The Deuce and All by George Raffalovich
Description
Second Hand / Antiquarian
The Deuce and All by George Raffalovich
Published: The Equinoix, London 1910
Condition: Good. An ex-library book, from the Besant Memorial Library. No dust jacket, boards worn and slightly faded, but no significant bumps or damage. Binding firm, pages slightly yellowed with age, but clean and unmarked.
From George Raffalovich's Wikipedia entry:
"George Raffalovich (10 December 1880 – 17 May 1958) was a journalist, novelist, and academic. He was born in France and moved to the UK in about 1906. He was associated with the occultist Aleister Crowley for several years before World War I.
(...)
He moved to the UK in about 1906, and became a British citizen that year. He met Aleister Crowley, the English occultist, that year; Crowley lent him money while he was still recovering from his overspending.He spoke no English when he arrived in the UK, but learned it quickly enough to publish a collection of short stories, Planetary Journeys and Earthly Sketches, in 1908.Crowley remarked on his talent in his reminiscences: "His imperfect acquaintance with English resulted in his inventing curiously fascinating terms of phraseology. He had remarkable imagination and a brilliant ability to use the bizarre."The two books contained some fantasy and early science fiction stories; the former is described by The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction as "mostly consist[ing] of affected parables", though Israel Zangwill was more complimentary about his work.
In 1909 Crowley began publishing The Equinox, a journal about his occult interests, and began enrolling students. Raffalovich was among the first to sign up, under the name Frater Audeo et Gaudeo. Raffalovich's fiction, some of which was published in The Equinox, included stories featuring a character named Elphenor Pistouillat de la Ratisboisière, who was based on Crowley. In 1910, via the publishing house he had set up for The Equinox, Crowley republished Planetary Journeys under the title On the Loose, and also published two other books of Raffalovich's: The Deuce and All, and The History of a Soul.
At one point he proposed to Crowley that they form a company to publish the journal, but by early 1910 there was a rift between the two and the acquaintanceship ended, with Crowley claiming that Raffalovich had acted on his behalf without authorization, and cashed cheques in Crowley's name, forging the signature."
If you like this, you might also like:
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (signed deluxe edition) by Manly P. Hall
£850.00
Second Hand / Antiquarian
Golden Anniversary Edition, published by The Philosophical Research Society, 1975. Signed and hand numbered to 550 copies.
Condition: Near Fine. Unmarked cover and pages. Binding remains very firm.
Full title: The Secret Teachings of All Ages - An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, Being an Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed within the Rituals, Allegories and Mysteries of All Ages.
Original light-brown leatherette spine with gilt titling, patterned paper boards with dark brown gilt-stamped title-label to upper boards. Thick patterned endpapers. Fifty-four full-page full-color plates by J. Augustus Knapp, and approx. two hundred black and white illustrations taken from rare occult works. 'The Secret Teachings of All Ages' as it is commonly known - was first published in 1928, and despite its massive size, and consequently price, quickly sold out five editions (printings really) done from the original type and with the color plates. In the years that followed various reprints were done, all of which were much smaller and with the color plates redone as black and white. This 'Golden Anniversary Edition' is effectively a facsimile copy of a "Subscriber's Edition" from 1928. It is a photolithographic reprint, which preserves the text and colour plates of the original, although it omits the redundant subscriber's list, and adds a new Preface, especially written for the edition by Hall.
Kami-No-Michi by Hope Huntly
£75.00
Second Hand / Antiquarian
Kami-No-Michi: The Way of the Gods in Japan by Hope Huntly
Published: Rebman Limited, London 1910
Condition: Good/Fair, no dust jacket. An ex-library book, from the Edinburgh Lodge of the Theosophical Society. Boards rather worn and slightly frayed at top of spine. Binding is firm, pages slightly yellowed with age, but otherwise clean and unmarked.
The Childhood of Jesus by Geraldine Cummins
£65.00
Second Hand / Antiquarian
The Childhood of Jesus by Geraldine Cummins
Published: Psychic Press Ltd., London 1972
Condition: Very good, dust jacket clipped. Binding firm, pages clean and unmarked.