THE SACRAMENTO BEE

Sacramento, California, U.S.A.

28 February 1953

(page 27)

BOOKS IN BRIEF.

The Great Beast: The Life of Aleister Crowley. By John Symonds; Roy Publishers, New York; $4.50.

Poet, mountaineer, drug addict and cultist, Crowley was a fabulous Britisher whose exploits got him bounced from one country to another through most of the first half of the century. At least 10 books have been written about him previously; this one, by his literary executor, is an exhaustive account of the man and his life on the lunatic fringe of society. The average reader may find it exhausting as well.