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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Isidore Kerman
London, W.1. Tel: Whitehall 9331.
Isidore Kerman Esq., 44, Brook Street, London, W.1.
30th March, 1943
My dear Kerman,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
I am sending this letter off to you as soon as possible so that you may have the matter well in your mind when we meet.
I think there should now be no difficulty in getting the Tarot [The Book of Thoth] printed and published. Lady Harris [Frieda Harris] is now not only in the most friendly mood, but is exceedingly anxious to see the book out. She rang up the printers last week and asked them if they would accept her personal guarantee for the amount required, which is in the neighbourhood of £350 to £400. The printer said provisionally that he didn't see any reason why not. She said that she would see her lawyer and have a talk with him. He was, of course, very discouraging. I don't know which lawyer she was talking about. She seems to have a different one every time I hear one mentioned.
He told her, of course, that her financial position was very unsound, and all that stuff that one always hears from stick-in-the-muds. There would be no point in a guarantee at all if she could sell securities and put the money on the table. If she could, she would. This is a case of "on your note of hand alone".
I should like to explain confidentially to you her actual position. Sir Percy's [Percy Harris] income must be something like twenty or thirty thousand a year; whatever it is, he is on the 19/6d. basis. He has two sons by her, and (as far as we are aware) no other offspring. On the two boys he has settled very considerable capital sums, and an attempt is being made to induce him to do the same in her case. So far he has refused. I think the reason may be put down to pure spitefulness. He married her with the idea of training her to be a political hostess; and, of course, he did himself a certain amount of good socially by the marriage. But she has never taken the slightest interest in his ridiculous career, although she has, at great personal sacrifice, done a certain amount of entertaining of the most frightful people imaginable from Bethnal Green; and when an election has been in progress she has worked like the devil to get him elected. She even went so far as to paint the outside of the Liberal Club in Bethnal Green with her own hands on a ladder, to show the local nobility and gentry that she was not too proud to do an honest day's work.
As time has gone on, however, she had got more and more bored with the nonsense of politics, and decided to have a little of her own life to herself—hence the cottage in Gloucestershire, although even there he comes down almost every weekend, and insists on her taking long walks, which she rightly detests, and generally makes a nuisance of himself. I mention this to explain why it is that he doesn't fix her up as ordinary decency would require, to say nothing of financial common-sense. He would actually save money by making a proper settlement.
Whether he does or does not agree with the present suggestion, her position is really perfectly sound. Both her sons are devoted to her, and would certainly come to the rescue in the event of her becoming really distressed. They certainly wouldn't let her get into any kind of trouble when they could clear the sky by coughing up a couple of hundred pounds apiece.
Incidentally, of course, Percy would be actually liable for any debts which she incurred; but that is one reason why she has been reluctant to do so. She shows great delicacy of feeling with regard to him; she hates to feel that she is letting him down, although everyone else sees that he has not treated her at al well in the past, and that he is simply stupid to expect her to play a political game which she detests.
I hope I have now made everything quite clear to you. It is simply a question of drafting a letter in such terms as would be satisfactory both to herself and to the printer. Please consider this at your leisure, and let me know what you think about it all. Something ought to be done without a moment's delay in case her mood should change. Her idea is that I should go down to Gloucester next week, and get her to make the necessary arrangements then and there, after having first satisfied myself that the printer would be agreeable to accepting the letter.
Quite possibly, however, you may see a still better way of arranging the matter.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours sincerely,
Aleister Crowley.
I am keeping all day Thursday and Friday open for you. A.C.
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