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Alcibiades
by P. J. RhodesWhile the Americans were fighting in Vietnam, a struggle of even greater strategic significance was taking place in the Middle East: the Sultanate of Oman guards the entrance to the Arabian Gulf, and thus controls the movement of oil from that region. In the 1960s and 70s, the Communists tried to seize this artery and, had they succeeded, the consequences for the West and for the Middle East would have been disastrous — and yet, few people have ever heard of this geo-political drama at the height of the Cold War.In the Service of the Sultan tells, first-hand, the largely unknown story of a small number of British officers who led Muslim soldiers in this hard-fought anti-insurgency war which has shaped todays Gulf. After outlining the historical, geographical and political background, the book describes military action in a stark and mountainous environment, including operations with irregular forces and the SAS as well as action in the air and at sea. The book gives a gripping, moving, funny account of all these and paints a powerful and illuminating picture of the realities of war.It will appeal to all who are interested in the Cold War and relationships between the Western and the Arab worlds. Politics, history, irregular warfare, religion, international affairs: all are ingredients in this absorbing, informative read. In the light of the current insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is also timely to be reminded how a rare victory was won over Communist guerrillas.
Alcibiades II
by PlatoThe Second Alcibiades or Alcibiades II (Greek: Ἀλκιβιάδης βʹ) is a dialogue traditionally ascribed to Plato. In it, Socrates attempts to persuade Alcibiades that it is unsafe for him to pray to the gods if he does not know whether what he prays for is actually good or bad for him. <P> <P> There is dispute amongst scholars about the text's authenticity, and it is generally considered apocryphal.[1] The main criticisms of its authenticity revolve around its defective arguments, lack of humor, and style; those who consider it inauthentic date its composition to the 3rd or 2nd centuries BCE.
alcides lanza
by Pamela JonesIn the first full-length biography of one of Canada's most gifted and influential composers, Pamela Jones draws from extensive interviews with composers, performers, students, friends, and family members. She offers an analysis of lanza's key compositions and discusses his musical development in a vivid portrayal of the social, cultural, and political milieus in which he worked - from the difficulties of composing under a repressive government in 1950s Argentina to the "anything goes" atmosphere of New York in the 1960s, the post-war cultural revival in Berlin, and the multicultural diversity of Montreal.
alcides lanza: Portrait of a Composer
by Pamela JonesIn the first full-length biography of one of Canada's most gifted and influential composers, Pamela Jones draws from extensive interviews with composers, performers, students, friends, and family members. She offers an analysis of lanza's key compositions and discusses his musical development in a vivid portrayal of the social, cultural, and political milieus in which he worked - from the difficulties of composing under a repressive government in 1950s Argentina to the "anything goes" atmosphere of New York in the 1960s, the post-war cultural revival in Berlin, and the multicultural diversity of Montreal.
The Alcoholic (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition)
by Jonathan AmesIn the proud tradition of drunken writers everywhere . . . comes the tale of Jonathan A., a boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic-and of course, entirely fictional-novelist who bears only a coincidental resemblance to real-life author Jonathan Ames, critically acclaimed author of Wake Up, Sir!, The Extra Man, and What's Not to Love as well as HBO's Bored to Death and Starz's Blunt TalkFeaturing gritty, yet poignant artwork by Dean Haspiel (The Quitter), The Alcoholic marks Ames' hilarious yet heartbreaking graphic novel debut. This tenth anniversary edition hardcover also features a new afterword by Jonathan Ames as well as a special behind-the-scenes artist section!
Alder Gulch
by Ernest HaycoxBLAZIN’ JUSTICEVirginia City, Montana. Gold fever struck hard in 1863, with miners pannin’ for nuggets up and down the length of nearby Alder Gulch. But a gang of guntoughs was ridin’ them roughshod. With the law lookin’ the other way, the sidewinders dealt out hot lead for a man shippin’ his poke or even carryin’ gold dust for his grubstake.Jeff Pierce had been on the hard dodge since Portland, until he staked his claim at Alder Gulch. As a favor, he carried another miner’s poke through the forty miles of danger to Bannack, only to find that the scummy gunhawks had filled the old-timer with buckshot. Now the varmints had Pierce as a marked man. The gang was fixin’ for a showdown, but they’d be a mite less cocky if they knew the charge he was up for—murder!“Ernest Haycox is a master and ALDER GULCH is one of his best.”—Dallas Times Herald
The Alderson Story: My Life as a Political Prisoner
by Elizabeth Gurley FlynnAlderson is the Federal women's prison where the author spent 28 months as a Smith Act "political prisoner" in the 1950s. One of the first prison accounts by a woman.
Aldo Leopold
by Curt MeineThis biography of Aldo Leopold follows him from his childhood as a precocious naturalist to his profoundly influential role in the development of conservation and modern environmentalism in the United States. This edition includes a new preface by author Curt Meine and an appreciation by acclaimed Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry.
Aldo Leopold's Odyssey: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac
by Julianne Lutz NewtonA household icon of the environmental movement, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) may be the most quoted conservationist in history. A Sand County Almanac has sold millions of copies and Leopold's writings are venerated for their perceptions about land and how people might live in concert with the whole community of life. But who is the man behind the words? How did he arrive at his profound and poetic insights, inspiring generations of environmentalists? Building on past scholarship and a fresh study of Leopold's unpublished archival materials, Julianne Lutz Newton retraces the intellectual journey generated by such passion and intelligence. Aldo Leopold's Odyssey illuminates his lifelong quest for answers to a fundamental issue: how can people live prosperously on the land and keep it healthy, too? Leopold's journey took him from Iowa to Yale to the Southwest to Wisconsin, with fascinating stops along the way to probe the causes of early land settlement failures, contribute to the emerging science of ecology, and craft a new vision for land use. More than a biography, this articulate volume is a guide to one man's intellectual growth, and an inspirational resource for anyone pondering the relationships between people and the land.
Aldo Leopold's Odyssey, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac
by Julianne Lutz WarrenIn 2006, Julianne Lutz Warren(néeNewton) asked readers to rediscover one of history's most renowned conservationists. Aldo Leopold's Odyssey was hailed by The New York Times as a "biography of ideas," making "us feel the loss of what might have followed A Sand County Almanac by showing us in authoritative detail what led up to it. " Warren's astute narrative quickly became an essential part of the Leopold canon, introducing new readers to the father of wildlife ecology and offering a fresh perspective to even the most seasoned scholars. A decade later, as our very concept of wilderness is changing, Warren frames Leopold's work in the context of the Anthropocene. With a new preface and foreword by Bill McKibben, the book underscores the ever-growing importance of Leopold's ideas in an increasingly human-dominated landscape. Drawing on unpublished archives, Warren traces Leopold's quest to define and preserve land health. Leopold's journey took him from Iowa to Yale to the Southwest to Wisconsin, with fascinating stops along the way to probe the causes of early land settlement failures, contribute to the emerging science of ecology, and craft a new vision for land use. Leopold's life was dedicated to one fundamental dilemma: how can people live prosperously on the land and keep it healthy, too? For anyone compelled by this question, the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Aldo Leopold's Odyssey offers insight and inspiration.
Aldo Marín: Carne de cañon
by Juan Cristóbal GuarelloUna crónica sobre la increíble trayectoria vital de Aldo Marín, un revolucionario chileno desconocido hasta hoy <P><P> La madrugada del jueves 5 de agosto de 1977 dos jóvenes murieron en Turín mientras intentaban cometer un atentado contra el diario La Stampa. Uno de los autores del fallido atentado es un chileno que, durante los días previos, detonó bombas en distintas ciudades italianas. <P>Juan Cristóbal Guarello narra la increíble peripeciavital de Aldo Marín, un joven del norte de Chile que, producto de circunstancias inverosímiles, formó parte del proceso político llevado a cabo por la Unidad Popular. <P>Escapando de la policía secreta y exiliado en México, el protagonista llegó a Cuba para formar parte de una élite militar que tendría por objetivo volver al país para ajusticiar a Pinochet. La llegada de Carlos Altamirano a La Habana a comienzos de 1974 echó por tierra este descabellado y desesperado plan. La historia se traslada entonces a Italia, donde Marín y sus compañeros de armas se encontraron con la insurrección armada que caracterizó a la turbulenta década de los sesenta.
Aldo's Admissions
by Aldo CasilliHow do you say "see you later" to your wife without bursting into tears moments before open heart surgery, knowing full well that this may be the last goodbye? How do you maintain positivity while getting hit again and again with bad news? One day before his wife's 43rd birthday, Aldo was diagnosed with colon cancer which required major surgery to rectify. One week later, he incidentally discovered that he also had some very dangerous heart issues. Aldo had a leaking aortic valve which needed replacing and a 6.7 cm ascending aortic aneurysm which needed repairing, via open heart surgery. He was immediately told to cease all strenuous activity, including his work. Aldo's Admissions tells the story of Aldo's experiences and personal thoughts over a ten-month time span while dealing with all the upsetting news he receives and his fight to stay alive. This book is for anybody who wonders how it feels to be told you have serious health issues which suddenly put your existence on this planet under threat. It is also for anybody who is seeking reassurance to continue fighting these issues. Please sit down, put on your seat belts and enjoy the roller coaster ride. This is Aldo's journey.
Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual
by Nicholas MurrayThe grandson of biologist T. H. Huxley, Aldous Huxley had a privileged background and was educated at Eton and Oxford despite an eye infection that left him nearly blind. Having learned braille his eyesight then improved enough for him to start writing, and by the 1920s he had become a fashionable figure, producing witty and daring novels like CROME YELLOW (1921), ANTIC HAY (1923) and POINT COUNTER POINT (1928). But it is as the author of his celebrated portrayal of a nightmare future society, BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932), that Huxley is remembered today. A truly visionary book, it was a watershed in Huxley's world-view as his later work became more and more optimistic - coinciding with his move to California and experimentation with mysticism and psychedelic drugs later in life. Nicholas Murray's brilliant new book has the greatest virtue of literary biographies: it makes you want to go out and read its subject's work all over again. A fascinating reassessment of one of the most interesting writers of the twentieth century.
Aldous Huxley: A Biography
by Nicholas MurrayWhen Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963, on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he was widely considered to be one of the most intelligent and wide-ranging English writers of the twentieth century. Associated in the public mind with his dystopian satire, Brave New World, and experimentation with drugs that preceded the psychedelic, a term he invented, era of the 1960s, Huxley seemed to embody the condition of twentieth-century man in his restless curiosity, his search for meaning in a post-religious age, and his concern about the misuses of science and the future of the planet.But Huxley was born when Queen Victoria was on the British throne. He was the grandson of the great Victorian scientist Thomas Henry Huxley "Darwin's bulldog," and the great-nephew of the great poet and critic Matthew Arnold. Exiled in the Californian sun, he never ceased to think of himself as part of a tradition that could be traced back to the Victorian public intellectuals. This biography of Huxley---the first in thirty years---draws on a substantial amount of unpublished material, as well as numerous interviews with his family and friends. It is a portrait of a daring and iconoclastic novelist; a man hampered by semi-blindness, who spent a restless life in search of personal enlightenment. Nicholas Murray charts Huxley's Bloomsbury years, his surprising and complex relationship with D. H. Lawrence, and his emigration to America in the late 1930s, where he pursued a career as a screenwriter while continuing his fascination with mysticism and religion. Huxley's private life was also unconventional, and this book reveals for the first time the extraordinary story of the ménage à trois including Huxley, his remarkable wife, Maria, and the Bloomsbury socialite and mistress of Clive Bell, Mary Hutchinson.Huxley emerges from this new biography as one of the most intriguing and complex figures of twentieth-century English writing---novelist, poet, biographer, philosopher, social and political thinker. In an era of intense specialization he remained a free-ranging thinker, unconfined by conventional categories, concerned to communicate his insights in ordinary language---a very English intellectual.
Aldous Huxley's Hands
by Allene SymonsPsychedelics, neuroscience, and historical biography come together when a journalist finds a lost photograph of Aldous Huxley and uncovers a hidden side of the celebrated author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. Allene Symons had no inkling that Aldous Huxley was once a friend of her father's until the summer of 2001 when she discovered a box of her dad's old photographs. For years in the 1940s and '50s, her father had meticulously photographed human hands in the hope of developing a science of predicting human aptitudes and even mental illness. In the box, along with all the other hand images, was one with the name of Aldous Huxley on the back. How was it possible for two such unlikely people to cross paths--her aircraft-engineer father and the famous author?This question sparked a journalist's quest to understand what clearly seemed to be a little-known interest of Aldous Huxley. Through interviews, road trips, and family documents, the author reconstructs a time peaking in mid-1950s Los Angeles when Huxley experimented with psychedelic substances, ran afoul of gatekeepers, and advocated responsible use of such hallucinogens to treat mental illness as well as to achieve states of mind called mystical. Because the author's father had studied hundreds of hands, including those of schizophrenics, he was invited into Huxley's research and discussion circle. This intriguing narrative about the early psychedelic era throws new light on one of the 20th-century's foremost intellectuals, showing that his experiments in consciousness presaged pivotal scientific research underway today.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Alec Wilder
by Philip LambertThe music of Alec Wilder (1907-1980) blends several American musical traditions, such as jazz and the American popular song, with classical European forms and techniques. Stylish and accessible, Wilder's musical oeuvre ranged from sonatas, suites, concertos, operas, ballets, and art songs to woodwind quintets, brass quintets, jazz suites, and hundreds of popular songs. In this biography and critical investigation of Wilder's music, Philip Lambert chronicles Wilder's early work as a part-time student at the Eastman School of Music, his ascent through the ranks of the commercial recording industry in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s, his turn toward concert music from the 1950s onward, and his devotion late in his life to the study of American popular songs of the first half of the twentieth century. The book discusses some of his best-known music, such as the revolutionary octets and songs such as "I'll Be Around," "While We're Young," and "Blackberry Winter," and explains the unique blend of cultivated and vernacular traditions in his singular musical language.
Aleister Crowley: The Biography
by Tobias ChurtonIn early 20th-century England, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was considered "the wickedest man in the world." Today he's seen as a prophet, a master of the occult, and a spiritual pioneer--and his reputation just keeps on growing. This new biography, written with the cooperation of leading Crowley scholars and including new revelations from Crowley's grandson, displays the full scope of the man's many achievements as poet, explorer, spiritualist, wartime spy, and a thinker as significant as Jung, Freud, or Einstein.
Aleister Crowley: Art, Sex, and Magick in the Weimar Republic
by Tobias ChurtonA biographical history of Aleister Crowley’s activities in Berlin from 1930 to 1932 as Hitler was rising to power • Examines Crowley’s focus on his art, his work as a spy for British Intelligence, his colorful love life and sex magick exploits, and his contacts with magical orders • Explores Crowley’s relationships with Berlin’s artists, filmmakers, writers, and performers such as Christopher Isherwood, Jean Ross, and Aldous Huxley • Recounts the fates of Crowley’s friends and colleagues under the Nazis as well as what happened to Crowley’s lost art exhibition Gnostic poet, painter, writer, and magician Aleister Crowley arrived in Berlin on April 18, 1930. As prophet of his syncretic religion “Thelema,” he wanted to be among the leaders of art and thought, and Berlin, the liberated future-gazing metropolis, wanted him. There he would live, until his hurried departure on June 22, 1932, as Hitler was rapidly rising to power and the black curtain of intolerance came down upon the city. Known to his friends affectionately as “The Beast,” Crowley saw the closing lights of Berlin’s artistic renaissance of the Weimar period when Berlin played host to many of the world’s most outstanding artists, writers, filmmakers, performers, composers, architects, philosophers, and scientists, including Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Ethel Mannin, Otto Dix, Aldous Huxley, Jean Ross, Christopher Isherwood, and many other luminaries of a glittering world soon to be trampled into the mud by the global bloodbath of World War II. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and diary material by Crowley, Tobias Churton examines Crowley’s years in Berlin and his intense focus on his art, his work as a spy for British Intelligence, his colorful love life and sex magick exploits, and his contacts with German Theosophy, Freemasonry, and magical orders. He recounts the fates of Crowley’s colleagues under the Nazis as well as what happened to Crowley’s lost art exhibition--six crates of paintings left behind in Germany as the Gestapo was closing in. Revealing the real Crowley long hidden from the historical record, Churton presents “the Beast” anew in all his ambiguous and, for some, terrifying glory, at a blazing, seminal moment in the history of the world.
Aleister Crowley: The Beast Demystified
by Roger HutchinsonAleister Crowley (1875-1947) - mystic, writer, poet, astrologer, sexual revolutionary, painter, mountain climber and social critic - has a terrifying reputation. The contemporary press labelled him the 'wickedest man in the world', while he called himself the 'great beast'. Crowley dabbled in the occult, supported Germany in the First World War, was addicted to opiates, and many who associated with him died tragically in mysterious circumstances.Working from the starting point that behind the demonic reputation there stood a human being, and that beyond the self-proclaimed black magician there was a man hungry for publicity and fame, Roger Hutchinson lifts the smokescreen of mythology to reveal a truly astonishing figure.Why did this curious product of the Plymouth Brethren found the first 'hippy commune' in Sicily? What led this Cambridge graduate to be celebrated 20 years after his death on the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album? Why did Mussolini expel him from Italy? Why did a British magazine label him 'the man we'd like to hang'? Roger Hutchinson reveals the real Crowley: warts, wickedness, talent, courage, cowardice and all.
Aleister Crowley
by Gary LachmanThis definitive work on the occult's "great beast" traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley's name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers. Aleister Crowley is more than just a biography of this compelling, controversial, and divisive figure--it's also a portrait of his unparalleled influence on modern pop culture.
Aleister Crowley in America: Art, Espionage, and Sex Magick in the New World
by Tobias ChurtonAn exploration of Crowley’s relationship with the United States • Details Crowley’s travels, passions, literary and artistic endeavors, sex magick, and psychedelic experimentation • Investigates Crowley’s undercover intelligence adventures that actively promoted U.S. involvement in WWI • Includes an abundance of previously unpublished letters and diaries Occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowley’s three sojourns in America sealed both his notoriety and his lasting influence. Using previously unpublished diaries and letters, Tobias Churton traces Crowley’s extensive travels through America and his quest to implant a new magical and spiritual consciousness in the United States, while working to undermine Germany’s propaganda campaign to keep the United States out of World War I. Masterfully recreating turn-of-the-century America in all its startling strangeness, Churton explains how Crowley arrived in New York amid dramatic circumstances in 1900. After other travels, in 1914 Crowley returned to the U.S. and stayed for five years: turbulent years that changed him, the world, and the face of occultism forever. Diving deeply into Crowley’s 5-year stay, we meet artists, writers, spies, and government agents as we uncover Crowley’s complex work for British and U.S. intelligence agencies. Exploring Crowley’s involvement with the birth of the Greenwich Village radical art scene, we discover his relations with writers Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser and artists John Butler Yeats, Leon Engers Kennedy, and Robert Winthrop Chanler while living and lecturing on now-vanished “Genius Row.” We experience his love affairs and share Crowley’s hard times in New Orleans and his return to health, magical dynamism, and the most colorful sex life in America. We examine his controversial political stunts, his role in the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania, his making of the “Elixir of Life” in 1915, his psychedelic experimentation, his prolific literary achievements, and his run-in with Detroit Freemasonry. We also witness Crowley’s influence on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and rocket fuel genius Jack Parsons. We learn why J. Edgar Hoover wouldn’t let Crowley back in the country and why the FBI raided Crowley’s organization in LA. Offering a 20th-century history of the occult movement in the United States, Churton shows how Crowley’s U.S. visits laid the groundwork for the establishment of his syncretic “religion” of Thelema and the now flourishing OTO, as well as how Crowley’s final wish was to have his ashes scattered in the Hamptons.
Aleister Crowley in England: The Return of the Great Beast
by Tobias Churton• Reveals Crowley&’s sex magick relations in London and his contacts with important figures, including Dion Fortune, Gerald Gardner, Jack Parsons, Dylan Thomas, and black equality activist Nancy Cunard • Explores Crowley&’s nick-of-time escape from the Nazi takeover in Germany and offers extensive confirmation of Crowley&’s work for British intelligence • Examines the development of Crowley&’s later publications and his articles in reaction to the Nazi Gestapo actively persecuting his followers in Germany After an extraordinary life of magical workings, occult fame, and artistic pursuits around the globe, Aleister Crowley was forced to spend the last fifteen years of his life in his native England, nearly penniless. Much less examined than his early years, this final period of the Beast&’s life was just as filled with sex magick, espionage, romance, transatlantic conflict, and extreme behavior. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and letters, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed treatment of the final years of Crowley&’s life, from 1932 to 1947. He opens with Crowley&’s nick-of-time escape from the Nazi takeover in Germany and his return home to England, flat broke. Churton offers extensive confirmation of Crowley&’s work as a secret operative for MI5 and explores how Crowley saw World War II as the turning point for the &“New Aeon.&” He examines Crowley&’s notorious 1934 London trial, which resulted in his bankruptcy, and shares inside stories of Crowley&’s relations with Californian O.T.O. followers, including rocket-fuel specialist Jack Parsons, and his attempt to take over H. Spencer Lewis&’s Rosicrucian Order. The author reveals Crowley&’s sex magick relations in London and his contacts with spiritual leaders of the time, including Dion Fortune and Wicca founder Gerald Gardner. He examines Crowley&’s dealings with artists such as Dylan Thomas, Alfred Hitchcock, Augustus John, Peter Warlock, and Peter Brooks and dispels the accusations that Crowley was racist, exploring his work with lifelong friend, black equality activist Nancy Cunard. Churton also examines the development of Crowley&’s later publications such as Magick without Tears as well as his articles in reaction to the Nazi Gestapo who was actively persecuting his remaining followers in Germany. Presenting an intimate and compelling study of Crowley in middle and old age, Churton shows how the Beast still wields a wand-like power to delight and astonish.
Aleister Crowley in India: The Secret Influence of Eastern Mysticism on Magic and the Occult
by Tobias ChurtonFollow Aleister Crowley through his mystical travels in India, which profoundly influenced his magical system as well as the larger occult world • Shares excerpts from Crowley&’s unpublished diaries and details his travels in India, Burma, and Sri Lanka from 1901 to 1906 • Reveals how Crowley incorporated what he learned in India--jnana yoga, Vedantist, Tantric, and Buddhist philosophy--into his own school of Magick • Explores the world of Theosophy, yogis, Hindu traditions, and the first Buddhist sangha to the West as well as the first pioneering expeditions to K2 and Kangchenjunga in 1901 and 1905 Early in life, Aleister Crowley&’s dissociation from fundamentalist Christianity led him toward esoteric and magical spirituality. In 1901, he made the first of three voyages to the Indian subcontinent, searching for deeper knowledge and experience. His religious and magical system, Thelema, shows clear influence of his thorough experimental absorption in Indian mystical practices. Sharing excerpts from Crowley&’s unpublished diaries, Tobias Churton tells the true story of Crowley&’s adventures in India from 1901 to 1906, culminating in his first experience of the supreme trance of jnana (&“gnostic&”) yoga, Samadhi: divine union. Churton shows how Vedantist and Advaitist philosophies, Hindu religious practices, yoga, and Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism informed Crowley&’s spiritual system and reveals how he built on Madame Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott&’s prior work in India. Churton illuminates links between these beliefs and ancient Gnostic systems and shows how they informed the O.T.O. system through Franz Hartmann and Theodor Reuss. Churton explores Crowley&’s early breakthrough in consciousness research with a Dhyana trance in Sri Lanka, becoming a devotee of Shiva and Bhavani, fierce avatar of the goddess Parvati. Recounting Crowley&’s travels to the temples of Madurai, Anuradhapura, and Benares, Churton looks at the gurus of yoga and astrology Crowley met, while revealing his adventures with British architect, Edward Thornton. Churton also details Crowley&’s mountaineering feats in India, including the record-breaking attempt on Chogo Ri (K2) in 1902 and the Kangchenjunga disaster of 1905. Revealing how Crowley incorporated what he learned in India into his own school of Magick, including an extensive look at his theory of correspondences, the symbology of 777, and the Thelemic synthesis, Churton sheds light on one of the most profoundly mystical periods in Crowley&’s life as well as how it influenced the larger occult world.
Aleister Crowley in Paris: Sex, Art, and Magick in the City of Light
by Tobias Churton• Investigates the tales of Crowley &“raising Pan,&” going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris• Uncovers Crowley&’s involvement in the Belle Époque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, André Gide, and Aimée Crocker• Reveals Crowley&’s &“expulsion&” from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against CrowleyExploring occultist, magician, poet, painter, and writer Aleister Crowley&’s longstanding and intimate association with Paris, Tobias Churton provides the first detailed account of Crowley&’s activities in the City of Light.Using previously unpublished letters and diaries, Churton explores how Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn&’s Inner Order in Paris in 1900 and how, in 1902, he relocated to Montparnasse. Soon engaged to Anglo-Irish artist Eileen Gray, Crowley pontificates and parties with English, American, and French artists gathered around sculptor Auguste Rodin: all keen to exhibit at Paris&’s famed Salon d&’Automne. In 1904—still dressed as &“Prince Chioa Khan&” and recently returned from his Book of the Law experience in Cairo—Crowleydines with novelist Arnold Bennett at Paillard&’s. In 1908 Crowley is back in Paris to prove it&’s possible to attain Samadhi (or &“knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel&”) while living a modern life in a busy metropolis. In 1913 he organizes a demonstration for artistic and sexual freedom at Oscar Wilde&’s tomb. Until war spoils all in 1914, Paris is Crowley&’s playground.The author details how, after returning from America in 1920, and though based at his &“Abbey of Thelema&” in Sicily, Crowley can&’t leave Paris alone. When Mussolini expels him from Italy, Paris becomes his home from 1924 until 1929. Churton reveals Crowley&’s part in the jazz-age explosion of modernism, as the lover of photographer Berenice Abbott and many others, and how he enjoyed camaraderie with Man Ray, Nancy Cunard, André Gide, and Aimée Crocker. The author explores Crowley&’s adventures in Tunisia, Algeria, the Riviera,his battle with heroin addiction, his relationship with daughter Astarte Lulu—raised at Cefalù—and finally, a high-level ministerial conspiracy to get him out of Paris.Reconstructing Crowley&’s heyday in the last decade and a half of France&’s Belle Époque and the &“roaring Twenties,&” this book illuminates Crowley&’s place within the artistic, literary, and spiritual ferment of the great City of Light.
Alejandra Pizarnik. Biografía de un mito
by Cristina Piña Patricia VentiLa biografía definitiva de Alejandra Pizarnik, con nuevos materiales, documentos y entrevistados. Versión actualizada, ampliada y revisada de la única biografía de autora argentina sobre la poeta más disruptiva en idioma castellano del siglo XX. La obra y la influencia de Alejandra Pizarnik no dejan de crecer. Numerosos lectores en todo el mundo mantienen viva su literatura y cada vez más investigadores se dedican a estudiar a la aún hoy enigmática poeta. Cristina Piña escribió una primera versión de esta biografía hace treinta años y ahora, en colaboración con Patricia Venti, publican esta edición ampliada con una enorme cantidad de documentación nueva. Las autoras consultaron los diarios completos de la escritora, depositados en la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Princeton, junto con sus cuadernos, borradores, correspondencia y trabajos plásticos; mantuvieron largas conversaciones con amigos de la poeta y, sobre todo, con su hermana, Myriam; viajaron a París para entrevistar a la familia de los hermanos del padre, Elías Pizarnik, uno de los cuales, Simón, alojó a Alejandra en varias ocasiones en la casa de Chatenay-Malabry durante su estadía de casi cuatro años en la ciudad. También tuvieron acceso a los papeles de Manuel Mujica Lainez y Silvina Ocampo en Princeton, y a los de Djuna Barnes, en la Universidad de Maryland, vinculados con la poeta. Alejandra Pizarnik. Biografía de un mito se suma a la edición de toda la obra de la escritora en el sello Lumen, junto a los volúmenes Poesía completa, Prosa completa y Diarios. Sobre la obra de Pizarnik se ha dicho... Alejandra Pizarnik llega a la poesía argentina como una suerte de meteorito con luz propia, de esos que aparecen a veces en las hermosas noches del sur. Es hoy una poeta famosa -justamente famosa- y a la vez desconocida, porque como todos los grandes escritores no vive ni habita una sola voz, sino muchas voces, y muchas de esas voces han sido nubladas y silenciadas debido a la trayectoria dramática de su vida.Ivonne Bordelois Vos, ¿te das realmente cuenta de todo lo que me escribís? Sí, desde luego te das cuenta, y sin embargo no te acepto así, no te quiero así, yo te quiero viva, burra, y date cuenta que te estoy hablando del lenguaje mismo del cariño y la confianza -y todo eso, carajo, está del lado de la vida y no de la muerte. Quiero otra carta tuya, pronto, una carta tuya. (...) El poder poético es tuyo, lo sabés, lo sabemos todos los que te leemos; y ya no vivimos los tiempos en que ese poder era el antagonista frente a la vida, y esta el verdugo del poeta (...). Solo te acepto viva, solo te quiero Alejandra.Julio Cortázar Si nos despedimos de Alejandra Pizarnik en el momento en que esté a punto de comenzar su viaje, que es casi permanente, la veremos vestida de pequeña sonámbula, lúcidamente atenta a la menor señal. El andén tiene la forma de un cuarto acolchado por la fiebre, las alucinaciones, los asombros, los terrores y las nostalgias extremas. Su equipaje es el ojo de la cerradura hacia dentro, un prisma para volver a componer la descomposición de la luz en una semilla de fuego, un documento de identificación con los rostros de sus rostros inasibles y un telescopio al revés para completar la órbita del sueño. No son armas de combate, ni siquiera de defensa, son instrumentos de delicada, de finísima precisión para todos sus trabajos de viajera de la noche.Olga Orozco "Tú querías una escritura total, sin límites, un naufragio en tus propias aguas, oh avara", escribió Pizarnik en Extracción de la piedra de locura. Su obra