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Correspondence from John Quinn to Aleister Crowley
April 7, 1915.
Dear Mr. Crowley:
I don’t want anything to be unsettled with anybody or uncertain with anybody. In fact I am afraid that I suffer from the desire or passion of having things understood and having things definite. It has been therefore with regret that I haven’t had the time to look at the eight or nine manuscripts that you brought to my house one night. As I told you at the time the subject of manuscripts was first mentioned, I might be interested in purchasing one or two or possibly three of your manuscripts. As I have repeatedly written, I never agreed to purchase all your manuscripts or all your books. I have tried repeatedly to get the time to get out the printed volumes corresponding to the manuscripts that you sent to me and to look at them and to decide which one or two or three out of the eight or nine that you sent me I should choose. But I have been much driven, and Lady Gregory was a guest at my place for some three or four weeks off and on, and I simply have had no time for the manuscript matter.
However, I shall do this in the course of the next day or two and will let you know which of the manuscripts I prefer and what I think a fair price is for them. You will remember that you did not care to put a price on them. I told you that it was a difficult matter for me to put a price on them. I might take the liberty of asking our common friend Mitchell Kennerley to estimate what he thinks they are worth, if I have any doubt on the subject.
I don’t think there is anything else between you and me. I might possibly want to buy, as I wrote you two or three times, one or two of your vellum books, and if you care to quote me prices on them with a brief description of the binding and the number of copies that there are, I can let you know at once by letter which ones I am interested in.
I can think of nothing else outstanding between us.
Yours very truly,
John Quinn
Aleister Crowley, Esq., 40 West 36th Street, New York City.
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