New Crowley Biography?

Le Fanu

Is this old news? There is a new biography of Crowley about to be published by Tobias Churton. I did a search here and nothing came up.

You can read about it here.

I know nothing whatosever about it...

I thought that with Perdurabo and Sutin, it had all been written. Here's the amazon link.
 

cronegoddess54

Thanks for posting this Le Fanu..looks to be an interesting book....
 

Barleywine

Is this old news? There is a new biography of Crowley about to be published by Tobias Churton. I did a search here and nothing came up.

You can read about it here.

I know nothing whatosever about it...

I thought that with Perdurabo and Sutin, it had all been written. Here's the amazon link.

Yes, I will have to get my hands on this right after I read Perdurabo. I also have "The Aleister Crowley Scrapbook" by Sandy Robertson (Weiser paperback, 1988), but it's basically that, a collection of tidbits, interesting but fragmented.

Edit: Oh, and there is also "The Eye in the Triangle: An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley," by Israel Regardie (Falcon Press, 1970 h/c; 1986 p/b), which is part biography, part reminiscence and part commentary.
 

Craxiette

I just pre-ordered it from The book depository https://www.bookdepository.co.uk/. Funny, there is today 66 days to go on the pre-order...and usually it takes around 6 days for the books to arrive (my local post-office sucks!) I take that as a sign I got the right book! ;)
No but seriously, I've been thinking about getting a book about Crowley and it seemed pretty good from the description.

I'm looking forward to reading it!
 

Craxiette

I'm really enjoying reading this book, I think it's well written, with lots of detail without getting boring (well at least not yet, I'm only about a hundred pages in). It's a bit hard to follow sometimes as I'm not at all familiar with the bulk of AC's work, but I can live with that. As I haven't read any other biography, I can't really compare it with the rest though. I'm curious to see what others think that have also read the other biographies!
 

Aeon418

As I haven't read any other biography, I can't really compare it with the rest though. I'm curious to see what others think that have also read the other biographies!
Hopefully I'll have time to start reading it this weekend. I'll let you know what I think.
 

Aeon418

Just finished it. Overall a good book. :D

In my personal opinion I still think Kaczynski's, Perdurabo, is better. But I think Churton's book, with it's humour, readability, and easy-going style, has more popular appeal.

Was there anything in there that I didn't already know? Not really. Although Churton's assertion that Gerald Yorke may have been involved in Crowley never getting to see his daughter, Lulu, ever again was a bit of an eye opener. (p.330-331)

It's very obvious that Churton has taken advantage of the work of Richard B. Spence and his book, Secret Agent 666. But there was a lot of guess work and supposition in that book, so it also applies here with Churton. A lot of the Aleister Crowley spy angle has to be qualified with a fair sprinkle of "possible", "maybe", and question marks. Thankfully that's how Churton has treated it.

One consequnce of Churton's added emphasis on the spy work is that he has broadened the scope of his biography. But a knock effect of greater breadth is often a lack of depth. I sometimes felt that many incidents in Crowley life were mentioned in an abreviated way to save space.

Quibbles aside I still think it's a great bio and would be happy to recommend it to anyone. Churton may not be as detailed as Kaczynski, but he is better than the yawn inducing, Sutin IMHO.

As I closed the book for the last time my final thoughts were, "Wow! What a life!" To me that's the sign of a good Crowley bio.
 

Aeon418

In the photo section, I don't believe I've seen that alternative Magus card design before. Very interesting and colourful too.
 

Strange2

Just finished it. Overall a good book. :D

In my personal opinion I still think Kaczynski's, Perdurabo, is better. But I think Churton's book, with it's humour, readability, and easy-going style, has more popular appeal.

Thanks for this insightful review. Sounds like a refreshing change of pace and perspective. Adding this to my (always growing) wish list!