The Great Beast: The Life of Aleister Crowley

London: Rider & Co, 1951. First Edition. photos, illustrations, DJ wrapped in archival cover, chipped bottom of spine torn by 2", not priced clipped, creasing, blue boards, gilt lettering on spine, 316 pages, binding very good, pages clean, bookstore stamp front pastedown, slight foxing to endpapers, light toned pages, indexed. very good/fair to good. This book is a fascinating account of an unbelievable life. It tells the reader of Crowley's early days at Cambridge, and his subsequent expulsion from Trinity. Later, of his activities as a poet, and as a magician in The Golden Dawn, a secret occult society of which Yeats was a member, and with whom, Crowley quarreled fiercely. One chapter in the life of this extraordinary man - for he had courage, resource, and the toughness of a great explorer - was his attempt in 1905 to conquer Kangchenjunga, the still unscaled peak of the Himalayas. That expedition ended in treachery, disorder, and the death of five men."

John Symonds was known to be both fascinated and critical of Aleister Crowley.