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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Carl de Vidal Hunt
[Draft]
[circa May 1924] [Draft letter dictated by Crowley to Leah Hirsig]
Hunt
There seems to be a jinks on our Sunday evening appointments. I posted sentinels all round the quarter as well as being there myself and there was no sign of an advertisement [illegible] either from rue du Helder or the Luxem. My recalcitrant trustee collapsed through the fruits of the victory [illegible]. This is etc. as previous letter not yet fully gathered.
I really wish we could come to a thorough understanding about my work. If the C.T. can put a 2 page article on Emmanuel Kant discussing his philosophy in the most learned terms I do not see why you want me to yellow things up.
Wire to Memoirs of a [illegible] is probably selling on account of the supposed pornography but I think [illegible] when you see them—I've sent for a synopsis which should be here shortly will provide at least equal though dissimilar attractions. I really think the best plan is the one originally proposed—To sell them in 10 high priced vols. by subscription.
Sylvia Beach promised me to distribute the prospectuses to her Ulysses crowd which should be very nearly coterminous with the one we are trying to reach. If in addition we could get some regular publisher such as Fischer [illegible] to handle the book in the ordinary way, success should be assured. My idea then would be this
1. Get a practiced [illegible[ merchant to compose a red-hot prospectus from my synopsis.
2. Issue that prospectus for an edition limited to 1000 copies 10 volumes at either $5 or $10.
3. Offer serial rights to American and English Sunday newspapers.
4. Offer rights of 2nd Edition—[illegible] abridged to English and American publishers.
This plan would require a certain small capital.
1. For retyping the MSS.
2. For printing prospectus and perhaps purchasing mailing lists for distributing.
In view of the large profits to be expected, there should be no difficulty in arranging this.
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