Five new items by Aleister Crowley from Vanity Fair 1916

I added five new items by Aleister Crowley from the pages of Vanity Fair in 1916. There’s a couple of articles, some written pseudonymously, and some more poetry I think hasn’t been collected anywhere before. One of the articles is a historical political piece which will probably be of interest to a variety of people; another is a kind of review of Ratan Devi’s performances in New York by Crowley, which is Crowley promoting the work of a love interest under a pseudonym; the final article is an odd little spoof piece purporting to detail the scientific management of blondes (which also includes an interesting fake comment from the Editor chidding the piece for appearing to favour the Germans). Then there’s two poems, one begins “A cigar is like a wife!” and the second “When first your raven beauty made me fond” seems to be related to the article about blondes.

You can read a bit more about Aleister Crowley, his affair with Ratan Devi, and this period of time when Crowley was in New York in Chapter 12 of Richard Kaczynski‘s Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley and also, I happened onto this today, for another perspective in “The savant and the occultist” by Richard Boyle. Of course, don’t forget that the Confessions of Aleister Crowley are online at the library.

Three Great Hoaxes of the War
Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen and Yet Have Believed
By Aleister Crowley
Vanity Fair, January, 1916, p 37,118

Anna of Havana
By Aleister Crowley
With Drawings by Reginald Birch
Vanity Fair, January, 1916, p 43

To a Brunette
Addressed to His Beloved, after a short absence
By Aleister Crowley
Sketches by Reginald Birch
Vanity Fair, February, 1916, p 63

Ratan Devi: Indian Singer
By Sri Paramahansa Tat (Aleister Crowley)
Vanity Fair, May, 1916, p 79

On the Management of Blondes
Prolegomena to Any System of Philosophy Devoted to Their Treatment and Care
By Dionysus Carr (Aleister Crowley), Professor of Eugenics in the University of Tübingen
Vanity Fair, May, 1916, p 85

Consider also:

  1. “Last summer, during odd days, I worked at this sixfold problem–at the attempt to eliminate these six great drawbacks. I was alone, in camp, and had to puzzle it all out with three dummies before me,–but I worked hard at it, and suddenly the great idea dawned upon me: Choose your own partner!”
  2. “Well, I developed that simple Great Idea and came to New York with the results of it. I went straight to the office of Vanity Fair, and, lo, great was my reward! The editor and I tried out a few hands at double dummy. He liked the game at once, and summoned to our aid that noted authority on every game from Scat to Poker, Mr. R. F. Foster. Mr. Foster also liked the game, and has worked at the theory of it pretty steadily ever since, He has introduced it to certain of the leading card clubs, and has even crystallized my crude idea into a pamphlet of official rules.”
  3. “MILLIONS of dollars have already been lost in the movies by the many errors indicated above; and it may be well to point out that the public recognizes that the business is everywhere approaching a grave crisis. You, gentlemen, who are still making money, take heed: you are going to lose it in another few months unless you learn a little something about good taste in matters of art.”
  4. Grace
  5. “These preposterous people do not understand that they insult the public and make themselves ridiculous in the the bargain when they offer to ‘improve’ Victor Hugo; to bring Dumas ‘up-to-date’; to put ‘punch’ into Ibsen; or to ‘alter’ history a bit in order to give Joan of Arc an earthly lover.”