Balzac - 1903

State (a):	18 copies printed on a single unfolded sheet of Japanese vellum, 14 5/8” x 9 1/4”, three copies printed vertically, and fifteen copies printed horizontally on the right half of the paper.¹
State (b):	6 copies printed on China paper, 12 3/8” x 9 1/2”, printed vertically in the upper moiety of the sheet.¹

Publisher:

Privately published.

Printer:

Published At:

Paris.¹

Date:

1903.¹

Edition:

1st Edition.

Pages:

Price:

Remarks:

A copy of this item was auctioned in November 1923 as part of the John Quinn collection and was described as “2 pages, folded. One of a few copies on Japan vellum.”²

This is a sonnet which occurs in Ahab in a slightly altered form.¹

Issued in Paris by request.¹

Pagination:

Contents:

Author’s

Working

Versions:

Other

Known

Editions:

+	Ahab and Other Poems. Privately published, London, 1903.
+	The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley, Vol. III, Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, Boleskine, Foyers, Inverness, 1907.
+	Rodin in Rime, Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, London, 1907.
+	Ambergris, Elkin Matthews, London, 1910.

Bibliographic

Sources:

1.	L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell, Notes Towards An Outline of A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Aleister Crowley, The Works of Aleister Crowley, Volume III, Appendix A, Gordon Press, New York, 1974, p. 236.
2.	Complete Catalog of the Library of John Quinn, Sold by Auction in Five Parts, Volume one, ABB-MEY, the Anderson Galleries, New York, 1924, p. 227.

Comments by

Aleister

Crowley:

While other defenders of Rodin were apologizing for him in detail I brushed aside the nonsense—"a plague o' both your houses!"—and wrote a sonnet, which is, in its way, to conventional criticism exactly what the Balzac was. It was translated into French by Marcel Schwob and made considerable stir in Paris. Even at this length of time, I attach a certain importance to it. For one thing, it marks a new stage in my own art.

BALZAC

Giant, with iron secrecies ennighted,

Cloaked, Balzac stands and sees. Immense disdain,

Egyptian silence, mastery of pain,

Gargantuan laughter, shake or still the ignited

Stature of the Master, vivid. Far, affrighted,

The stunned air shudders on the skin. In vain

The Master of La Comédie Humaine

Shadows the deep-set eyes, genius-lighted.

Epithalamia, birth songs, epitaphs,

Are written in the mystery of his lips.

Sad wisdom, scornful shame, grand agony

In the coffin folds of the cloak, scarred mountains, lie,

And pity hides i' th' heart. Grim knowledge grips

The essential manhood. Balzac stands, and laughs.

— The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. New York, NY. Hill and Wang, 1969. Page 340.

Reviews:

Home