Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1924 · PDF PAGE 5

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

man, or the man wrapped up in creative work, in taking legal action against a wealthy and power- ful corporation. To him a libel suit, even if not actually impossible, means, at the very least, financial chaos and the indefinite paralysis of his work. More than this, the libel, however false in point of fact, may be so damaging in purport, and make so unscrupulous an appeal to violent popular passions, that it robs its victim, in advance, of any of the normal means of redress. The man of letters is peculiarly ill-protected against sensational n…

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1924 · PDF PAGE 1

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…etor of the Sunday Express, to redress a most grave and indefensible injury committed by that paper against the social honour, life, and work of an English gentleman and man of letters, and against the personal virtue of three very noble women who have renounced their private ambitions in order to help in his work. I. The case is as follows :— Between November 1922 and March 1923, the Sunday Express published a series of sensa- — I —

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1924 · PDF PAGE 9

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…om his family, his library, and all the resources of his craft, and obligated to live in North Africa, from hand to mouth, with his life work indefinitely suspended and maimed. It was more than ever impossible for him to refute efficiently the lies of the Sunday Express. 7. Circumstances led to my undertaking the task of coping with the desperate position into which Mr. Crowley’s family and dependants were thus suddenly thrown, a task which he himself—penniless, and broken in health—could not then even begin. Thus I obtained first- hand experie…

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1924 · PDF PAGE 10

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…, a grossly vituperative review of Mr. Crowley’s novel “The Diary of a Drug Fiend”. His article misrepresented the moral purpose of that work, as recognised in numerous reviews of it by men of letters in reputable journals : it was an orgie of salacity and, in essence, a lie. I placed a copy of this statement before the editorial board of the Sunday Express, pointing out that the assertion that Mr. Crowley had served a prison sentence (in America or else- where, whether for the crime alleged or for any other offence) was demonstrably untrue, an…

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1924 · PDF PAGE 2

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

tional articles in which it claimed, from a motive of public duty, to reveal the truth about the life and work of Aleister Crowley, explorer, drama- tist, poet, philosopher and artist. These articles were a mass of lies. Not only were they wholly false in spirit— the essential truth, in every matter of importance, being simply suppressed—but, except for such statements as were harmless in themselves or trivial, they were wholly false in the letter also. Two of these lies are so indefensible in point of fact, and so repugnant to every principle …

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1924 · PDF PAGE 14

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…mong his colleagues three ladies who have been noble and unselfish enough to renounce their professional careers in order to help in his work. These ladies are not British subjects, but your editor has identified them quite clearly to their professional, family, and private circles in England and America. He has been vile enough to accuse them, without one conceivable atom of justification, of practising public prostitution in foreign cities. “Whenever he needs money, and can- not get it from fresh victims, he sends them on the streets of Paler…

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1924 · PDF PAGE 3

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…ay be morally indistinguishable from murder. 3. This state of affairs constitutes a menace of unprecedented gravity against the life and work of every individual citizen, and against the very foundations of public morality. The allegation that a man has been imprisoned as a white slaver is as vitally damaging as any that can be made. — 3 —

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1924 · PDF PAGE 7

An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

…han a column, “the full history and record of this sinister author”. Throughout the course of these attacks, and afterwards, Mr. Crowley worked steadily, writing 600,000 words, in circumstances of extreme difficulty and hardship, and completed the first draft of his autobiography in September 1923. It is Mr. Crowley’s magnum opus, and one of the most human and illuminating records ever written. It is that independent statement of positive truth which Newman rightly declared to be the only possible and proper defence against a vast mass of irres…

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