Crowley repeatedly offered dinner to Quinn, who always declined. Realizing that Crowley was hard up, and feeling charitable with the holiday season approaching, Quinn finally invited Crowley to his apartment for a mid-December Christmas dinner. He arrived in good spirits and presented Quinn with a gift of a manuscript. It was “The King of Terrors,” published in The Equinox as “The Testament of Magdalen Blair.” Its ninety pages were bound in limp crimson morocco with a cloth solander case. Crowley inscribed it, “To John Quinn the MS of my best story (so far). Christmas 1914, a tiny tribute from Aleister Crowley.”12
Ironically, another of Quinn’s dinner guests was John Butler Yeats (1839–1922), the talented father of Crowley’s GD rival, W. B. Yeats. The elder Yeats, who was giving lectures in America, also brought former school teacher Dorothy Coates, his tall brunette mistress. Formerly Quinn’s lover, she came between Quinn and Yeats, and only her recent affliction with tuberculosis prompted the two men to reconcile. Also attending was Frederic James Gregg (1865-1928), Quinn’s good friend who left his journalistic job at the Sun to become one of Vanity Fair’s main contributors.
A skilled and witty raconteur, Crowley dominated the conversation, recounting the history of the manuscript he had just given Quinn: he wrote the short story “The Testament of Magdalen Blair,” originally titled “The King of Terrors,” in November 1912. Having read it at a party one Christmas Eve, he shocked the guests so that, the next morning, he learned they all now disliked him. He submitted it pseudonymously to the English Review and to his astonishment, editor Austin Harrison (1873–1928), believing the story to be true, demanded authentication.
Then Crowley entertained everyone with his best party stunt: guessing, with remarkable accuracy, the birth date, hour, and rising sign of those present. When the conversation turned to the GD, an organization dear to W. B. Yeats, John Butler Yeats and Dorothy Coates questioned him: yes, he opposed Mathers, and was indignant about his alleged mistreatment of Moïna. All the while, he was courteous and well spoken. “Of course,” Yeats recalled, “being an Englishman, he was throughout the hero of his own tales.”13 Yeats liked Crowley, and described the evening favorably in a letter to his son, “Willie”:
Do you know a man named Crowley?—a strange man and witty. Miss Coates and I met him at Quinn’s at dinner; his conversation not witty but that of a witty man.… Have you noticed that any man possessing the gift of expression but absolutely without sympathy is inevitably a wit and a man of humour? A complete detachment from the people about him—this complete and perfectly natural estrangement puts him in easy possession of all that makes for humor and wit. It also makes him seem formidable. The combination is that of the formidable stranger, so that you pay attention to every word he lets fall from his lips. And if he makes you laugh, you hear him with a sense of relief and are almost grateful, this effect enhanced in this case by his bullet head and strong clumsy figure—his fingers thick but tapering.… Have you noticed that one is always inclined to like a formidable man? It is our way of getting back our courage.14
Quinn, however, decided the poet was simply not his type. Magick bored him, and their conversation left him thinking Crowley a dull, uninteresting speaker. Despite Crowley’s reputation, Quinn found nothing objectionable about him except, perhaps, for his “strong appetite for strong drink.” Quinn had supplied vintage Chartreuse and cigars to his guests, and Crowley consumed a good amount, although never becoming drunk. “I am not interested in his morals or lack of morals,” he wrote. “He may or may not be a good or profound or crooked student or practitioner of magic. To me, he is only a third—or fourth—rate poet.”15
Gregg’s opinion of Crowley is unknown, but he appears to have played a role in introducing Crowley to Vanity Fair, for Crowley’s works soon began to appear regularly in the New York edition just as they did in the London edition. These events, however, did not unfold until Crowley’s fifth Chokmah day.
When W. B. Yeats learned that his father and Quinn had entertained Crowley for Christmas, he sent warnings to both. To his father, Yeats wrote:
Crowley is not a man I appreciate. I am amused to find that he now praises Mrs. MacGregor, he slandered her in a very cruel way in one of his books but I suppose Bergson’s sister is now worth considering. I am sorry Quinn has taken up with Crowley.16
Yeats was even more blunt with Quinn:
He is I think mad, but has written about six lines, amid much bad rhetoric, of real poetry. I asked about him at Cambridge, and a man described him being dragged out of the dining hall by a porter, thrown out, struggling, because of the indecency of his conversation. He is an English and French type. You I think have nothing like him. He used to be a handsome fellow.17
Quinn assured the younger Yeats that he was no friend of Crowley’s and had seen him only three or four times in all. Unknown to Crowley, a ghost from his past kept him out of Quinn’s graces.
Another moneymaking scheme was meanwhile in the works. Crowley contacted lawyer Theodore Schroeder (1864–1953), whose writings on sex and religion attracted AC’s attention. Crowley sent him a copy of the Bagh-i-Muattar, emphasizing,
When you’re done with it, you can walk straight down to Brentano’s [Book Store] and get your money back. It’s very very rare: Only 200 copies printed, many of these destroyed, and the bulk of the stock probably lost.…18
The book, however, was merely bait. Crowley offered to send Schroeder OTO’s secret documents at a deal too good to pass up: without the ceremonies, he could take a vow of secrecy and receive the instructions as an honorary VII° at two-thirds the price.
Such were Crowley’s first days in America, financially depleted and disappointed. As he generated spare funds, he spent them on continued experiments in sex magick. Although Leila was with him around this time, Crowley confined his work to cheap prostitutes and masturbation.
Day two.
Despite the war, financial hardship, and distance from England, the Great Work proceeded. Cowie was doing his best as Grand Treasurer General of MMM to send Crowley £50–100 at regular intervals. Furthermore, Frank Bennett, the AA student who left for Australia and the TS around 1911, recontacted MMM after three years of running a Theosophical lodge; he wanted to work the OTO rituals in Australia. Windram, Crowley’s man in South Africa, worked with Bennett and Ernest W. T. Dunn, 33°, to set up an OTO lodge down under, with Bennett as National Grand Secretary General and Dunn the reluctant Grand Master General. This arrangement placed Crowley in a comfortable political position in OTO, with supporters operating lodges on three continents beside Europe: Jones in Canada, Windram in South Africa, and Bennett in Australia.
Looking out on New York on New Year’s Day, 1915, Crowley concluded that Mercury was lord of the city. The god of commerce was clearly with him, for opportunities waited at his door.
The omnibus headed up 5th Avenue. Inside, Crowley read the latest press clippings on himself that his London cutting service had sent him. A tap on his shoulder interrupted his leisure. “Excuse me,” a man spoke as Crowley turned to face him. “Do you favor a square deal for Germany and Austria?”
Crowley considered the man and his question, and decided to play along. “I want a square deal for everybody,” he replied noncommittally, much to the other man’s interest. Their ensuing discussion of politics continued until they reached his stop. “I have to get off at 37th Street,” the man explained and handed Crowley his card. Only after he left did Crowley examine the name on the card: O’Brien.
When Crowley’s curiosity led him to call on O’Brien a few days later, the Irishman was nowhere to be found. Instead, he confronted a children’s poet by the name of Joseph Bernard Rethy19 at the offices of German propaganda rag The Fatherland. Subtitled “Fair Play for Germany and Austria-Hungary,” its goal was to keep the United States neutral and out of the war. Rethy responded to Crowley’s visit by fetching a higher authority.
He soon returned with poet George Sylvester Viereck (1884–1962), The Fatherla
nd’s publisher. Wide-eyed and smiling, Viereck stepped forward, shook Crowley’s hand, and remarked how nice it was to see him again.
Again? he thought.
Viereck reminded him: back in 1911, when Austin Harrison introduced them at the offices of the English Review. He remembered AC as an eccentric mix of poet, pornographer, adventurer, and devil worshiper. As he wrote:
I knew nothing against him. I do not object to devil worship and I think that a man’s personal life is his own. Hence, any rumors against him which may have reached me had no effect.20
Viereck was in a friendly mood, and engaged the poet in conversation.
Crowley found Viereck an intelligent and worldly man, particularly in matters of ideology and politics. Viereck’s approach was a relief from Northcliffe’s rabid propaganda. Turning on his charm, Crowley explained to Viereck that he was an Irishman looking for a job. In response, Viereck ran AC’s “Honesty is the Best Policy” in the January 13 and 20 issues of The Fatherland; Reuss included a German translation in the March Oriflamme. It marked Crowley’s first foray into what his detractors would call treason. Shortly thereafter, a political letter that he circulated among his friends, “An Orgy of Cant,” was printed in The Continental Times, a European pro-German newspaper;21 according to Spence, its New York bureau was operated by Theodor Reuss out of 40 West 36th Street, which was also the address of Crowley’s flat.22 Crowley’s politically charged writings would continue to appear in subsequent issues of both The Fatherland and The Continental Times over the next two and a quarter years.23
George Sylvester Viereck (1884–1962), editor of The Fatherland. (photo credit 12.1)
Crowley’s motives with these pro-German writings have long been contested. While critics suggest Crowley was an unprincipled opportunist who sold out his country for a paycheck, his friends believed the explanation that Crowley gave: he was working with the knowledge of the British government to infiltrate Viereck’s circle and publish propaganda so ridiculous as to destroy Germany’s credibility, and to help bring the United States into the war. This was done with the help of John O’Hara Cosgrave (1864–1947), editor of the New York World’s Sunday magazine (which had recently published two articles about Crowley by Harry Kemp and Henry Hall). Cosgrave allegedly introduced Crowley to the U.S. Department of Justice.24 Indeed, when the United States terminated diplomatic ties with Germany just prior to entering the fray, Crowley noted in his diary for February 2, 1917, “My 2¼ years’ work crowned with success; U.S.A. breaks off relations with Germany.” This is significant as some have argued that Crowley invented his secret-agent story years later in order to return to England without being arrested. Indeed, this diary entry shows that counterespionage was his intent all along.
Consistency, in fact, is a hallmark of Crowley’s interviews with the Bureau of Investigation and the attorney general of New York about his apparent pro-German activities. The account he gave them is corroborated by a memorandum and affidavit that he prepared at that time, seeking intelligence work from the British authorities, and is also consistent with the essay “The Last Straw,” which was included in his Confessions. This militates against the theory that Crowley changed his story later, and is thus worth summarizing here.
Crowley’s September 1914 attack of phlebitis rendered him ineligible for active military service, although he did apply. As Crowley explained, “I asked my friend, the Hon. Everard Feilding, Lieut. R.N.V.R., of the Press Bureau, to get me a job. Nothing doing.”25 Several years had passed since Feilding was secretary for the Society for Psychical Research and joined the AA. Since then, he had been appointed a Naval Censor for the Official Press Bureau.26 His reply to AC was not encouraging: whereas Feilding had a history of Naval service and a college degree, Crowley possessed neither of these. Feilding told him,
You wear a short blue gown and an extremely battered mortarboard. You have an extraordinary personality—a reputation for having committed every crime from murder, barratry and arson to quaternio terminorum.… I cannot hold out any hopes that any way can be found whereby you might serve your country.27
Finding himself in America, Crowley got the idea to win the Germans’ confidence and infiltrate their circle. Reading the press accounts of Crowley’s declaration of Irish independence at the Statue of Liberty (described below), Feilding wrote Crowley a pained letter asking what he was up to. Knowing Feilding to be a reasonable man, Crowley explained that he had penetrated Viereck’s propaganda ring and was doing his best to discredit the Germans. Although understanding and approving of Crowley’s strategy, Feilding “could not authorize me to go ahead without appealing to his superiors. He put the case before them.… The result was that the negotiations came to very little, though I turned in reports from time to time.”28
Although he could not obtain official authorization, Crowley proceeded on his own recognizance in hopes that the authorities would reconsider. “I got the idea of keeping up that illusion, so as to qualify for a post in the Secret Service of England.… I told Lieut. Feilding of the plan, which he thought a good one.”29 Thus, Crowley continued writing for The Fatherland to discredit the Germans and sway American public opinion. AC summarized his strategy to Joseph W. Norwood (c. 1878–1955), a former lawyer turned editor of the newspaper Light in Louisville, Kentucky, and founder in 1919 of the International Magian Society dedicated to the practical application of Masonic principles:30 “I was employed by the Secret Service, my main object being to bring America into the War, my main method to get the Germans to make asses of themselves by increasing their frightfulness until even the Americans kicked.”31
Then the May 24, 1916, issue of The Fatherland attacked Captain Guy Gaunt for allegedly bribing an office boy at the magazine for information on Viereck.32 Sir Guy Reginald Archer Gaunt (1869–1953) was England’s Naval Intelligence attaché in Washington. According to his autobiography, The Yield of the Years (1940), he came to the United States in May 1914, where he reported to Ambassador Sir Cecil Spring-Rice; when the embassy learned of German plots in America, “Permission came from London for me to take up Intelligence work, but to work with the greatest caution.”33 At that, he moved into the Biltmore Hotel in New York and took a couple of small offices at 43–44 Whitehall Street. In light of the Fatherland’s attacks, Crowley wrote a supportive letter to Gaunt, offering his services. According to Crowley, “He replied very nicely though in a rather off-hand way, in which he said that he only knew of Viereck ‘as one of the lesser jackals around von Papen’ ”34 and not worth his notice.
Shortly thereafter, Crowley had a conversation with investment banker and patron of the arts Otto Herman Kahn (1867–1934), who was a German-born naturalized British citizen who moved to New York in 1893 to work for Speyer and Company. Spence suggests that he was also an intelligence agent.35 Indeed, after talking with him Crowley applied formally to Gaunt for work, reporting that “I have ever since kept him informed of my address, so as to be ready if called.”36 This is corroborated by Crowley’s interviews with American authorities, who wrote “Crowley then described his endeavors to become associated with the British Secret Service, detailing his dealings with Commodore Gaunt of the British Intelligence Office but admitted that he had never succeeded in obtaining any official recognition.”37
Many officials, both American and British, viewed Crowley’s claims as absurd, and were under the assumption that “the British authorities have conveyed to Crowley an intimation that if he returns to England, his reception will be rather more warm than cordial and that it would probably be safer for him to remain on this side for the present.”38 When questioned about this allegation, “Crowley denied that there was any action pending against him in London that would prevent him from returning to England at any time he wished.”39 Indeed, when Crowley returned to England after the war in 1919 and talk of treason was rife, Gaunt contacted British Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sir Edward Grey (1862–1933) and Basil Thompson (1861–1939), chief of Scotland Yard’s Criminal In
vestigation Department and head of MI5’s Special Branch,40 wherein he achieved renown as one of the great spy catchers. Gaunt told these men, “Let him alone. I have got a complete line on him and also The Fatherland.”41 However, as Crowley commented on a later attempt to corroborate all this, “I am a little doubtful as to whether Gaunt will reply to your letter. I think the obligation of professional secrecy may prevent him.”42
However, not all officials were so skeptical of Crowley’s explanation. When the assistant to New York’s attorney general questioned Crowley in 1918 about his wartime activities, he satisfied them that he was truly serving the war effort.43 Crowley provided the Bureau of Investigation with information about a man whose name is censored from the public record. This is almost certainly Viereck, who, as a paid German agent, received $140,000 to finance his propaganda prior to the entry of the United States into the war. Viereck came to regard Crowley as a spy, writing that AC “Came to me during the War. Worked for me, wrote about me. Tried to sell me out to the English.”44 Years later, when planning a trip back to the United States, AC noted in his diary,
George Sylvester Viereck will sign an affidavit that I had no trouble with authorities in U.S.A. He said also that after the war he made friends with our N.I.D. [Naval Intelligence] chiefs, who told him that I had been working for them during the war.45
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