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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
[On the stationary of] The Aquila Press Limited 2 & 3 Langham Chambers All Souls Place, W.1.
12th May. 1930.
Gerald Yorke Esq., 9 Mansfield Street. W.1.
Care Frater:
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law"
I was rather expecting to hear from you before this. I very badly need the stock lists of Dixons. I should also be glad of a note to enable me to collect the Camille from your house.
Berlin is very enthusiastic. The Taggblatt has a very charming little article on me with a reproduction of the John [Augustus John] drawing. It is urgent that I should have photographs of some of the best things for reproduction in an art magazine to prepare the way for the Berlin exhibition.
I had dinner with Thynne [Major Robert Thynne] last night. He is a very difficult man to deal with. It seems to me that he bargains for the sake of bargaining, without the slightest consideration for the nature of his real interests. And his idea of a 'merger' is that of an anaconda performing the same operation to a rabbit.
I want you to push in a little for example he definitely undertook to purchase the edition of Magick [Magick in Theory and Practice] for £500, cash, with me to get 15% royalties on the sale; and he must be held to that.
Then again the question of these pictures has to be settled. The Mandrake [Mandrake Press] ought to finance the exhibition on the terms originally arranged, that they are to pay all expenses, and re-coup themselves from the proceeds of the exhibition. I consider this a very generous offer on my part, as the principle object of the exhibition from their point of view was to get good publicity for the Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] and other books.
Considering that they take the lion's share of the profits, they ought to be willing to spend money in advertising, and if I am shouldering that part of the burden, they ought not to put obstacles in my way.
I had lunch with Konody [Paul George Konody] on Sunday, and he is very interested indeed; but he had no time to go into details before Thursday when he leaves for Italy. But he will be back 10 days later, and can then no doubt come to an agreement.
I think you should insist very strongly with Thynne; if he thinks you will withdraw your investment if he does not do what I want, he will do it!
I think the trouble with Stephensen [P.R. Stephensen] is over. I had the opportunity of talking to a barrister yesterday, and he said that Stephensen's action did not imply disloyalty, which was the only thing that I was bothering about.
"Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally
666
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