UNIVERSAL BOOK STORES

BANKRUPTCY CASE

In December 1917 Albert W. Ryerson, Gordon Hill and the Reverend Hugh Jack purchased a book store and renamed it The Universal Book Store with the purpose of handling all kinds of religious literature, with everything that was odd or out of the way. There slogan was "The Stores That Keep Books Others Don't."

In March of 1918 Ryerson was introduced to Crowley by Charles Stansfeld Jones. At this point Crowley was looking to restart the publication of his series The Equinox and after three meetings with Ryerson it was agreed that the Universal Book Stores would market The Equinox Vol. III, No. 1. With this agreement in place, Crowley began making arrangements in November 1918 to publish the new issue of The Equinox with a publication date of 21 March 1919.

A contract for The Equinox was drawn up between Jones and the Universal Book Stores to order and distribute 500 copies with Ryerson later persuaded to commit to taking the entire print run of 2,000 copies. This agreement was later revised down to 1,000 copies which upset Crowley.

Following the publication of the book the Universal Book Store's stockholders grew nervous as they understood neither the book's contents nor its potential market but were reassured by Ryerson who told them the book would sell easily. Despite efforts to market the book, sales of The Equinox were slower than had been hoped which spelled financial hardship for Universal Book Stores stockholders who sought a return on their investment and Crowley who hoped to use the profits to fund new projects.

In May 1921 the beleaguered Universal Book Stores went into bankruptcy, with Ryerson accused of misappropriating $35,000 for the publication of The Equinox and single-handedly ruining the company. The bankruptcy proceedings drew the attention of the press, and soon the tale of Ryerson, Crowley, and the O.T.O. filled the pages of the January and February 1922 newspapers.

This prompted elected officials to publicly condemn The Equinox with Federal prosecutor Paul W. Voorheis stating:

"I consider this book the most remarkable and most degenerate book I have ever seen. I am going to stop the sale of it, and will instruct the police to seize every copy found in bookstores in this city."

U.S. District Attorney Frank Murphy added that The Equinox was:

"the most lascivious and libidinous book that has ever been published in the United States"

and

"the most indecent and obscene book I ever have seen."

On 12 January, Voorheis obtained a search and seizure warrant, sealing all books in the Universal Book Stores' basement until they were either turned over to creditors or destroyed. When Voorheis was shown mail order records for The Equinox, the stakes became even higher. If the book was obscene, then sending or receiving it by mail was a federal offense.