. Justice Bennett, in his summing up, said Mr. Gray wanted the public to believe that the book to which the label was attached was an indecent book.

A stay of execution with a view to appeal was granted on condition that the amount of the damages was brought into court.