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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones
COLLEGIUM ad SPIRITUM SANCTUM, CEFALU, SICILY.
Dec. 10, 1920.
My beloved son,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law!
Your letter of Nov. 20 reached me this morning. All right about the inventory but as soon as you get a proper store-room of course you will fix things in business shape. I agree with what you say about the handling of the books as far as the Occult stuff is concerned, but I think that the other books should simply be got rid of. You need to concentrate on the real work. I make the following suggestions.
I should put aside, say 25 copies, of each book in question. I should then try to sell the "Clouds without Water" en bloc, to such publishers as Mitchell Kennerly or Mc. Bride. Ditto The Whirl Pool, Household Gods, Gargoyles, Star and the Garter, On the Loose, and History of a Soul. I should make these people a very low price to take the bunch and I should arrange to insert a slip in each copy with a sort of small advertisement of the Equinox, saying that it (Eqx) contains the author's best work or something like that. The Hail Mary and Amphora should be similarly disposed of to a firm of Roman Catholic Publishers.
Please send me a few copies of Chicago May.
The Green Manifesto should be distributed gratis with a slip attached directing people interested in its contents to apply to you. The Rosicrucian Scandals should be mailed one by one, at irregular intervals to the Editor of Azoth [Michael Whitty]. Copies also to other "occult" magazines—to start something!
I am writing Bell by this post, asking him to send you a parcel of 500 each of Part 1 & 2 of Book Four. It is more than you asked for but any extra expense is trifling and there is nothing so annoying as being left flat if there should be a sudden run on the stock. I also include 20 copies of Konx Om Pax. We have no 777, as a glance at the stock list sent you should have informed you. If there are any at all, they must be in your stock.
The College of the Holy Ghost has written to Ryerson [Albert W. Ryerson] a letter of which I enclose you a copy. I think it much better not to write to him myself at all, at present.
I should use "The Star in the West" as an advertising volume—sell off your copies at $1.00. Be careful to insert gummed slips explaining in a few words that this book is a sort of introduction to the arrival of the Long Lost Messiah, and that further information can be got from you.
There seems to be nothing else to say for the moment about this, except that I am in great and quite rational hope of finding myself with a decent income very shortly. I have got professional assistance in manufacturing scenarios. That, and a business partner, were the things I most needed. You ought to be able, by the way, to get somebody interested over there. You have considerable success to show in the past, and we need spend no money in production. I think $10,000 would enable us to sell the whole of the stock.
Russell [C. F. Russell] is proving most useful in clearing off our arrears of typing, and leaving us free for creative work. I have done an enormous amount since I am here, so much, that I could hardly make a list off hand. My painting is coming on tremendously and you wouldn't recognize it.
Remember me warmly to all the Brethren.
Love is the law, love under will!
Thy Sire,
666
P.S. We've had a conference with Jane Wolfe, who is writing to a friend of hers in Los Angeles, California—L.V. Jefferson, South Hill St., bet, 40th & Santa Barb with a copy of the History Lection. Will you please send him a copy of Bk. Four—Parts 1 & 2, when you get them. He is supposed to act as your agent in California.
P.S. I think you might do something with regard to selling block of Rodin Books. I suggest that 400 should be offered and enclose herewith notice which you might possibly find useful.
NOTICE.
We have pleasure in offering for private sale, at reduced price, a block of 400 sets of four books. They contain some of the best poetry of the famous English poet, Aleister Crowley, but the principal interest in these volumes is in the lithographs which adorn them, of which there are ten. These were specially chosen by Rodin [Auguste Rodin] to illustrate the works of Crowley, of whom, as his letter printed in "Rodin in Rime" shows, he was a great admirer and a close personal friend. The books are printed (here insert size, type, etc.) hand made paper. The engraver, Clot, is universally acknowledged by connoisseurs to be the best living lithographer for this type of work. These lithographs are practically the only possibility of the American public coming into relation with this part of Rodin's work. The original 500 copies, each of ten, cost £400 Sterling for the lithographer alone, and this at a time long before the war when everything was at its cheapest. It would therefore be impossible to reproduce such volumes on any other occasion. They are being offered at present to in block, solely in order to enable the owners to concentrate upon the sale of other volumes of Mr. Crowley's, which are occult in character, and this firm is able to handle only books of this class, so that we offer that part of his stock which is principally of a poetical and artistic interest, to firms like yourselves. Mr. Crowley has on no occasion offered his stock openly to the general public; selling his books without discount of any kind to the group of people capable of appreciating his work. There is therefore no danger of the few copies already disposed of being thrown upon the market. The original price asked for the four volumes was £ 7 sh. 13 and there is no reason why the post war prices in America should not be largely increased. We are prepared to offer you the block of 400 sets for $4000, ready cash.
P.P.S.S.
I know this is badly worded. Try to get a really first class advertising writer who understands American dealers, to put the thing in shape.
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