EDGE OF THE CIRCLE BOOKS
PRESENTS THE FOLLOWING
NEW TITLES FROM
TEITAN PRESS:
OF THE ARTE GOETIA
By Colin Campbell
Standard Edition Hardcover. Small quarto (6 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches: approx. 17.1cm x 22.2cm). viii + 280pp. Bound in high quality black cloth, with a gilt design stamped on the front cover, blind rules; gilt-lettered spine. Sewn, printed on acid free paper. Black endpapers. Diagrams and seals. Limited to 720 hand-numbered copies.
List Price: $ 64.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Of the Arte Goetia is a significant new study of the text known as The Goetia by Colin Campbell, author of The Magic Seal of Dr. John Dee. In this work Campbell examines the evolution of "The Goetia", from the proto-Goetia of Wier's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, through the first English translation in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, and on to the English-language manuscripts from which most modern editions are drawn. Campbell reproduces the significant passages of each of these sources side-by-side, highlighting their differences, and allowing him to correct a number of errors, lacunae or redactions that the comparisons reveal.
His researches also shed light on a number of obscure internal references, the meaning of which only becomes apparent when the viewed in the context of the historical development of the texts. Whilst largely an historical/textual exploration, Campbell also includes a short chapter in which he reflects on approaches to working with the forces of the Goetia.
**
THE ALEISTER CROWLEY DESK REFERENCE
(2nd Edition: Revised & Enlarged).
by J. Edward Cornelius and A. Edward Drylie (Contributing Editor).
The softcover is 8vo. (Octavo: 9 x 6 inches: approx. 22.9cm x 15.2), [vi] + 382pp. Color laminated wrappers. B/w illustrations. Sewn, printed on acid-free paper.
Edition limited to 418 numbered, the first hundred of which include a bookplate signed by the editors.. New Book. Fine (no dust jacket issued). (45747)
List Price: $32.50
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
Comprising nearly 400 pages and many thousands of listings, this new edition of The Aleister Crowley Desk Reference is the most comprehensive alphabetical guide to the writings of "the Beast" ever created. While its primary purpose is to allow the reader to trace the various appearances in print of any published work by Aleister Crowley, it is much more than a simple cross-reference, and the listings are enlivened with bibliographical and historical detail that is sure to delight and amuse even the most jaded Crowleyphile. The sometimes baffling system of "Liber" numbers and classifications are clearly laid out in a series of Appendicies.
The principal editor of the text, J. Edward Cornelius, is of course well known in Thelemic circles, not least for his editorship of the "Red Flame" series of journals in which "The Aleister Crowley Desk Reference" first appeared. Contributing editor, Andrew Drylie, is also an authority on Crowley's works and was co-author of the "Crowley Cross-Index" (1976), the first modern work to systematically explore the publishing history of his texts.
**
THE ART OF ROSALEEN NORTON WITH POEMS
by Rosaleen Norton & Gavin Greenlees, With an Introduction by Keith Richmond.
The book is a hardcover, large quarto (12.25 x 9.25 inches: approx. 31 x 24cm), 128pp. Quality red cloth binding with gilt design by Norton and titling on the upper board, and gilt titling to spine. Sewn, printed on heavy weight acid-free art paper. Black and white frontispiece, and 31 mostly full page black & white plates, plus several smaller drawings. Colour endpapers with printed design by Norton. Glossy dust jacket.
Edition limited to 650 numbered copies.
List Price: US $99.95
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
The first US edition (and the first-ever complete facsimile edition) of this magnificent book of occult-inspired artist Rosaleen Norton's drawings, with poems by Norton and her lover Gavin Greenlees.
The original edition of The Art of Rosaleen Norton was published in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and immediately sparked a furore on account of its unabashedly occult and erotic imagery, and its iconoclastic jabs at the status quo and the authorities who defended it.
The artist, Rosaleen Norton, was no stranger to controversy. Born in New Zealand in 1917, she moved to Australia with her family when still a child and began drawing at the age of three, going on to study art at the prestigious East Sydney Technical College after leaving school. She worked briefly for a weekly newspaper, but soon abandoned regular employment and commenced a succession of part-time and temporary jobs which enabled her to devote herself both to her art and to her growing fascination with the occult. An accomplished artist and natural rebel, her bohemian lifestyle, unconventional beliefs, and her challenging and often sexually-charged artwork attracted the condemnation of moral conservatives. Despite previous exhibitions of her work in Adelaide and Sydney proceeding without problem, police raided an exhibition of Norton’s art in Victoria in 1949 and she was subsequently charged with exhibiting “obscene articles.” Norton won that case, but following its release in 1952 her book The Art of Rosaleen Norton was soon banned from importation into the USA on the grounds of obscenity and also had a restricted circulation in Australia, with a court ruling that some of the plates were "obscene and an offence to chastity and delicacy." The publisher could only legally sell copies The Art of Rosaleen Norton that had the offending plates "blacked out." More arrests and charges against Norton followed, culminating in 1960 with the destruction, by judicial order, of several of her paintings. Prior to that no other serious Australian artist had ever been subject to such outrageous bureaucratic vandalism. The popular focus on Norton’s occultism and the sexual nature of some of her paintings meant that her artistic talents were largely ignored. Most knew her only as “the Witch of Kings Cross,” one of Sydney’s more colourful eccentrics. She died in December 1979, leaving the world a rich and unusual artistic legacy that is only now starting to be appreciated.
The Art of Rosaleen Norton was reprinted in Sydney in 1982, but with a number of changes and omissions. This Teitan Press edition is the first US publication of the book, and the first reprint to include a complete facsimile of the original 1952 edition. The facsimile is prefaced by a new 40 page historical Introduction by Keith Richmond who played a key role in organizing the “Occult Visions of Rosaleen Norton” retrospective of Rosaleen Norton’s art that was held in Sydney in 2000, and has also edited a collection of her short stories, Three Macabre Stories (1996 & 2010), and a collection of her magical and autobiographical writings Thorn in the Flesh (2009).
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