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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Monday, 8 October 1923
Die Luna
The General Plan
To realize A.C.’s assets.
Steps 1. Vindication 2. Recovery of stolen assets. 3. Concentration on my realization of assets + selling campaign.
To make this possible. 1. Get money . . . every where possible on any pretext imaginable. (Pay this back immediately success comes). 2. Enrol sworn band of volunteers to back the campaign to the limit.
[Break in the plan for other notes:]
[The following draft letter crossed through:]
Vindication: Preamble [5 October 1923—in Crowley’s hand-written for Norman Mudd].
I am an M.A. of C[ambridge] U[niversity]—(Maths Scholar of Trinity College). I have been lecturing in Maths at G[reys] U[niversity] B[loemfontein] for some years past. I have known Aleister Crowley for over 13 years. He is admittedly one of the most remarkable poets and writers of the present days. I have studied his scientific Memoranda with great care, & am satisfied that they should lead to discoveries which will furnish mankind with a new Instrument of Knowledge, & a new method of research. I have examined the accusations made against him by certain newspapers of a certain class, and find them without exception baseless falsehoods. I have spent over 3 months in close personal contact with him, and know surely that his ideals are noble, his honour stainless, and his life devoted wholly to the service of Mankind.
Having given his entire fortune (over £100,000) to his Work, he has been unable to refute publicly the calumnies of his assailants.
He has found no man of those who know him sufficiently prominent, powerful, and courageous to come forward and vindicate him before the world.
The honour of England is concerned that her greatest poet should not perish under the malice and neglect of his fellow-countrymen, as too often in History.
More, it is infamous and intolerable that any man should be thus persecuted, and denied the right to defend himself, unless at the cost of thousands of pounds—and that when the false accusations themselves have beggared him!
So strongly do I feel that the Soul of England is at stake that I have resolved, and sworn, to take action as set forth hereunder.
I shall come to London before the end of this month of October, and devote myself until the end of the year to persuading some person or corporation of authority, wealth or influence to investigate the accusations against Mr Crowley impartially & fully, and to publish the results adequately.
Failing which I shall take publication of such a nature as to compel Justice to open an official enquiry, though at the peril of my liberty or even my life [last phrase and next paragraph heavily crossed through].
No personal considerations weigh with me for one moment against the imperative claims of Justice and Fair Play. Were the situation such that England’s sleep were not to be broken save by the report of a pistol fired against myself on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral, She should awaken.
[Margin Note:] (516 [Jane Wolfe] to get this letter published Times preferably. If not, print it and send round to press [William] Collins &c., ask Collins to help.)
Manifesto O.P.V. [Norman Mudd]
I am engaged on a research which I believe will prove of critical importance to Mathematics. For strategical reasons, and because my information is at present incomplete, I am unable to explain the nature of the work: I must ask those who know me to trust me and support me. The work requires immediate financial assistance: funds should be transmitted to me through my colleague Edmund Saayman B.A. New College Oxford. (I shall return all contributions on attaining my object if desired.)
It also requires a pledge of personal assistance; that is, I ask for volunteers to pledge themselves to make any investigations which I may ask them to do-of course within their power-without inquiring its object or admitting any other person to confidence.
From
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (name)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (address)
herewith enclose £ . . . . . . . . . . for the use of Norman Mudd in his present researches, and promise to contribute further the sum of £ monthly through Mr E[dmund] S[aayman) of N[ew] C[ollege] O[xford].
I also promise to execute without question, and in strict confidence, any task which N[orman] M[udd] may lay upon me, provided it lie in my power so to do. I also enclose herewith letters of introduction for N.M. or E.S. to the foll[owin]g persons, whom I consider as likely to be of use to N.M.’s research in either of the ways above stated.
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (name)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (address)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (probable line of usefulness).
I understand thoroughly that the course of action proposed by N.M. is unusual; but am content to rely upon my personal knowledge of his integrity & ability, professing full faith in his unsupported statement that the circumstances are unprecedented and his object worthy of the unreserved cooperation of myself and all those who are in sympathy with his aims.
[End of crossed through matter.]
After E[ddie] S[aayman] has left
Mr N[orman] M[udd] M.A. (one time Sch[olar]of T.C.C. and Lecturer in M[aths] at G.U.B., S.A.) presents his respects & compliments to [Mr Sorell H.B.M. C[onsulate] G[eneral] Tunis, & wishes to be informed whether, should he call at the C[onsulate] G[eneral] on business, he is liable to be shouted at, insulated, browbeaten & threatened with [physical] violence by the underlings of H.B.M.C.G.T. as in the case of sch[olars] & grad[uate]s of the U[niversity] of O[xford].
17 copies of this letter has [sic] been forwarded to the proper quarters.
[Accounts, no date]
[Expenses:]
9000 to see us all in O.V.P. [?] by Nov. 10.
General—people like Pinney &c.—see list [of addressees for the following letter] later.
[Section:] H
As a white man, I would go to the rescue of my worst enemy if I saw him attacked by creatures like H. Sykes—Bickers & papers like John Bull (The persecution was first begun by the felon Horatio Bottomley.)
What then if their victim be a great poet—however little I may like his work—a man who has devoted his life to the search for Truth—however strongly I may feel that his conclusions are worthless—and one who, however indiscreet and foolish, or even erring in some ways in my opinion, is at least wholly innocent of the absurd abominations alleged?
Finally—what when this man has been my friend and colleague for years, has helped me when I was in distress, and has never faltered in loyal affection towards me-however I may fell aggrieved at some of his actions—when he in his turn is at the last extremity of misfortune.
[Note added later by Crowley:] J.F.C.F. [J.F.C. Fuller], V.B.N. [Victor B. Neuburg].
We, the undersigned, appeal to you as members of the University (omit if necessary; put ‘gentlemen . . . one of your peers’) to defend the honour of a Trinity man, as sportsmen to assist one of the greatest mountaineers, Himalayan explorers & big game hunters of his time, as men stand by a man who has again and again risked his life in the advancement of Science, as Englishmen to see fair play for one of her greatest poets, and—generally—to refuse to acquiesce in the persecution of a man too poor to seek legal redress by notoriously false and implicitly absurd charges on the part of newspapers which avowedly live on suggestive scurrility thinly masked as moral indignation.
We ask you to lend your financial aid & personal influence to compel an open & impartial enquiry into the whole of the circumstances in this matter. Follow up letter to be written if no reply ad hominem in each case.
Special paras for Fielding [Everard Feilding], Marston [Guy Marston], Radclyffe [Raymond Radclyffe], Shirley [Ralph Shirley], Harrison [Austin Harrison], Wakefield, Beresford [J.D. Beresford], Cabell [James Branch Cabell], Mencken [H. L. Mencken], Al Harvey [Alexander Harvey], Paul Bartlett, Stuart X [Henry Stuart], Crowninshield [Frank Crowninshield], Nash, Cosgrave [John O'Hara Cosgrave], Quinn [John Quinn], E. S. P. Haynes, Chas Watts, A. R. Orage [Alfred Orage], Hobb, Jackson, Bernard Shaw, Filson Young, Garvin, J. N. W. Sullivan, Barry, H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, W. S. Maugham, Sir A. Mond, Otto Kahn, H. V. Reade, Norman Collie, M[orris] W. Travers, the better class Press generally, Ivor Back, C[harles) T. Jacobi, Gordon Webb, Mrs Webb, Capt. Townshend, Col. Brown, Edward Thornton (Martin & Co, Calcutta) Smart, Anatole France, H. Davray G.K.C. [G. K. Chesterton], Hilaire Belloc, Hodgson (d[itt]o Ed[itor] D[aily] News), Sir G. Collins (special letter), Hon. Mrs Douglas Pennant (?), Mrs Ethel Rodriguez? (Nice: Lloyd’s Bank) Miss Higginbotham, Augustus John, Head Master Malvern, Master [of] Trinity (special letters), Harold Munro, Wilfred Meynell (refer to Amphora), Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Miss Otter [Gwendolen Otter], Lord H. de Walden, Charles Crowley (& others of the family), G. C. Jones [George Cecil Jones], E. H. Keep.
Further particulars may be obtained from E[ddie] H. S[aayman] who is authorized to receive & acknowledge cheques. Any suggestions with regard to the enquiry will be welcomed and considered carefully.
All funds will be employed solely to the one end of instituting a public impartial, & authoritative enquiry into (a) the charges made against Mr A.C. (b) the facts of his life & character (c) the nature & value of his work: the collection (and publication if necessary) of such documents as are thereto pertinent: the examination of material witnesses: the preparation of a prima facie case & its presentation in the proper quarters: and the arousing of general public interest in the case.
N[orman] M[udd] (M.A. etc.) who has resigned his post as L[ecturer] at G[rey] U[niversity] B[loemfontein] with the definite object of securing Justice in this case, while assuming the fullest responsibility for this appeal & such actions as he may hereafter take in pursuit of his purpose, invites the personal cooperation of those whose influence, expert knowledge, standing, resources, or experience fit them peculiarly to compose a committee of Ways & Means.
It is proposed, whatever the event of the actual investigation, to move for a reform of the existing laws of libel, with the object of protecting public men who are too proud, sensitive, absorbed in their work, poor, or for other reasons unable to seek legal redress, from the persecution of anonymous personal enemies or newspapers which batten on sensationalism, scandal, scurrility, and exploitation of the prurience of unclean minds.
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