Konx Om Pax. Essays in Light
London, Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1907 (first edition).
Small square quarto, xii, [ii], 108, 12 (publisher's advertisements) pages plus a photogravure portrait frontispiece (from a photograph by Aimé Dupont) with a tissue guard. Title printed in red and black; with hieroglyphics, and Hebrew, Greek, and other types.
Original cream buckram stamped in gilt; top edge gilt, others uncut; covers a little discoloured and soiled, with some minimal wear at the corner tips; outer leaves tanned and foxed; an excellent copy.
One of only 500 copies of the first edition, and rare thus. Although this copy is numbered '1' and is signed 'Aleister Crowley', we believe both number and signature to be spurious and have priced the book accordingly. The front cover features the title in stylised elongated letters, a design said to have been conceived by Crowley while under the influence of hashish. The book was first released in a very small privately-printed issue with variant title leaf, bound in plain white buckram with lettering only to the spine (this is the variant described in John R.Turner's 'The Walter Scott Publishing Company. A Bibliography', 1997). The published issue can be found in white buckram stamped in gilt (as here), or black cloth stamped in white; the latter is deemed to have priority of issue.
Item #147064
Price (AUD):
$3,000.00