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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Mrs. Graham (Aelfrida Tillyard)
1 September [1913]
I am really quite innocent of pulling your leg and it hurt me very much to think that you should have imagined that I would enjoy a joke in which there was any cruelty involved, and I think the illness of which you spoke is the real explanation. Now I am awfully sorry, but I didn't want to be thanked for the mountains and I don't want to be blamed for the valleys. I only want you to do what you said you had done and eliminate me altogether. I will consequently confine my remarks on my Collected Works to the statement that you are quite misinterpreting them if you find anything bitter or uncharitable in them. I enjoy making a 'bitter jest', but there is no bitterness in the enjoyment. I could never understand the feeling some people have about cynicism. Delans's jarndyce [?] seems to be considered a type, but all the most genial men I know are habitually cynical. Your remarks about the abominable houses are in error. Think again. You are again quite wrong about the Guardian of the Sanctuaries. The purloined letter dodge is well known nowadays, and besides it doesn't matter whether anyone knows that it is a sanctuary or not. The profane must be prevented from entering, for, should they do so, they would be slain. I am not trying to keep you out of the Sanctuary. I am trying to see whether you will allow me to keep you out, and I want to make sure that you come in by the right door.
Of course I should not mention Aelfrida Graham, but Aelfrida Tillyard is a public character, I know.
I don't know what's the matter with the Star and the Garter. You might . . . [missing]
Your record is sent back herewith. I gladly present you with a Collected Works and request that you should read it with greater comprehension. Also a Book of Lies in the hope of disgusting you completely. The Unofficial Biography is of course an invitation. I did not perceive the plot [?] on the previous occasion.
Yours ever.
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