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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Perry Tull
K. J. GERMER 260 West 72nd Street New York 23, N.Y.
ENdicott 2-6799
May 26, 1947
Dear Perry,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yours of May 23. I am mailing you to-day in two parcels, Insured, all On Consignment, prices as per my last letter:—
3 copies of TAROT [The Book of Thoth], No. 170, 171, & 184, all signed by A.C. 3 copies of Little Essays Toward Truth 3 copies of Eight Lectures on Yoga 4 copies of Olla
As I had some copies of the prospectuses of the Tarot left I am mailing a supply separately; they may be helpful. Max Schneider's address that is given in there, is still the same at this moment, but he is just moving to San Francisco. Jane Wolfe is for the time being continuing the Lecture Classes that Max had established. Should anyone write to Max' old address it will reach him.
I am of the opinion that the prices I've given you are reasonable to say the least. Nobody in England or the U.S.A. has any further copies either of the Tarot, or the Little Essays, or the 8 Lectures on Yoga available. All I have are about 10 copies of each. So you can guide yourself accordingly. The copies of the last two books are a rare chance: A.C. had sent to Max many years ago a supply of those two books in sheets; in the turmoil of the war, etc., they were misplaced, and only discovered when I came to California; Max had them bound up nicely and the 10 copies we have left are all that ever will be available of this edition.
Send me a check when books are sold.
I enclose the "Word" [Word of the Equinox] of the Spring Equinox.
What I would like to have from you is a complete list of all the thelemic and kindred books that you have been able to collect. This is mere curiosity on my part, the reason being that I knew from you that you have been able to collect a great many Crowley items which are extremely rare. I have a list of what they have in California, and I'd like to have yours too. During the years since you were here I have been able to collect a fairly complete set of Crowley books; I even have some duplicates. I have pursued the policy to pick up all Crowley items that I could lay my hands on, so that I could pass them on to members who did not have them: as long as I could afford to pay the price.
I am sure I sent you many years ago a copy of the typescripts of Liber Aleph and of the Tao Teh King. Tell me, they are not lost? You have a rare chance—provided you are getting contacts with book lovers and book seekers—through your activity as an occult book dealer to get a list of people who are looking or are interested in thelemic or kindred books. Do not fail to keep a card index of all the names of such people and try to make it as up to date as possible.
I know for instance book dealers who could be quite helpful in this respect to get me in touch with serious students and seekers. But they are not Thelemites, they are only interested in the Dollar, so that I cannot cooperate with them.
What you should do is keep in touch and up to date with the second hand book market all over the country, including Canada and South America. Your name should be listed as occult or rare book dealer, so that people who seek write to you for rare items. If I would see that this is your line, I might help you by giving you in practice the exclusive sale of the Crowley books I or anyone in Los Angeles, or San Francisco has for sale. If then anyone all over the country should ask any book dealer for certain books, he would have to get it through you. Something of that sort is in my mind, if you can handle it. I believe, though, that you'd require some experience in the book trade. I know for instance a man by the name of Davies or so who had the very small Coronet Bookstore. He moved some years ago to New Orleans and from what I hear he has developed a very fine business. Do you get his regular catalogs?
Use your stamp business as the means to get the financial basis right first of all. Can I help? I may have quite a few foreign stamps still on old envelopes in my files. Are they worth anything?
Let me close now. I've written too long already.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally
[signed] Karl
Copy
The Word of the Equinox is - lift (AL III, 45) The Oracle is Thee (AL II, 12) The Omen is Pî (XXII)
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