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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
5 Avenue de Suffren, Paris, VII
January 13th, 1929.
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter of the 10th.
The Serpent [Israel Regardie] had returned to Eden[1]. My rheumatism is almost all right; and I cut short the chill by taking severe precautions. But we had a terrible day yesterday coming back from Fontainebleau.
I am not worrying about my own health, but I am very concerned about Regardie's. He has to be extremely careful not to overstrain himself in any way for the next couple of months. This of course puts out of the question any possible move for the present. We shall also have to keep the femme de ménage here all day to make telephone calls and run commissions. I do not think that this will be an extra expense for if we make an all day arrangement with her we get her for the same or less than if she comes for an indefinite period every day.
I am probably going down to see Lecram [Paris printers] in the course of the day; and if those proofs [of Magick in Theory and Practice] are not going to be ready on the 15th as promised I shall probably make myself into the wrath of God.
The only way to cut sown their estimate is to print a smaller number of copies, and I think it is rather late even for that, as the paper has, I presume, been ordered. You will note that on the present estimate the cost of printing is 30 francs a copy. Supposing that we average 200 francs on every copy sold, (I am allowing nearly 50% for the cost of distribution, etc.) we have only to sell 450 copies to cover the entire cost of production. We have thus a surplus of 2,500 copies for profit. If we print only 1,000 copies, the cost comes out at nearer 60 francs a copy, and there is really little chance of doing anything with the edition. The only possible thing to do is to carry on. I will manage Lecram as diplomatically as I know how.
Of course, it would be more comfortable if we had a couple of thousand pounds reserve capital.
Now I have to write you very seriously. A certain very unpleasant incident occurred which I am asked not to describe at present. But it shows that Hunt [Carl de Vidal Hunt] and Mrs. Bass [Kasimira Bass] are engaged in a criminal conspiracy and are quite desperate at the failure of their petty plot to pull the legs of the police. I have got a feeling that we are being forced into a counter-attack, but I shall not do anything unless something further occurs, and then only after giving you the full facts. At the same time it is perfectly clear that a cause célèbre filling the papers at the moment of publication [of Magick in Theory and Practice] would make us millionaires, especially as we have just got a clean bill of health from the Prefecture.
Levi [Eliphas Levi] himself mentions the difficulty about the "presence of the master" and certainly his life is one long example of the difficulty of "crossing the street". Here was a man of extraordinary talents in numerous lines, and he did not receive one per cent of the recognition that he should have done.
If my letters are really being opened in transit, it is your duty as a tax payer to send in a formal complaint to the P.M.G. that they are doing it so clumsily that you find it out at once.
I will write again to-morrow when I have seen Lecram.
Illness and Fontainebleau have set us back £12 or more and I shall want some distribution money, say £8, to plant these prospectuses with a dozen or so English booksellers in Paris.
Holroyd Reece is calling on me to-morrow morning. I hope to make a complete arrangement with him for distribution. His trip to America is evidently postponed, as he talks of going back to Berlin on Friday.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666.
P.S. I. I have just telephoned to Lecram. The Managing Director is out, Cope [Stuart R. Cope] is away sick; but the great thing is that the head compositor says I shall have my proofs on the 15th as promised. The Managing Director will telephone me as soon as he comes in and I will then employ my well known abilities.
P.S. II. Cora Eaton, by the way, is now in a sunshine mood.
P.S. III. Another thing, hard to believe:—(Extract from a letter from Germer [Karl Germer]):
P.S. IV. I am now at liberty to reveal to you the terrible secret which I hinted in the body of this letter. It appears that, I having departed for Fontainebleau on Friday afternoon, Madame de Miramar [Maria de Miramar] went forth for her own base purposes, I think to the cinema, on Saturday afternoon. She was followed, I understand, more or less from the house or its vicinity by Mrs. Bass. At any rate, Kasimira took her seat beside Mme. de Miramar in the omnibus, accosted her and began a sort of cinema-Roman conversation. She was evidently quite furious at having lost her last chance in life. From various details it seems certain that she must have been in communication with Hunt as part of a general plot, and further that the house has been watched. For instance, it seems that she knew that I had left for Fontainebleau the day before, and therefore took the opportunity to waylay Mme. de Miramar. Her avowed object was to unsettle de Miramar, and if possible to detach her. But women will be women, you know. De Miramar is quite certain from the malice in her eyes that Kasimira would be quite capable of doing some really serious mischief; such as throwing sulphuric acid where personally I don't want it.
It is really very funny that I can never get anyone to stand up to me. They always wait to do something dirty when my back is turned. (You may quote this remark to Inspector Goddard the next time you meet him. He will know how to interpret it.)
You know this policy of sitting tight is all very well, and is apparently justified by the remarks of the late Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone to Lily Langtry. But there is a point at which one gets tired of being shot at, and remembers that both in French and English there is a proverb to the effect that the best defence is counter-attack.
It is, I think, quite certain beyond doubt, as we read in the Divine Pymander, that Hunt stole my articles. He was entrusted with them; he did not return them, and the police say that they have them. Hunt, being in the position of my employee, I do not see that he has any defence in law. Also, incidentally, I think we can count on the sympathy of the French police. I think the proper course to pursue is to have a conference between Mr. Church and the French lawyer that he employs in this kind of case, so that the accusations are formulated in such terms that the other people have no come-back.
It is further my conviction, from data supplied by Smith[2] [Wilfred Talbot Smith] and others, that the moment Kasimira realizes that her skin is in peril at the hands of justice, she will start to play the part of the sincere, honest well-meaning woman who was momentarily misled by the scoundrel Hunt. Hunt is of course to be absolutely relied on to play the same game. His first capital was the pennies he stole off his dead mother's eyes.
Please let me have your views about this by the return mail.
666.
2—W.T. Smith, Crowley's disciple in Pasadena had given Kasimira Bass a letter of introduction to A.C. (G.J. Yorke).
Gerald Yorke, Esq., 9, Mansfield Street, London, W. 1.
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