~ THE DESK REFERENCE ~
A Guide to the Works of Edward Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)
Contributing editors: J. Edward & Marlene Cornelius, Luis Alvarado, Kalil,
Clive Harper, Andrew Drylie, Keith Richmond, Robert Stein,
Richard Kaczynski, Loran Frazier and María Elisabeth Prado
[Much thanks is extended to all those who have offered great advice
but who wish to remain anonymous for one reason or another.]
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Liber AL vel Legis I:40This section of our website was originally published as a Red Flame titled THE ALEISTER CROWLEY DESK REFERENCE, A Listing of the Works of Aleister Crowley 1875-1947 in the private Library of J. Edward & Marlene Cornelius. The idea behind this volume began long ago in some bygone past when my hair was not quite as thin and gray. I was hunting for a poem written by Aleister Crowley to highlight a piece which I was writing when my mind went suddenly blank. We've all been there. As for me, I know Crowleyana like the back of my hand but somehow I could not locate the one particular poem which I needed. I just stood there starring at my library. A solid wall of Crowley books from ceiling to floor stared back in a silence that bordered on being annoying. I should have been able to find the poem at my finger tips, but I could not. No matter how many volumes I searched, the poem remained elusive. Here I was, having one of the largest private collections of Crowleyana in the world and it seemed to do me no good. I could not find what I needed and that frustrated me. So, what was I to do? To remedy the situation I immediately set upon the task of creating an index of Crowley's writings which were in my possession. Not only did this include a breakdown of where every single poem was found, and how often, but it also contained a breakdown of everything written by Aleister Crowley which I owned or even knew about. This turned out to be quite a task but one which my Marlene and I immersed ourselves in joyfully. It took years to complete. My finished project was 'technically' never meant to be published. It was meant for my own personal use, but too many people who saw my bound manuscript wanted a copy and everyone kept suggesting that it would make a great issue of Red Flame. I tried to explain how it was flawed, basically being it was just my own library, but no matter how much I protested, in the end they wore me down. I released it as a Red Flame in 1997. The issue went out of print in lest than three months. ... Now, years later, with over forty pages of added material, we have decided to put the entire project on our website.Love is the law, love under will.
Liber AL vel Legis I:57 Frater Achad Osher 583