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Correspondence from Michael Sadleir [Constable & Co., Publishers of Laughing Torso] to Charles Harper [Waterhouse & Co., Solicitors for Constable & Co.]
[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.]
July 22nd 1933
CROWLEY
Dear Harper,
As I am unable to send the book I enclose herewith the relevant extracts from Ethel Mannin's book CONFESSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS. As far as I can tell these are the only references to Crowley in the book.
Yours,
C.J.S. Harper Esq., Waterhouse & Co.
CONFESSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS by ETHEL MANNIN
According to the Index (which one has no reason to regard as unreliable), the only references to Aleister Crowley in this book are the following on p. 195:—
The chapter is headed: GWEN OTTER [Gwendolen Otter] Portrait of a Bohemian.
. . . "Downstairs there is a dining-room designed by Mrs. E.V. Lucas, canvas-coloured walls with reddish-orange paint-work, striped orange linen curtains, and on the wall opposite the fireplace a John [Augustus John] lithograph of Alister [sic] Crowley, that high priest of black magic who like nothing better than to be regarded as His Satanic Majesty the Prince of Darkness, and who would take it as a compliment to be called an arch-devil.
Knowing that Crowley is one of Gwen Otter's oldest friends I asked her if she could tell me the truth about him and the dark stories of drugs and black mass circulating about him, but I gathered from her, as from a woman artist I know who once had a studio next door to his apartments, that there is no clearly definable truth about him; save that he is a poseur who has come to believe in his own poses—so that they are no longer poses—and that having built up this sinister reputation for himself he goes on playing up to it."
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