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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.
5th February 1934
CROWLEY
Dear Sadleir,
I am in receipt of your letter of to-day and am indeed grieved that a mishap should have occurred to WHITE STAINS.
I have made enquiry and have ascertained what happened. The briefs were being delivered and it appears that I told the clerk who was working with Jones to see that counsel's names were marked on each of their documents, an ordinary precaution as counsel's documents are apt to get mixed. But the clerk in all good faith, and I must add in all ignorance, thought that as the books were being lent to Mr. Hilbery, his name should be put on each and so the damage to WHITE STAINS occurred.
The thing is so obviously wrong that it never occurred to me to give special instructions and I only hope that you will be able to remove the label when the time comes—it had better be left as it is now—and that the value of the book will not be reduced as your fear.
WHITE STAINS reached me in a stout envelope but I have not yet found where that envelope has got to. It is probably at 2, King's Bench Walk.
I will take special care of WHITE STAINS and of the BANNED LECTURE which I fancy will not be of much use at the trial though I have not read it carefully yet.
I hope that WHITE STAINS will eventually be returned to you but I do not know what its future may be. It is not impossible that the Judge may say that he will impound the documents and send them to the Director of Public Prosecutions, as he has the right to do. Then it will be made an exhibit with a great label stuck on it which might eventually enhance its value or the opposite.
But whatever its fate I remain grieved at the incident. I can only ask you to accept my explanation.
Yours sincerely,
Charles S.J. Harper
PERSONAL Michael Sadleir, Esq., 10 & 12, Orange Street, Leicester Square, W.C.2.
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