Moonchild is a novel written by the British occultist Aleister Crowley in 1917. Its plot involves a magical war between a group of white magicians, led by Simon Iff, and a group of black magicians, over an unborn child.
In this work, numerous acquaintances of Crowley appear as thinly disguised fictional characters. Crowley portrays MacGregor Mathers as the primary villain, including him as a character named SRMD, using the abbreviation of Mathers' magical name. Arthur Edward Waite appears as a villain named Arthwaite and the unseen head of the Inner Circle of which SRMD was a member. "A.B." is theosophist Annie Besant. Among Crowley's friends and allies, Allen Bennett appears as Mahatera Phang, Leila Waddell as Sister Cybele, the dancer Isadora Duncan appears as Lavinia King, and her companion Mary D'Este (mother of Preston Sturges, and who helped Crowley write his magnum opus Magick: Book 4 under her magical name "Soror Virakam") appears as Lisa la Giuffria. Cyril Grey is Crowley himself, while Simon Iff is either an idealized version of an older and wiser Crowley or his friend Allen Bennett.
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£195.00
Antiquarian
Out of print first hardback edition, limited to 350 copies only. Published by Kamuret Press 2021.
Condition: Fine, unread copy. Extremely minor crease to top right dustwrapper, otherwise completely pristine.
Edited, annotated and introduced by Richard Kaczynski, this edition far surpasses that found in the Collected Works: red and black ink has been employed to capture the feel of the 1904 edition; a 50 page introduction by Crowley’s foremost biographer introduces the reader to the many themes to be found throughout the book; finally, copious end-notes further elucidate concepts and ideas in need of clarification.
From the introduction:
‘The Sword of Song is arguably the greatest story never told. It is a book of firsts: his first manifesto, his first talismanic book, his first mystical essays, his first nod to sexual mysteries, and an enticing preview of what was to come in The Book of the Law, the spirit-writing that would form the cornerstone of his philosophy’.