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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
Hotel Foyet Paris
29-3-28 e.v. [29 March 1928]
C∴F∴
93.
A good deal of the trouble is cross-purposes. I should never have put you in direct communication with Amexco.
All arrangements had better be made through me. The strings must be all in one hand.
(For I was filled with [illegible] alarms at your suggestion to send the cases to England. The Customs would make some excuse to destroy them. E.g. there's a picture called "The Religion of New York" which they would call blasphemous—like the Pilgrim's Progress, the Origin of the Species and their kind. And on that they could and would seize and destroy the entire shipment.
There is no real danger about debts. I owe probably less than £100 in all.)
Similarly the Leipzig proposal ought to be made through me. If you and I write without consultation to the same people, it will be as fatal as the dual control that nearly lost the war.
Mrs W[alker] turned up at F[ontaine]bleau sub rosa. The Gods smote her with lumbago; so she had to appeal to me! She has been very silly, and is having to pay for it. You can't break the Laws of Magick and get away with it; not even if you "hold the thought" "What a superior person I am"!
Upshot: I've brought up some most important papers not too bulky. And the balance goes to storage. It can rot there until I've got an assured G.H.Q. [Grand Headquarters] and staff for months ahead.
Metro-Goldwyn made me an offer of compensation about "The Magician";[1] but I'm holding out for publicity and power. I hope to see the big man on Friday.
The question of the business partner still dominates the situation. If Raymond Radclyffe 13 Top Tree Avenue London Wall is still alive he might help. Just before the war he was forming a syndicate with £3000 to run my work. Things should be much easier now I've got all the publicity we need: it wants merely a push to turn them all to good.
You might find B. C. Hammond [Benjamin Charles Hammond] Western Electric Engraving Co. 1G Broad St Soho useful in some ways. He was at one time.
The Pickfords matter is held up for a second counsel's opinion.
You say nothing about the possibility of raising £500 for a short term: is it so hopeless? The booksellers' evidence of [illegible] ought to persuade a man to take a chance! It would be easy for me to pay the interest, as I get (on an average) over £20 a month from N.Y. above. With £500 I could get into a flat or small house, eat at home, etc, and so cut down my current exes by 2/3. The would also free me to put over various deals.
We are trying to arrange with a dealer here to handle the pictures.
93 93/93.
Fraternally,
666.
1—[Refers to Somerset-Maugham's book The Magician and the subsequent movie based on it.]
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