|
Correspondence from Philip Kaplan to Roger C. Staples
Dec 2nd 1962
Dear Mr. Staples:
I am delighted to hear that you are working on the poetry of Aleister Crowley, a neglected part of this mans great career. Your scholarly approach is necessary, you have to know a lot to really understand him.
It is nice to know that Gerald Yorke has offered to help, he does have a great collection and he can be most co-operative. Yorke expressed, in a letter to me, that he never really understood A.C.'s poetry. Snowdrops [Snowdrops from a Curate's Garden] is really a worthless book, not poetry but mainly limericks. It is pure pornography, which I do not object to, but not becoming to Crowley.
The "Bagh" [Bagh-i-Muattar] is great, an unbelievable book for a youngster, Crowley was in his early 20's when he wrote it. Many people attributed the book to Richard Burton, perhaps because the notes to the poems were brilliant. "White Stains" has some good spots (no pun intended), the poems are biographical.
Now, as far as my interest in Crowley to date, I must tell you that I sold my collection recently to a dealer. I believe that the collection was bought by the University of Indiana, probably for the Kinsey Institute. If not there then the University of Texas. The dealer refuses to give me the name.
The only person who showed some interest in AC over here was a young poet named Garrit Lansing, Ed. of a little magazine. He published some poems from BOOK, he showed a genuine interest in Crowleys poetry. I collected Crowley for over 30 years and I met very few people who knew his poetry. The reason I sold my collection was the responsibility of housing such an important lot of books. I felt quite greedy in having the collection, which is wrong for a collector.
I enclose a copy of my note to the dealer along with notes of items in the collection, they are yours to keep. If you should get to N.Y. please call me, I should like to meet with you to discuss Crowley.
Good luck,
Sincerely,
|