The UK’s Kamuret Press has announced the upcoming publication of Aleister Crowley: Early Poetic Works. The book was edited, annotated and introduced by Christian Giudice. The publisher’s FB page states:
From the inner sleeve: “Aleister Crowley is beyond doubt the most influential occultist of the 20th century. While he is hailed as one of the giants of the esoteric
sciences, very little attention has been devoted to Crowley’s years as a Cambridge undergraduate (1895 –1898), when the author wrote and published an incredible amount of verse: this poetry, firmly planted within the vogue of the day, tells the tale of his doomed love affair with actor and female impersonator Jerome Pollitt
and of his first steps towards occult sciences. The two themes of homosexual love and spiritual yearning paint a magnificent picture of a taboobreaking
poet, right when these twin pivotal ideas were just budding.
The four works included in this anthology of early poetic production are Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, Jezebel and Other Tragic Poems, Songs of the Spirit and The Tale of Archais: A Romance in Verse. In these verses, the reader will find many facets of the young Crowley: echoes of Oscar Wilde, the tortured homosexual
lover; W.B. Yeats, the seeker of spiritual truths; Arthur Symons, the prurient Decadent poet; and A.C. Swinburne, the searcher of masochistic adventures and forbidden pleasures.
Cover art by Cristina Francov
Foreword by Henrik Bogdan
Edited, Annotated & Introduced by Christian Giudice
333 standard copies; Royal Quarto; dust jacket; black cloth cover; 16 pages of photos of Crowley, Pollitt, Beardsley, Smithers et al.; red ribbon; stitched; black end-papers; 304 pp. £25
56 deluxe copies; goat skin cover; ribbed spine; Royal Quarto; 16 pages of photos of Crowley, Pollitt, Beardsley, Smithers et al.; red ribbon; stitched; 304 pp. £111
Preorders starting on 1 October 2019 via: kamuretpress@gmail.com
kamuretpress.com goes live that same date
