|
Correspondence from to Karl Germer to Charles Stansfeld Jones
17 April 1948
Care Frater Achad,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In the pressure of events and the conditions I find myself in, I do not quite remember whether I have acknowledged receipt of your kind letter of April 8th. But as I have just received a further communications from Gerald Yorke enclosing copy of your letter to him of March 29th, and having an occasion to get this letter typed, I hasten to write you.
I have not the time, as you may understand, to go thoroughly into the various aspects of the Thelemic situation that you raise in your letters, but I feel certain that an exchange of ideas and views should take place at an early opportunity. Seriously, I had wished that this could have taken place in connection with the short trip that I had had to make to San Francisco and I would have been happy to extend my journey and stay a day or two with you near Vancouver. A day or two of personal acquaintance would have speeded up a general understanding. However, I have no doubt we will meet at a more opportune occasion. I might as well tell you right now that I am planning to set up some sort of headquarters—which I had first planned to do in California—in the East. This will be my prime object as soon as I retune to New York early in May.
Max Schneider died while I was here on April 7th, and I came too late to have serious talks with him. Before he passed away he strongly approved of my intention to establish personal contacts with you. You mention in your letter that you had handed over to Max certain papers on June 4, 1926. Could you give me any indication as to what these papers were? Max being dead cannot enlighten me on this point.
There is one subject that is very strongly among the great number of my present worries. It may be that Mr. Yorke [Gerald Yorke] has mentioned the subject to you already. It is that the search of A.C.'s estate has shown that certain important typescripts, etc., are missing. Most of these I have read and studied many years ago so that I personally know that they existed. Among them is a four volume typescript on Astrology, which he wrote when he was collaborating with Evangeline Adams in New York. Another is the Volume III/2 of the Equinox, the volume that was prepared I think in 1919 in New York, was printed, and then could not be paid for due to lack of cash. When I arrived in New York in 1926 I got in touch with a firm by the name of Tapley in order to see if I could rescue the printed sheets but they had been destroyed. I have read the galley proofs of this volume which A.C. had bound up: this volume has disappeared. It may be that you have a duplicate of these galley proofs and I would be awfully glad if you had. I have a feeling that there were some other manuscripts or typescripts that I had in mind of asking you about, but not having my files with me I do not quite remember.
You will understand that I feel a great responsibility concerning the literary remains of A.C.'s. It is mainly for this reason that I intend to set up a headquarters in a quiet place away from cities where libraries, sheets of unbound books, letters, files, typescripts, etc. etc., can be stored, catalogued and preserved. This will at long last eliminate the danger of further losses due to shifting domiciles, high warehouse storage charges that caused the loss of so much valuable material in the past. If you actually come to the East I should be very glad to see you then and show you the material that I hope will by that time have arrived. In the meantime will you be good enough to let me know whether you have in your files copies of the typescripts I mentioned above? It would relieve me considerable.
There is one thing I had planned to send you—it is a copy of A.C.'s Will. Not having one available in San Francisco, I think I can get one typed upon my return to Los Angeles and have it mailed to you. Your letter of April 8th mentions, among other things, that you had sent to me on April 6th certain records concerning Liber Legis and Thelema. Unfortunately, this has not arrived as yet. I expect to find it on my return to Los Angeles next week. I am most eager to see this.
I think I have mentioned all the points that I felt impelled to write you as quickly as possible. I will get in touch with you as soon as I get into a period of more calm.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
|