Crowley, Edward Alexander (Aleister)

(1875-1947)

   He was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, the son of a wealthy brewer turned Plymouth Brethren, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, but left in 1898 without graduating. He was a mountaineer of repute and won a reputation as an explorer and big-game hunter. He belonged to the London's Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (see also W.B. Yeats). The Book of the Law (1904) was a prose poem he claimed to have been dictated to him by some super intelligence. He has been dubbed "wickedest man in the world" and the "Great Beast 666" (from the Book of Revelation). He died at Hastings and was cremated at Brighton. Apprecia90 tion for his poetry was overshadowed by his bizarre personal life, which today would pass almost unnoticed. Some of his other poetry publications: Songs of the Spirit, 1898. Aceldama: A Place to Bury Strangers In, 1898. Songs for Italy, 1923. Little Poems in Prose, 1928. Ahab: And Other Poems, 1974. Some of his poems: "A Birthday," "A Saint's Damnation," "Lyric of Love to Leah," "Pan to Artemis," "The Lesbian Hell," "The Two Mice."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Biography of Aleister Crowley (http://skepdic.com/crowley.html). Biography, poems and picture of Aleister Crowley (http://www.love-poems.me.uk/biography_crowley_aleister.htm). Aleister Crowley, Poems & Miscellaneous (http://www.poeforward.com/poetrycorner/crowley/poems.htm). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). The Book of the Law: Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX (http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/engccxx.htm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse. Stephen Coote, ed. Penguin Books, 1983. Thelma Texts in the Internet Sacred Text Archive (http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/index.htm). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).