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Correspondence Aleister Crowley to Alma Hirsig
Tunisia Palace Hotel, Tunis.
Oct. 4, 1923. e.v.
My dear Alma,
93
You remember I wrote you about a year ago that Leah [Leah Hirsig] was in great danger. I have done all I can in the most difficult circumstances, and I am glad to say that the threatened consumption has been averted, for the time being at least.
But still she droops. She has no strength. She is thinner than ever. The Doctor here—a very sound man—says her best chance is to rest & feed up.
The trouble is chiefly lack of money. The expulsion from Italy trebled our expenses, & we have practically no funds.
My novel [The Diary of a Drug Fiend] has been a huge success in America & when the royalties come in I shall be quite well off again. But if Leah were to die first, it wouldn’t be much good to me, would it?
You have yourself suffered two great losses recently—you will understand how I feel.
I want you to raise as much cash as you can—at least $500 is needed at once to avert utter smash. (We have been short of food all summer—& Leah needs above all building up & freedom from the constant strain of anxiety.) It should be given to a Bank in N[ew] Y[ork] to be cabled to the credit of Leah Hirsig c/o Cooks Av. de l’Opera Paris. I am sure that if you show this letter to Fanny, Blanche Conn and other relatives & friends, the $500 can be made up. There should be a second $500 sent before Xmas: by that time I hope to begin to get my royalties & so to pay back this money, a bit at a time, if not all at once.
But I also want you to come personally to live with Leah. She is in absolute need of a sister’s love and care. I want to be away from her till she is much stronger. When I am with her, she tires herself out ‘taking care of me’—I can’t stop her! (It is also essential to take Hansi [Hansi Hammond] from Cefalù and have him educated. He is splendid, but needs much supervision & teaching, and surroundings of a new kind.)
I beg you most earnestly to do this without wasting a moment I am distressed beyond anything I can say to see Leah fading away slowly—so sweet, patient, bright, & loving; yet so weak that she can hardly get up to go for a meal; and to feel so powerless to save her. With fresh air, good food, your tender care added to mine, rest of body and mind, she will get well and strong in a few months. (Her stay in Cefalù in July & August did wonders: but in this last month she has grown rapidly worse.) I had hoped to send her away, first to Cefalù, and thence on to France but have found it impossible. I hope you will come to Europe as soon as possible.
Love is the law, love under will.
P.S. I would give my life to save Leah—so would you. I hope & believe—if anything I can do would help out about the money (e.g. my sending you an order on my publishers to repay you out of my royalties when they fall due—l enclose this) I will do it. Even if I did not love her as I do, I should know her for the sweetest woman alive, and give my all to save her—for the sake of the World itself of which she is the dearest treasure and the loveliest ornament!
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