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Correspondence from Charles Harper [Waterhouse & Co., Solicitors for Constable & Co.] to Michael Sadleir [Constable & Co., Publishers of Laughing Torso]
[Correspondence concerning Constable & Co.'s preparation for the libel suit brought by Aleister Crowley against Nina Hamnett and the publication of her book Laughing Torso.]
Waterhouse & Co. Solicitors 10 & 12 Bishopsgate, London, E.C.2.
1st February 1933
CROWLEY
Dear Sadleir,
I have now looked through "White Stains" and as you are in town to-day I am sending it by hand with the Autobiography [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] Vol. I.
You were right in your recollection. "White Stains" is referred to on pp. 184-5.
No doubt you will look through the whole book but I suggest your special attention to the poems on pp. 64, 78, 83, 88, 107.
Crowley's solicitors are applying to-day to the Master for a special jury, which no doubt they will get. It seems to me that this is all part of a game of bluff because whoever asks for a special jury has to pay thirteen guineas for it before the trial can come on and I do not suppose that Crowley has any cash to spare for this.
I regard "White Stains" as an important find, especially as it is admitted by Crowley to have been written by him. I think that when you have read the book I ought to get our counsel to read it and then have a consultation with you and them to consider the next step. I am afraid we shall get no evidence about Cefalu and no reliable help from our co-defendant. It looks as if our counsel will have to smash Crowley in cross-examination.
But it need not go to that length if we can administer interrogatories, that is, a series of written questions which he has to answer on oath before the trial. Our counsel must advise on that.
Yours sincerely,
Charles S.J. Harper
BY HAND Michael Sadleir, Esq., 10 & 12, Orange Street, Leicester Square, W.C.2.
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