THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS

Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A.

12 August 1962

(page E-7)

Poet’s Biography Poses A

Problem Facing the Artist.

Aleister Crowley, The Man, The Mage, The Poet, by Charles Richard Cammell. (University, $6)

It is not uncommon for a good poet to be held in an esteem approaching national reverence, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, for example.

Aleister Crowley was a good poet, with a message told in a velvet style (albeit black velvet). But he was not revered by his people. He proclaimed himself “the greatest living English poet,” but his practice of magic sorely offended the English propriety. It was out of the question—just as it always will be regarding any public figure—that Crowley’s works be judged solely on their merits and not on his personal life.

This is a short biography written by a fellow poet. The author faults Crowley’s eccentricities—but he also indicts the society, accelerated by the yellow press, that allowed and still allows its conviction of Crowley THE MAN to eclipse the work of Crowley THE POET.