Alexandra - 1909

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ALEXANDRA

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Title:

Alexandra. A Birthday Ode. Annotated Fragments of an Ode to England’s Queen.

Upper Cover

Page Proof Binding

Spine Detail

Page Proof Binding

Advertisement from

The World's Tragedy

Prospectus for

The Confessions

Print

Variations:

Page proof copies in the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, are described as:

Page proof bound in straw-colored buckram.²

Spine lettered in gilt vertically up spine ‘ALEXANDRA’.²

10” x 7 1/8”.²

Publisher:

Privately published.

Printer:

Philippe Renouard.^{5,
8}

Published At:

19 rue des Sainta-Peres, Paris.⁸

Date:

The dating of this book is problematic. Page proofs of the book are dated between 13 October and 7 December 1906.⁶ Yorke states about 1909.¹ Crowley's own personal copy is said to have survived and been sold to John Quinn in 1914. When this item was sold from the Quinn Collection it was described as ‘8vo., wrappers, uncut, Shanghai., 1909.’³ The back page of the Mandrake Press prospectus for The Confessions of Aleister Crowley includes Alexandra among a listing of Crowley's publications with a publication date of 1909. (See image) Crowley began advertising copies of Alexandra for sale in a Walter Scott catalog bound in back of copies of The World's Tragedy, published in 1910.⁴ And finally, Timothy d'Arch Smith suggests that the book may have never actually been published.⁷

Edition:

1st Edition.

Pages:

vi + 16.²

Price:

Five dollars.⁴

Remarks:

Apparently, when these books were sent from Paris to England, they were intercepted by customs inspectors. The entire supply was confiscated and subsequently destroyed after being identified as “insincere”.⁹

Published under the pseudonym of Ophelia Cox (née Mrs. Hunt).

The ‘Introductory Pindaric Ode’ in this book has a vertical acrostic spelling ‘Alexandra.’¹⁰

Pagination:²(based on page proofs)

Page(s)
[ i]	Blank
[ii-iii]	Editorial note
[ iv]	Blank
[v-vi]	Alexandra \| Introductory Pindaric Ode \| by O.C. \| Text (Introduction)
[7-13]	Text
[14-16]	Blanks

Contents:

Author’s

Working

Versions:

1.	Holograph manuscript and typescript drafts with revisions in the hand of Aleister Crowley and editor’s marks. Pages: 30. Dated: 1905. Box 6, Folder 2. Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX.
	Four sets of page proofs. Pages: 30. Dated: 1906. Box 6, Folder 3. Harry Ransom Center, Austin, TX.
3.	Proofs and photocopies. Warburg Institute Collection.

Other

Known

Editions:

Bibliographic

Sources:

1.	Gerald J. Yorke, “Bibliography of the Works of Aleister Crowley” in John Symonds’ The Great Beast, Rider and Co., London & New York, 1951, p. 303.
2.	Dianne Frances Rivers, A Bibliographic List with Special Reference To the Collection at the University of Texas, Master of Arts Thesis, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1967, p. 88.
3.	Complete Catalog of the Library of John Quinn, Sold by Auction in Five Parts, Volume one, ABB-MEY, the Anderson Galleries, New York, 1924, p. 230.
4.	Aleister Crowley, The World's Tragedy, Phillippe Renouard, Paris, 1910, Advertisements in back of book.
5.	Richard Kaczynski, Ph.D., Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, 2010 , p. 161.
6.	Timothy d’Arch Smith, The Books of the Beast, Mandrake, Oxford; 1991, pp. 122-123, note 67.
7.	Ibid., pp. 30-31.
8.	Aleister Crowley, The Scented Garden of Abdullah the satirist of Shiraz, The Teitan Press, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, 1991, Introduction by Martin P. Starr, p. 9, note 14.
9.	Bill Heidrick, Thelema Lodge Calendar, February 2002, Internet resource last accessed on 27 December 2015.
10.	J. Edward Cornelius, The Aleister Crowley Desk Reference, The Teitan Press, York Beach, Maine, 2013, p. 15.

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