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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Aleister Crowley
K. J. GERMER 1007 Lexington Ave. New York, N.Y. Regent 4-2493
July 10, 1942.
Dear Aleister,
Yours of June 26th just came in. There are two other letters of yours, dated May 24th and June 8th to which I haven't replied. I don't know what to say, what to do; things just don't develop as we expected.
I have never thought much or too highly about the Cleveland people. But why not use them if they can be useful? However, I have not been able to extricate a definite word from either Gordon or anybody else. The last I heard was that Bisiker was away; that he was expected back any moment; that they would be notified the moment he came to his office; that they would then see him at once and take the matter up as suggested by you. This was weeks ago; I wrote Soule again, after I had phoned him before, but there is no answer. What shall I do but wait? If there isn't much hope, waiting is not a vice.
How do you see the possibilities of your coming over from your end? What would you consider as favorable propositions coming from here that might ease matters over there? If this present scheme falls down, as it seems it will, we would have to try and do something new, unless one considers that it is just as much waste of time and energy, a useless war of nerves.
Your letter of June 26th reflects about my frame of mind. I haven't got much energy or spirit left. With a new partner (I mailed you the Hor[oscope] on June 1-) this does not seem a good sign. I don't know what to make of it all. My heart and soul are not engaged, and I doubt whether I should go on or not.
I got the 'final' version of La Gauloise. Shouldn't it be 'de la tricolore'? Also, it seems to me that 'Vaincrons' is English. In my opinion it should be 'Vainquons'. (The idea of a foreigner writing a Hymn for another nation seems to me basically wrong, despite precedents to the contrary.) I'll mail a copy to R. L. [Roy Leffingwell].
I note what you say about transfers. Jane [Jane Wolfe] said in one letter that $100 had been collected by various members for a card to be inscribed 'Agape Lodge'. I never heard anything from 132 [Wilfred Talbot Smith] direct, so don't know whether that sum has been sent you direct. In any case I think I will be able to cable you the customary sum by July 15.
I wonder whether some operation of Max' [Max Schneider] brought about this Cleveland contact? I have been too busy with the assured regularity of the monthly transfers to work in the direction of your trip. Besides, it had appeared to me from the correspondence of the last three months or so that you were loath to leave England really. It seemed to me that your main preoccupation was not your coming here, no matter under what conditions, but rather that the conditions were in some grand or at least appropriate style. Those are two different things.
Your remark on poetry: Don't fool yourself, I do understand that. No need for your explanation 'for the nth time'. What I object to is the need to vilify your antagonist. I am not used to it; it is not customary where I grew up. However, I notice you are in good company as you will see from the enclosed article by Louis Alber on Churchill. Now Ch[urchill] is not a man of the street, yet he uses that language at a time when international relations gave no excuse. Is it arrogance? Is it contempt? Is it supposed to be a joke? I have lived long enough among the British, yet I fail to find an explanation or justification for it.
In Vienna, before the European War of 1914, it was customary to bring the figure of a Czech on the stage, ridicule his exterior, his way of speaking, his manners; to the violent resentment of the Czechs. Well, they took their revenge and the Viennese had to drink the cup to the dregs.
No, Yorke [Gerald Yorke] can't be made to pay; he took his precautions. I have taken a lawyer to get the Will [of Karl Germer's previous wife] probated. It turned out that I am not the only executor and beneficiary. However, the lawyer pointed out that according to law the husband cannot be debarred from at least fifty percent; as soon as the Will is probated he wants to take steps to obtain that sum for me. If these steps should be successful, it would mean a possibility of getting ultimately several thousand at my personal disposal, provided I can sell that part of the mortgage for cash. However, this is a long way off.
A female is around, as mentioned before, but I wonder whether I won't have to wait for the proper thing to turn up a year from now. Yet, Lotte is an amazing woman. A remarkable astrologer, grown up among artists all her life; her husband (as she is convinced) a reincarnated William Blake; her brother his inspirer; Why shouldn't she be useful somewhere? Her brother having dropped out, she dreams of you inspiring her Husband to express 93 in printing. Well, this is all so far off.
Yours
Karl
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