Blake, Blair MacKenzie (Photographs by Duncan Blake, Foreword by Danny Carey). The Wickedest Books in the World: Confessions of an Aleister Crowley Bibliophile (SIGNED COPY). North Pomfret: Privately published by the Author, 2009. First Edition. Hardcover. Tall Quarto. Limited to 1000 copies. This is No. 744. SIGNED by Blair MacKenzie Blake. 100 pages. Illustrated with over 50 color photographs of Crowley first editions and related ephemera. Slight lean to spine otherwise a near fine copy in like dust jacket. This large format hardcover book contains over 50 glossy full color photographs of the rare, often magnificently produced, first-edition books of the renowned British occultist Aleister Crowley - from the collections of the author and fellow bibliophile Danny Carey, drummer for the progressive metal band Tool. For Blair MacKenzie Blake, it all began after he chanced upon a first printing of Crowley's novel, Moonchild: A Prologue in a little book store off the Las Vegas strip. Despite a price sticker of $1,650, he felt compelled to purchase it; unaware at the time that the book's author had performed magical operations to ensure the literary success of his prolific output. But, in the pursuit of wealth and fame from his writing endeavors, was it a requirement of the trans-mundane intelligences contacted, or just a clever scheme by the author to create complexity and rarity, that caused the Great Beast 666 to control nearly every aspect of a book's production, including typefaces, paper, bindings, size, color, price and astrological publication dates? Whatever the case, there can be little doubt that the magical techniques employed were effective - especially on the present author (and a close friend), who have for years attempted to overcome this particularly insidious form of bibliophilia, only to find themselves repeatedly hunting for scarce Crowley titles on the e-landscape or in dusty antiquarian shops.

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