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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Philip Kaplan
West Point, Calif. Box 258
April 18, 1958.
Dear Philip:
Yours of April 15 was good news indeed, I am happy, and hope you will never regret it. On the contrary, if I am permitted to prophecy, I would say that within a few years you will be satisfied more than to-day that you made this jump.
As you are too busy at the moment, and will hardly have the leisure to go into details, I want to say only this: if Lund [Robert Lund] has not given you also the manuscripts which he wanted to keep for himself, except that he promised to give them to the party that would take the whole lot.
My opinion is that these manuscripts, which he may not value at all, probably not bound, or otherwise unattractive, these manuscripts very probably are of the highest value to us, and may be to you once you study them. Please, make the greatest effort to get them from Lund, or at least get the titles or a description, or what they refer to. If we have them, which I presume, they may have slightly different wordings, or annotations, or,—which is much likely—they should not be in Lund's hands, being secret material.
I have not been in touch with Kowal [Dr. John P. Kowal] since he wrote me the letter of which I sent you a copy. It is not likely that he would write again, If so, all I would tell him is that they must be sold, and not to me.
Yorke [Gerald Yorke] is eager to have, or see "Alexandra", so, please do him the favour to either show it to him, or at least five him a copy. It must be specially important to him as an Englishman. I take it that it is a poem ridiculing pompous Queen Alexandra. And lèse Majesté.
I have sent a copy of the list of the collection to a collector in Melbourne, Australia, who has a greater collection I have, equalling probably yours, or Yorke's. He is a bookdealer by the name of Norman Robb (originally Rabinowitz), for whom this will be ht most exciting news. Yorke, too, knows him well.
Now good luck to you and have a pleasant journey—how I envy you!
Yours
Karl.
P.S. There is a group of Thelemites in Zürich, Switzerland, who are publishing translations of Crowley's works regularly, every month, every quarter, and every Equinox. Yorke can show you their work. He can give you their address if you have the time to visit them.
K.
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