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Correspondence from Gerald Yorke to Phyllis Seckler
Forthampton Court Gloucester, England.
2 March 1969
Dear Mrs. Wade,
Your 23 Feb. What happened was this. Germer [Karl Germer] and I sent each other a copy of what the other had not got and made a 2nd carbon, and all that had survived only in MS was copies with 2 carbons. Thus there was one complete archive in the States and 2 in England. But my collection of the printed works was the most complete one. One set of the English copies and all the works will go to the Warburg Institute which is part of London University, where it will be properly looked after. It would have been neglected and lost in the British Museum. Most of the books are already at the Warburg together with the original colored drawings for the Book of Thoth. Germer sent all the more important O.T.O. MSS to England for safe keeping before he died.
When Germer died I sent Sascha [Sascha Germer] the money to ship her archive to England for safe keeping, being certain that she was not a competent custodian and probably would be glad to be relieved of it. But apparently she could not bear to part with it, so that some or much of it has been stolen. I asked her who by, she gave me two Christian names, but when I asked for surnames I got no reply. I think from her letter they were mainly interested in O.T.O. material and charters and such stocks of unsold books as had survived. They did not get the O.T.O. MSS.
If, as you get older, (I am 67), or now if you feel like it, you would like to send me to ensure their safety and their addition to the main archive, to which they should belong, the letters and papers left you by Jane Wolfe, please do so. We have parts of her Cefalu diaries, copies of A.C.'s letters to her which she made herself, and of Cameron Parson to her. We also have copies of the contents of Jack Parsons' black box made before Cameron destroyed them and odds and ends of recent American material. It will help to complete the material if we have what she left you. I would reimburse you for the cost of sending them.
Thus Crowley's work is safe and very extensive, for I took a magical oath to preserve it in 1928 when I was one of his disciples, at the same time that Regardie [Israel Regardie] was there. I left him as my teacher after 3 years as I never accepted the whole of The Book of the Law, but we remained friends until his death. I left the occult Thelemic path for Hinduism and then Buddhism.
Now for the copyrights position. The copyrights belong to the O.T.O., or rather to A.C.'s branch of the O.T.O., as not all the old national branches accepted him on Reuss' [Theodor Reuss] death. Unfortunately Karl did not appoint any successor in his will. He chartered one person [Kenneth Grant] for England, whose lodge functioned for a year or two and then closed down. I do not know whom he chartered in the States, not how many lodges operate or operated. Is there a temple or lodge functioning anywhere with you as in the old days of 1003 [1003 S. Orange Grove Avenue]? If no-one can produce a valid charter made out to them by Karl they cannot claim the copyrights in law, and so would not get royalties etc. from any reprint.
The only functioning lodge that I know of is the Swiss one. It was chartered properly by Karl. They celebrate the Gnostic Mass properly but decently on Sundays and advertise it as a Sunday service in the Zurich newspapers. Every Equinox for some 6 or 7 years they have brought out an equinoctial publication varying from a book like Book 4 part one, and then part two, or several of the numbered official publication from the Equinox etc. like Liber LXV etc. etc. in a German translation. They use the Reuss translation for the Gnostic Mass. There are some 15 of them I think. I regard them as the real heirs. But they are not interested in claiming the copyrights, being self-supporting and rightly not wanting to be bothered by quarrels about the succession. I do not know if the Rio de Janeiro lodge was chartered by or merely affiliated with Karl. I suspect the latter. The Mexican lodges were chartered by Reuss and not by A.C., though the latter was in touch with them when Dr. Krumm-Heller [Arnold Krumm-Heller] was the head. But there is no O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order] today.
The literary executor appointed in A.C.'s will is John Symonds in London. In law he has the right to authorize or forbid quotations and republications or fresh publications of A.C.'s work. But this does not apply in the States, except possibly for The Book of Thoth if Karl deposited, as he was instructed to do, two copies with the Library of Congress. So in fact you can publish almost anything by A.C. in the States. But if you try to get an English publisher for it, John Symonds would invoke the law, with what result is somewhat uncertain. But Regardie has done an excellent anthology on A.C.'s work up to 1913, which Llewellyn are publishing in the States this autumn. The Aquarian Press was going to bring it out over here, but John Symonds has sent them a lawyer's letter to restrain them from doing so. He is under contract with Jonathan Cape to edit A.C.'s works for them; a 900 page edited and shortened version of The Confessions [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley], which covers all the unpublished typescripts of it—only the first 2 volumes came out, being published by the Mandrake Press of which I was a director. If The Confessions sell the next volume will be edited from the unpublished diaries.
Afraid I am not prepared myself to copy material for you, as I have not the time.
If you can work out for me whether any lodge of the O.T.O. is in fact working in the States at the moment, I shall be grateful and particularly if you can find out who stole the stuff, as it should be recorded for historical purposes.
Yours sincerely,
Gerald Yorke
A copy of Germer's diaries is in the main archive over here, but has not been copied. Nor has the modern American material.
Llewellyn have just published in the States Roll Away The Stone by Regardie which reprints with an admirable article A.C.'s main articles on Hashish etc. in the Equinox.
Please forgive typing.
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