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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to John Symonds
"Netherwood", The Ridge, Hastings, Sussex.
28 Aug 47
My dear John Symonds.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
I cannot imagine what has happened to you! It is ages since I heard from you.
I have been a pretty sick man all summer. When my doctor went away for his holiday, he said: "Well you are in bed and you can jolly well stay there until I come back." This I did, and am feeling very much better.
I was helped immensely to recover by Frieda [Frieda Harris]—I think it must have been—who sent me a copy of 'William Waste' [by John Symonds]. (I have no words strong enough to condemn that abominable blurb. I suppose your blurb-maker has his eye on the public). What the book really is I can tell you, and could find again no words strong enough in condemnation. It is the first attempt so far as I know, to record a hashish intoxication in intellectual terms. You have broken entirely new ground, and, I think, most successfully. I hope the sales rise to the height of my opinion of the book. In every way it is one of the best pieces of writing that I have struck for years.
You seem to have forgotten altogether about me. Of course I wasn't well enough to see anyone or discuss business, but I am now well on the way to complete recovery, and it would give me immense pleasure if you could spare a day to come down and lunch here. There are quite a number of points which ought to be discussed.
Accept my best wishes and the reiterated hope to see you soon.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours sincerely,
Aleister Crowley.
J. Symonds Esq., 121, Adelaide Road, London, N.W.3.
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