London: Foyers Society for the Propogation of Religious Truth,, 1905-06-07. Presented to a potential acolyte First edition, "essay competition" issue, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in an uncharacteristically restrained manner, "G. H. S. Pinsent, a trifling token of appreciation of his many kindnesses Aleister Crowley 16.2.09". Gerald Hume [sometimes listed as George Herne] Saverie Pinsent (1888-1976) attended Trinity College on a mathematics scholarship, where he was a contemporary of the Crowley devotees Victor Neuburg, Kenneth Ward, and Norman Mudd. He was part of the Cambridge University Agnostic Association and affiliated with the newly formed Cambridge University Free Thought Association. CUFTA invited Crowley to speak at Trinity in early 1909, as one of his regular visits to the university in the hopes of converting young undergraduates to his cause. The talk never went ahead: after pressure from the university exerted at the end of January, the invitation was revoked. Crowley, however, kept up his controversial visits. This copy was inscribed in February of that year and therefore was likely gifted on one such visit. The university continued to disapprove, and by "the end of February, both Crowley and [his acolyte J. F. C.] Fuller were officially excluded from the Trinity grounds, and the porters were so notified" (Sutin, p. 194). A poem credited to Pinsent, "The Organ in King's Chapel, Cambridge", appeared in issue two of The Equinox, published in September 1909. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War and later acted as the British Treasury representative and financial counsellor of the British embassy in Washington. This "Essay competition" issue prints the three separate volumes entitled The Collected Works on India paper. Published by Crowley's own company, whose name was a parody of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, it was designed to be distributed to anyone entering his concurrent competition for the best essay written on his works. Allegorically, the winner was also the only entrant, J. F. C. Fuller, who enthused over Crowley's skill as a poet. The Collected Works was edited by Ivor Back and consists largely of poetry and plays, accompanied by "Berashith", a magical essay first published in 1903, and some revised esoteric pieces. Although it excludes much of Crowley's more obscene work, such as White Stains (1898), it was still cited in the "Looking Glass" libel trial of 1911 as indicative of his immorality. Printed in a run of an estimated 1,000 copies, The Collected Works were released in a large number of different bindings, both as one and three volumes. 3 vols in one, octavo. Original cream limp cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, yapp edges, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. St Catherine's College, Oxford, bookplate, inscribed "Miss Star Gray in memory of Dikran Garabedian, M.A. 1963", on front pastedown, the college's library stamp sporadically to the margins, Garabedian's pencilled ownership inscription on the front free endpaper. Cloth darkened, shelf label sometime removed from foot of spine, closed tear to head of rear joint, foxing to outer leaves, else clean, short closed tear to head of front blank: a very good copy. Richard Kaczynski, Friendship in Doubt: Aleister Crowley, J. F. C. Fuller, Victor B. Neuburg, and British Agnosticism, 2024; Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley, 2014.
