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Correspondence from Roger C. Staples to Philip Kaplan
3217 Pittsview Road Ann Arbor, Michigan
November 23rd, 1962
Dear Mr. Kaplan,
Upon the advice of Mr. Robert Lund, whom I've never met, but who left me instructions at a bookseller, I am taking the liberty of writing to you. You and I apparently share a common interest in the works of AC. I'm writing my PhD dissertation on the poetry of AC, here at the University of Michigan, where I've taught for the past three years; I teach now at Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, and I am also doing work in Russian. My eventual hope is to teach in two departments at a large state university, for they are the only ones who can pay. I was born here in Ann Arbor, bred here (and at Cranbrook); I own land here and I expect eventually to die here. Although a college teacher, I am interested in other things: Flying, mountain climbing(!), farming, singing, and shooting. I mention all this that this letter may not seem from a total stranger.
My interest in AC's poetry began a year ago, when I discovered him, through Yeats [W. B. Yeats]. My present interest in AC is purely literary—I am not a magician, adept, diabolist, etc.; I've been learning about these things in the past six months and I find them a fascinating study. I am not a follower of Crowley or of his cult, but I am a follower of his poetry and I am thus quite interested in the literary aspects of his cult. I think he wrote some of the best (and worst!) English verse I've yet read. I also think this verse needs a scholarly treatment, the kind of treatment General Fuller [J.F.C. Fuller], Symonds [John Symonds], Cammell [Charles Cammell] and the others have been unable to give it.
During the past six months, I have been steadily building up a small collection of A.C.'s work: prose, poetry. magic, fiction. I own a few letters and considerable body of secondary matter on him. General Fuller kindly sent me a copy of his book. Others have sent me MSS and letters. Gerald Yorke has given me permission to microfilm things from his collection. Though I lack copies of the Bagh [Bagh-i-Muattar], Snowdrops [Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden] and White St. [White Stains], I have two leads for getting microfilms of them for my chapter on A.C.'s "Erotic" verse. I have been collecting texts of poems and collecting them in various editions noting variants, etc. I discover that AC took more care than we might think when he reprinted. Poems in Olla, for example, undergo many big changes—he takes them from plays or other volumes, changes meanings and contexts, and revises. Often when he puts a play (e.g. The Fatal Force) into the Works [Collected Works] he changes characters. For fun, sometime, compare "El Fatihah" (Olla p. 70) with Amphora or Hail Mary, p. 74! This, to me, argues a more conscious artistry than his critics from G.K. Chesterton to JS [John Symonds] and CRC [Charles R. Cammell] would admit. It makes my book, I think, necessary and useful. General Fuller thinks that two thirds of A.C.'s "stunts" were designed to focus attention on his poetry—while I consider this an extreme view, I do think that the best way to understand AC-the-man is to read AC the poet. And I think that my book will help to give AC the scholarly and literary recognition he deserves. I have the languages (Latin, Gk, Heb, Sansk, [illegible]) and the literary background to do this, I think.
I write to you for several reasons: assuming that you are still interested in AC, you may have advice, encouragement for me, secondly, you may have texts, MSS, letters, fragments or other material that you think belong in my book on AC's poetry. It's going to be scholarly and detailed—I plan to draw upon all the resources that I have available. If you have matter that you think belongs in it, and if you would be willing to have it microfilmed for me at my expense, or if you know of other collectors (besides ourselves) who have such matter, or if you know of other scholars working on AC's poetry, or of others who share our interest in AC's poetry, I would very much appreciate hearing from you. I (and I should think all of us) want to make this study as valuable to lovers of AC's works as fifteen years of intensive academic training, so rare in American university circles, can help me make it. I can get my doctorate with a cursory book on AC's poems—I consider such book crimes (and so, I think would AC). I am young: I was in my early teens in 1947—I never met AC. I have many years to catch up with the rest of you! But I hope that my study will justify the attention you may have time to give me.
Yours truly,
Roger C. Staples Dept. of English Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan
(or at home)
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