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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Gerald Yorke
30 June 1948
Dear Yorke,
Yours of June 11th and 18th. I have carefully noted what you wrote. Won't the Magic Circle sell their copy of Liber VII? If at a reasonable price I'd be interested; also I am constantly in the market for rarer Crowley items. Thanks for promising copies of the various things. At one time I saw quite a lost of the small neatly printed first issues of the Manifesto To Man. There were some others at that time; one, I remember, about Annie Besant [Madame Tussaud-Besant], another about Krishnamurti [Avenger to the Theosophical Society]. I have none of them.
Your 'attempt' at a complete bibliography of the official A∴A∴ and O.T.O. books is interesting and valuable. Much of it was unknown to me. In the meantime you may have my letter pertaining to The Master Therion, a bibliographical Note. I suggest that you keep some sort of a record of all the copies of typescripts, etc. which I have to supply you. I am at the present in a turmoil, and must get this H.Q. set up and somebody to help me, before I can go about getting out all these copies made.
Thanks for the copies of De Thaumaturgia and Collegii Sancti, and The Master Therion. This latter is indeed defective and incomplete.
Kenneth Grant: I have gone through my files and unearthed about a dozen letters from A.C. referring to him. He wrote me in 1945 that Grant at 24 was as well versed as he himself was at 25! He counted on him. But I also realise that Grant lacks knowledge and wisdom of life, so necessary to balance an excessive growth in another direction. He wrote me two letters, one arrived today which I will have to answer in the light of the letters I found by A.C. and which I had clean forgotten. From A.C.'s reports it seems that (1) Grant could not force himself to do the chores which close and intimate life with A.C. would have demanded; had he stuck it out, he would have gained immensely; (2) that he yielded to pressure by his father to stop his relations with A.C. Has he made progress in becoming independent from family ties? I must say I like all I hear about him, but to mature, he may have to take some hard knocks. He is so young and I like his enthusiasm. However, patience is possibly the hardest lesson to learn. I also found a letter in which A.C. wrote he was putting K. Grant in touch with Louis Wilkinson to give him instruction. What kind of woman is Mrs. Grant [Steffi Grant]? It seems an excellent thing to have him help you making copies of material. It works two ways.
Vernon Simmons: I enclose a letter which Mellinger [Frederic Mellinger] sent me; I have asked M.[ellinger] to check on his address or tell me if he knows his present whereabouts. Please return the enclosed. M. considered him very promising and his letter is not bad. He must have known A.C., but I can't remember A.C. mentioning him to me, as he usually did. Should you ever hear the name or of him, please let me know. Should I obtain his address, I'll do likewise.
Jones's [Charles Stansfeld Jones] troubles, I mean the root of them, is crystal clear to me. I hinted at them in my letter to him of May 18th of which, I think, I sent you a copy. He is obsesses by passages in Liber Legis, referring to them to him. Having done this over a period of 30 years (or is it 31—AL?) the disease is deep-seated. There are two (or three) minor cases on the West Coast of a similar nature, but as yet they have not blossomed out, and are to some extent under control.
Let me say, in this connection, one word about the 'Stélé', of which Achad made so much, that A.C. had not done the one things he was to do. When I wrote my first letter to Jones challenging him, and saying that one of his letters came as "such a shock", it was my amazement that he was utterly ignorant of the fact that A.C. did "get the Stélé of Revealing itself" many years ago; the hidden meaning of the pertinent versus was found, it must have been before 1929, anyway before I returned to Europe in July 1929. I cannot check on the exact date, because all my (extremely valuable) files, MSS., diaries, letters, correspondence, books, etc. are still in Brussels, stored there by my former Mistress when I was arrested in May 1940—the invasion by the Nazis. They are still there, but my efforts at getting all that from her have so far been in vain. One of the purposes of my planned journey to Europe last year was to rescue them. There is the jealousy of a woman involved. Once I get all this and see it again after over 8 years, it will prove a mine.
It may be wiser to send all the remaining literary material in one shipment. It should then be declared as "Effects", which they, I take, all are. Why does Symonds [John Symonds] need it any longer? He has had the stuff for 7 months now. I have not heard from him since he asked me about copyrights 5 or 6 months ago. Louis Wilkinson in a letter received today thinks Symonds has already contacted me about the printer in Hastings. Should he plan to go there, please tell him the essence of my remarks in my recent letter re. this.
Thanks awfully for your offer to accept only 50% of the freight charges. I accept this for the time being and expect to be in a position to retaliate with some special services from my part.
Astrology is being typed now; it makes slow progress due to the calligraphy of your original: I'll mail you your copy when I get it.
As ever,
Yours,
Karl.
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