THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

20 March 1959

(Part III, page 5)

Paperback Biography Shocker.

Recently there was republished one of Somerset Maugham's early novels, “The Magician,” originally written some 50 years ago. The protagonist of that novel was one of the finest villains to appear in 20th century fiction, a thorough villain, versed in hypnotism and the occult.

The model for this character, as Maugham pointed out, was a mysterious ne’er-do-well named Aleister Crowley, whose scandalous life made him libel-proof. Now a biography of Crowley has been written by Daniel Mannix, in THE BEAST (Ballantine Original: $.35. Mannix, you will remember, wrote an admirable popular history of the ancient Roman Games called “Those About to Die.”

Crowley started out in life under respectable auspices. His father was a minister and young Aleister began by defying the Victorian respectability of his family. A brilliant and personable boy, he turned Cambridge on its ear by heading a society for the occult and publishing a book of verse which was almost immediately banned.

The Orient beckoned and Crowley followed its mystic call—with the wife of a respectable American banker. He set a mountain climbing record as well as one for charming depravity. By 30, he was a confirmed devil worshiper and drug addict.

Mannix tells his story with verve and excitement, a tale filled with anecdotes both shocking and amusing—proving once again the old saw about fiction and truth.