Occult Theocrasy.
LADY QUEENBOROUGH (Miller, Edith Starr).
Abbeville (France): Imprimerie F. Paillart. n.d. [1933].
Description:
First edition. Two volumes. 8vo. 220x135mm. pp. 384, [2]; [2], 385- 720, [46], 721-741 [3]. Frontispiece photograph of the author with her two eldest children and a folding plate reproducing the certificate of appointment of Aleister "St" Edward Crowley as National Grand Master of the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) for Great Britain and Ireland. Original grey paper wrappers, title and author printed in navy blue. Wrappers (particularly on volume one) are somewhat soiled and have been recently and expertly repaired. Internally very good but with some toning to the edges. Ownership inscription of Walter K. Stevenson 1945. Rare in commerce (only one noted in the auction records) and institutionally, Worldcat locating three copies (BL, BNF and Bibliothèque interuniversitaire Sainte-Geneviève).
A bizarre book. "In offering this book to the public, I have endeavoured to expose some of the means and methods used by a secret world, one might almost say an underworld, to penetrate, dominate and destroy not only the so-called upper classes, but the also the better portion of all classes". Lady Queenborough then devotes over 700 pages to a study (close in some cases, fleeting in others) of the webs of influence whereby secret societies, peopled by hierarchies of priests or adepts (the theocrasies of the title) control the world. These are the Cabalists and, unsurprisingly, the Jews lie behind many of their machinations. One cannot help but admire Queenborough's energy (it is certainly an encyclopaedic gallop through the world of the occult) and her honesty (she begins by stating that "this book makes no claim to literary merit"). However, she and many of her friends and collaborators were weapons-grade fruitcakes with a sulphurous whiff about them. And a want of irony as evidenced by Lady Queenborough's observation (on p.25) that "many people are duped by charlatans". Indeed.
Description:
First edition. Two volumes. 8vo. 220x135mm. pp. 384, [2]; [2], 385- 720, [46], 721-741 [3]. Frontispiece photograph of the author with her two eldest children and a folding plate reproducing the certificate of appointment of Aleister "St" Edward Crowley as National Grand Master of the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) for Great Britain and Ireland. Original grey paper wrappers, title and author printed in navy blue. Wrappers (particularly on volume one) are somewhat soiled and have been recently and expertly repaired. Internally very good but with some toning to the edges. Ownership inscription of Walter K. Stevenson 1945. Rare in commerce (only one noted in the auction records) and institutionally, Worldcat locating three copies (BL, BNF and Bibliothèque interuniversitaire Sainte-Geneviève).
A bizarre book. "In offering this book to the public, I have endeavoured to expose some of the means and methods used by a secret world, one might almost say an underworld, to penetrate, dominate and destroy not only the so-called upper classes, but the also the better portion of all classes". Lady Queenborough then devotes over 700 pages to a study (close in some cases, fleeting in others) of the webs of influence whereby secret societies, peopled by hierarchies of priests or adepts (the theocrasies of the title) control the world. These are the Cabalists and, unsurprisingly, the Jews lie behind many of their machinations. One cannot help but admire Queenborough's energy (it is certainly an encyclopaedic gallop through the world of the occult) and her honesty (she begins by stating that "this book makes no claim to literary merit"). However, she and many of her friends and collaborators were weapons-grade fruitcakes with a sulphurous whiff about them. And a want of irony as evidenced by Lady Queenborough's observation (on p.25) that "many people are duped by charlatans". Indeed.