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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
55 Avenue de Suffren, Paris VIII
October 26th, 1928.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The news from California is far from good. If K.B. [Kasimira Bass] would go to the Church over the whole business, I think some arrangement could be made immediately, but one can't press her.
Turnball [printer for Magick in Theory and Practice] had the 200 pounds all right, and returned it. They wanted to edit my manuscripts! All this business about Jack being as good as his master is plain Bolshevism, and I will have nothing to do with it. A printer has no right whatever to an opinion about a manuscript given him to print, except in so far as he is legally responsible. In such a case he has a perfect right to refuse to print certain specified portions, and a compromise may be arrived at. But for him to write a dictatorial letter to his employer is plain impudence.
If I can see Cape [Jonathan Cape publishing firm], I am sure I could talk him over.
With regard to the "Net" [Moonchild]—it is undoubtedly very plain spoken, but the chief people implicated are dead, although they were not when the book was written. Indeed I wrote it with the express purpose of tickling their tails with my magic scourge. The only people left are Yeats [W.B. Yeats], who is treated quite fairly and in any case would certainly not take action, and Waite [Arthur Edward Waite] would probably justify his cognomen as he has done since I began to make fun of him God knows how many years ago.
I postponed getting out the financial statement because of Hunt's [Carl de Vidal Hunt] insistence on the importance of the Memoirs [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley]. It is frightfully confusing to have to get back into touch with all this old stuff, but Frater Nachesh thinks that he will have everything pretty straight by Monday, and accounts can then be prepared.
I believe it will be best to send me back the press-script of Magick by Hunt. I know a man in Paris who will do it quite well; and it may be quicker if it is under my eye. At least they will not protest against the use of the word "bother", also "blow" or wickedness the germs.
I admit to sharing your anxiety, but—it is a mere weakness. Remember that 777 took two years to print and the Goetia three. There is always every kind of opposition when one is trying to get out this kind of stuff.
However, I should certainly get after Ogden [C. K. Ogden]. A telegram to Magdalen, Cambridge might possibly find him. Why not risk a bob and call it an Act of Truth?
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. I had a further interview late last night with Mr. Goedel. He is leaving for Munich this morning with a copy of the Drug Fiend [The Diary of a Drug Fiend]. He proposes to translate one or two chapters and submit them to Hunt for his approval. (Hunt, by the way, speaks German so perfectly as to extort the admiration of the natives.) Goedel is convinced that this can become a best seller. It requires minor alterations. For example the word "Boche" which we use in a perfectly friendly spirit is a terrible term of abuse in their language. Goedel was very struck by the good psychology, as he knew of a case of cocaine where the woman though she was going to give birth to the Messiah. Goedel will also try to interest Prince Hohenlohe-Bartenstein in the whole business, as well as a number of other people of importance.
I have put him in touch with Miss Küntzel [Martha Küntzel]. His general objection to the Movement in Germany was that the people we have so far are quite unimportant, but I have pointed out that though that is the case they form a nuclei all over the country and in the hands of a good organizer might be made of great service to the Work.
666.
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