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Correspondence from John Quinn to Aleister Crowley
Jany. 8, 1915.
Aleister Crowley, Esq., 40 West 36th Street, New York City.
Dear Mr. Crowley:
I received at my apartment night before last, Wednesday the 6th, your note of that date.
I am in the middle of the trial of a case, and this is hastily dictated in a fraction of the time that I am in my office between the end of my lunch and returning to court at two o’clock.
I can dismiss your first letter of the 6th by stating that the four phrases in it “trying to take advantage of you”, “any low or mean act”, “and explain yourself” and “take back any ill thought I may have had of you”, have no reference to my feeling or to the facts in the case. Evidently there was a misunderstanding. I neither said nor did anything to indicate that you were “trying to take advantage of me” or that you had “stooped to any low or mean act”. Nor did I say anything that would require you “to explain yourself”. Nor have I any “ill thought of you”.
So much for your letter of the 6th.
I received last night your second letter of the 6th.
My recollection is that neither the matter of manuscripts nor of de luxe editions was mentioned during the time of your breakfast with me, but that after breakfast in the sidewalk in front of my apartment as I was turning to the right to go to the Subway and as you were going to walk downtown the subject of manuscripts chanced to come up, and that I told you I might be interested in one or two of your manuscripts. You said that you thought of sending for them. At the same time you said that you had a lot of vellum copies of some or all of your works and that you thought “you might send for the whole lot”; that you had intended to have a bibliography made of them here, and that there was not much chance of disposing of them on the other side. You also said that you had a large stock of books in which you had a considerable sum of money invested. I said that I hoped that you might be able to make some arrangement with some publisher here to deal with them and that I might be interested in looking at some of the vellum copies and that I might possible be interested in buying a few of them.
I never said that I would “take them all”.
The fact that I have paid £1,200 for a picture has nothing to do with my offering to take a lot of vellum copies enbloc. If you will think for a moment you will see that before I should say “I'll take them all” I should want to know: how many you had; whether the edition was large or small; the price of each; the total of the lot; when the purchase price was to be paid, and a few other things like that. I never in my life have bought anything “offhand”, as you say, or without asking the price or conditions. For example, I might be interested in an edition of five or ten vellum copies, but not in one of twenty. I might be interested if the price was this, and not if the price was that. I might be interested in a vellum copy of this particular work, and utterly uninterested in a vellum copy of another. The price is a very essential factor in these transactions, and also when it is to be paid. I have frequently bought vellum copies and not paid for them for a year or two.
If you said “You know it is a large matter—over two hundred items”, of which I have no recollection, it was a purely voluntary thing on your part with reference to bringing over your books. The books came up in connection with the manuscripts. When I said that I was interested in manuscripts and might be interested in one or two of yours, you said you would bring over the whole thing. Then you volunteered, without being asked by me, to bring over all your books. I said that I might be interested in looking at them and that I might purchase two or three of them. Nothing was said about price. Nothing was said about my taking them all. On the contrary, I thought you were trying to sell them here through some dealer. For at your suggestion I had sent the Rodin and the three other books to Mr. Birnbaum with a view of his trying to get a purchaser for them. And when they were returned to me the other day by Mr. Birnbaum, he said that he had tried to get purchasers for them and had failed.
According to your letter, the books were discussed first “and then you mentioned the MSS.” My recollection is quite the other way—that the mention of the books followed the mention of the manuscripts. You and I agree about the manuscripts, namely that I said I might buy one or two. We also agree in your statement that you said you “would get them all over, have a bibliography made, and I could take my choice”.
The $500 advance was solely with reference to the manuscripts and had nothing to do with the books. The night you remained after the dinner, when my other friends had left, you discussed only the manuscripts. You did not say then, what you now write, that you “stayed in New York solely on account of this transaction”. I cannot see under what possible theory you could have stayed in New York on account of the transaction. When I agreed to advance you the $500 on account of the manuscripts I told you that “money was money these times” and that I was limiting my purchases very strictly these days. You had taken your apartment previously to that evening, and told me that one of the reasons why you wanted $500 was to pay your rent at the hotel, so that you could leave there. Besides, you had told me previously to that that you had engaged a secretary.
It is perfectly true that I gave you the name of a bank. But I did not “introduce you to a bank”. I told you of the Harriman Bank and said that with our banks it was customary to ask for a minimum average deposit before the bank would bother with the account. You said that you wanted to check all of the $500 out but that you expected some more money soon. You never said that you expected that money from me. I suggested that you explain to the Bank that while you were drawing the whole initial deposit out, you would ultimately keep a fair average balance. But I never suggested that I would be responsible for that balance or that money from me would make up the balance, or anything remotely resembling that. I was merely explaining to you the method of running New York bank accounts. If you took that explanation of mine in order to smooth your road to opening a bank account “as implying the sale of the books”, I am not responsible for that misunderstanding on your part.
As to your statement that you “remarked ‘Anyhow, there’s ample margin on the price of the books’ meaning ‘even if I bought only one MS. or none’ ”, I have no recollection, as I have said, of the books being discussed the night I agreed to advance you the $500 on account of the MSS.
It is perfectly true that you called up Mr. Watson in regard to the books, but that was because you told me you did not know the customs regulations. Surely a matter of courtesy on the part of Watson and myself in advising you on this subject is no reason why I should be committed to you on a purchase that I never agreed to make. During none of the times that Mr. Watson discussed the question with you was there ever any question made of my buying the books enbloc or a single book, except when you called day before yesterday and mentioned my purchasing the books and asked Mr. Watson if he would speak to me about it and suggested an advance, which led to my writing my two letters.
As I think I have told you several times, I am an exceedingly busy man, and if the tone of my letters was either irritating or lacking in amenities, it was not intended. But I did and do want to make my position perfectly clear.
You do not “owe me $528”. That money I advanced to you on account of the purchase of two or three manuscripts. As I told you at the time, I could not tell which manuscript I was interested in and would want to refresh myself by looking at the copies of your books that I have, and then I could determine.
Under the circumstances, there is no need of your transferring a note to me, and I return you herewith (1) the debenture of William Rider & Son and (2) the letter authorizing the transfer of the same to me.
I have said nothing in my letters derogatory to your “reputation”.
I want to add now just what I said on the sidewalk in front of my apartment the morning the manuscripts were mentioned, that if you care to part with two or three of your vellum copies I might possibly be interested in them. But it depends on their price, upon their format, upon the books of which you have vellum copies, upon the number in the edition and other considerations which a man who has got the “bug” of collecting that I occasionally suffer from takes into account.
Thanks for sending the missing Birthday card of 1903 [New Year, 1903 Card?]. I don’t know whether its price was included in the purchase price of the original collection or not. If it wasn’t, I shall be very glad to compensate you.
If you don’t wish to break the collection that you referred to, then my suggestion regarding the purchase of two or three or four of the vellum copies of those that might interest me, and at a price satisfactory to me, may be utterly disregarded. There are some of your things vellum copies of which I can imagine I should like to have; others that I should not care for at all.
Yours very truly,
John Quinn
Enc.
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