Martin Wagner and Jesse Walker are reporting that a 72-page essay by Robert Anton Wilson on Aleister Crowley has been located at the Harvard University library. (Martin was the first to tell me about it, but Jesse has supplied details.) UPDATE: Jesse says I give him too much credit; see the comments.
The essay is entitled "Do What Thou Wilt," and it is unclear what relationship it has to Lion of Light, the book-length piece on Crowley that RAW planned to publish. Rasa at the RAW Trust/Hilaritas Press has been notified and is pursuing the matter.
"It is an extensive survey of the biography and philosophy of Aleister Crowley, with the last two pages giving details and opinions of two of Wilson's earlier books."
7 comments:
Great news! Thank you for sharing this.
What an amazing find. If it were combined with several of RAW's Crowleyen essays and a transcript from one of his audio interviews on Crowley, Hilaritas might just be pushing enough pages for a possible reconstituted Lion of Light : )
Posted by Iain Spence
All the archival work here is Martin's; my only contribution was a little speculation.
Awesome!
Nice find.
Harvard bought this document in 2018. I believe that it is from the estate of Herbert Roseman
I contacted Roseman's people before 2018, and asked if they had any RAW manuscripts
The lady, who was the one caring for Roseman told there was nothing on RAW. LOL
Guess she found it. And I guess she got paid too
It is also unclear whether Wilson ever Really Wrote the Crowley Book Lion of Light
Though, if he said he wrote it, he may very well have wrote it
most extraordinary +
Roseman had some great, but unrealised, publishing projects of his own. He issued many rare reprints through his Revisionist Press and Gordon Press imprints in the 1970s (although his business practices were a little eccentric and unpredictable). As editor of the School of Living magazine, A Way Out, in 1967, he credits RA Wilson as having written some of the best modern essays on anarchism — I’m wondering whether extracts from these furnished the material for Hagbard Celine‘s screed ‘Never Whistle While You're Pissing’.
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