14 Stephensen, Legend of Aleister Crowley, 36.
15 Crowley’s ploy worked, for the contest was reported in Longman’s Magazine, Mar 1905, 45(269): 477–8.
16 AC to Gerald Kelly, n.d., Old D6, Yorke Collection.
17 Confessions, 416.
18 Jules Jacot-Guillarmod, Six Mois Dans l’Himalaya, le Karakoram et l’Hindu-Kush-Voyages et Explorations aux Plus Hautes Montagnes du Monde. (Sandoz: Neuchatel, 1904).
19 This tale has been told so often that it has become legendary: Crowley tells it in his Confessions, 417–9, but variations appear in biographies (Cammell, Aleister Crowley, 47, and Marlow, Seven Friends, 61–2), and newspapers (newsclippings file, 24 Nov 1929, Yorke Collection).
20 J. L. Sherwill, “Journal of a Trip Undertaken to Explore the Glaciers of Kanchanjungha Group in the Sikkim Himalayas, in November 1861,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1862, 31: 33-5.
21 John Tucker, 1955. Kanchenjunga (New York: Abelard-Schuman Ltd., 1955).
22 Jules Jacot-Guillarmod, “Vers le Kangchinjunga (8585m): Himalaya népalais,” Jahrbuch des Schweizer Alpenclub: Einundvierzigster Jahrgang 1905 bis 1906 (Bern: Verlag der Expedition des Jahrbuches des S. A. C., 1906), 190–205, This account differs from Crowley’s in both perception and details. I have attempted to incorporate both into my presentation; unless noted otherwise, the account originates with Crowley.
23 “Charles-Adolphe Reymond, 1875–1914,” Berge der Welt 1948, 1: 198–208.
24 “Drei Schweizer, darunter Jacot-Guillarmod, griefen im Jahre 1905 den Kantsch an,” Berge der Welt 1948, 120–7.
25 Genealogical information is from “The ORR family of Richmond-upon-Thames: Index of Individuals” and its sub-pages at http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/o/r/r/Stephen-Orr/WEBSITE-0001 (accessed 23 Apr 2010).
26 “Fribourg,” Revue militaire suisse 1894, 40(1): 50.
27 Pache’s interview ran in the Gazette de Lausanne on June 1, 10 and 12 of 1901. Excerpts appeared in “Chronique Politique,” Bibliotheque Universelle et Revue Suisse, July 1901, 23(67): 211–24. See also: “The War, the King and the South African Medal,” Times (London), 17 Jun 1901, 36483: 12. “With the Boers,” The Star (New Zealand), 12 Jul 1901, 7148: 2. “As Others See Us,” Bush Advocate (New Zealand), 30 Sep 1901, 12(2076): 2. Pache recounted how the constant Boer retreats frustrated the British troops, who would fight and rush to the top of a hill only find no one there to engage; as he quoted one of them, “We don’t car a hang if we get a bayonet through us at the top as long as there is someone there to do it!”
28 “Scaling Kinchinginga: Swiss Lieutenant Killed,” Manchester Guardian, 11 Sep 1905, 7.
29 Jacot-Guillarmod, “Vers le Kangchinjunga,” 191.
30 Auguste Forel, “Les Fourmis de l’Himalaya,” Bulletin de la Société Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles 1906, 42(155): 79–94. Although largely remembered for his groundbreaking study of ants, Forel was, prior to retiring in 1893, a highly accomplished psychiatrist and neuroanatomist. He was cofounder of neuron theory (for Untersuchungen über die Haubenregion und ihre oberen verknüpfungen im Gehirne des Menschen und einiger Säugetiere, mit Beiträgen zu den Methoden der Gehirnuntersuchung 1877), director of Zürich’s Burghölzli Asylum, founder of an alcoholism treatment center, professor of psychiatry at Munich, the first Swiss sexologist (for Die sexuelle Frage: eine naturwissenschaftliche, psychologische, hygienische und soziologische Studie für Gebildete, 1905), and an influence on Sigmund Freud.
31 The archives of the Royal Geographical Society identify de Righi as proprietor of the Woodlands Hotel, which Crowley refers to in his Confessions, 423. See “Tashi Lama in Darjeeling,” Hawera & Normanby Star, 8 Feb 1906, 9013: 6, for a contemporary article on the Drum Druid Hotel that mentions de Righi.
32 Robert Leon Cooper, Around the World with Mark Twain (New York: Arcade Pub., 2000), 238–9.
33 Testimonial letter of Capt. Henry B. Wilkinson to the Woodlands Hotel, 24 Mar 1900, quoted in Newman’s Guide to Darjeeling and Its Surroundings: Historical & Descriptive, with Some Account of the Manners and Customs of the Neighbouring Hill Tribes, and a Chapter on Thibet and the Thibetans (Calcutta: W. Newman and Co, 1900), 118.
34 Hon. Charles Granville Bruce and Hon. Mrs. Finetta Madelina Julia Campbell Bruce, Twenty Years in the Himalaya (London: E. Arnold, 1910), 31.
35 Walter Crane, India Impressions, with Some Notes of Ceylon During a Winter Tour, 1906–7 (London: Methuen & Co, 1907). 227–8
36 Crane, India Impressions, 227–8.
37 Guests at the Woodlands Hotel were treated to a breathtaking view of Kangchenjunga, even though the mountain was forty-five miles away. For contemporary reactions to the sight by visitors, see: John James Aubertin, Wanderings & Wonderings India, Burma, Kashmir, Ceylon, Singapore, Java, Siam, Japan, Manila, Formosa, Korea, China, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, the States (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1892), 25; Paul Eve Stevenson, “Up to the Hills in India,” Outing 1899, 34(2): 117–23; and Crane, India Impressions, 232.
38 Jacot-Guillarmod, “Vers le Kangchinjunga,” 196–7.
39 Jules Jacot Guillarmod, “Au Kangchinjunga (8585m): Voyage et explorations dans l’Himalaya du Sikhim et du Népal,” Le Globe: Journal Géographique 1906, 45(2): 87–90.
40 Charles Evans, Kangchenjunga: The Untrodden Peak (New York: E.P Dutton & Co., 1957), 1–3, 29. Tucker, Kanchenjunga, 25, 45–50.
41 Crowley and Jacot-Guillarmod’s numbering of the various camps diverge at this point, further underscoring the disconnect between how the two climbers viewed even major details of their ascent. For instance, what Crowley here calls Camp 4, Jacot-Guillarmod calls Camp V. Crowley’s numbering will be followed here.
42 Jacot-Guillarmod, “Vers le Kangchinjunga,” 201.
43 In The Pioneer, Crowley described this incident as follows: “These slopes proved excessively bad after a while, the snow lying thin on hard blue ice at an angle of 50 degrees or more. Easy enough for me with my claws: difficult or impossible for the men. The leader in fact fell who was unroped, but supporting him, I caught, and held him safely. But the shock of the fall shook his nerves, and he began to untie himself from the rope. A sharp tap brought him to his senses and probably saved his life.: the only occasion on which I have had to strike a man.” Aleister Crowley, “On the Kinchin Lay: The March,” Pioneer, 20 Sep 1905.
44 Jacot Guillarmod, “Au Kangchinjunga.”
45 Reymond’s diary entries are reproduced in “Charles-Adolphe Reymond,” 200.
46 A. C. Rigo de Righi, Dr. J. Jacot-Guillarmod and Ch. Reymond, “The Kinchinjunga Expedition,” Pioneer, 29 Sep 1905.
47 “Charles-Adolphe Reymond,” 202.
48 The porters’ names are given in “Drei Schweizer, darunter Jacot-Guillarmod.”
49 “Charles-Adolphe Reymond,” 202–3.
50 Confessions, 441.
51 “Charles-Adolphe Reymond,” 204.
52 “The Disaster on Kangchenjunga,” Alpine Journal 1906, 23(171): 51–4.
53 See, e.g., “Scaling Kinchinginga: Swiss Lieutenant Killed,” Manchester Guardian, 11 Sep 1905, 7. “Expédition suisse dans l’Himalaya,” Journal de Genéve, 11 Sep 1905, 3. “Other Accidents,” Alpine Journal, 1905, 22(170): 615. Science, 20 Oct 1905, 22: 511. “Une expédition tragique à l’Himalaya,” La Revue scientifique, 23 Sep 1905, Series 5, 4(13): 413.
54 Aleister Crowley’s articles “On the Kinchin Lay” for The Pioneer are: “I. Prospect and Retrospect,” 10 Aug 1905; “II. Bandoblast,” 17 Aug 1905; “The March,” 20 Sep 1905; and “V. Mountains or Metaphysics?” 15 Oct 1905.
55 Crowley “The March.”
56 Crowley, “The March.”
57 de Righi et al., “The Kinchinjunga Expedition.”
58 Crowley, “V. Mountains or Metaphysics?”
59 See the following Journal de Genéve articles: “Expédition suisse dans l’Himalaya” (11 Sep 1905, 3); Crowley’s version appeared in “L’Expédition Jacot-Guillarmod:
Mort du lieutenant Pache” (12 Sep 1905, 1), “Confédération: La mort du lieutenant Pache” (14 Sep 1905, 2), “Confédération: L’expédition Jacot-Guillarmod” (6 Oct 1905, 2) and “L’expédition Jacot-Guillarmod” (10 Oct 1905, 2–3). de Righi’s letter (countersigned by Jacot-Guillarmod and Reymond) ran as “L’expédition de l’Himalaya” (20 Oct 1905, 2), while Reymond’s account ran as “L’Expédition de l’Himalaya” (5 Feb 1906, 2). See also the account in Jacot-Guillarmod, “Dans l’Himalaya,” Gazette de Lausanne et Journal Suisse, 9 Nov 1905, 10 Nov 1905, 11 Nov 1905, 17 Nov 1905, and 1 Dec 1905.
60 See La Montagne, Le Globe, and Jahrbuch des Schweizer Alpenclub, respectively, as cited above. In later years, Jacot-Guillarmod also wrote “Au Kanchinjunga (8585 m.): Voyage et explorations dans l’Himalaya du Sikhim et du Népal,” l’Écho des Alpes 1914, 8: 389–406 and 9: 425–44. Crowley, however, may have had the final word, as he wrote a response to the late Dr. Jacot Guillarmod’s account; it is included as an appendix in the unexpurgated edition of The Confessions.
61 Aleister Crowley, “The Great Climb: Four Men Killed on Kinchinjunga: Expedition Abandoned at 21,000 Feet,” Daily Mail, 11 Sep 1905.
62 A., “The Kinchenjunga Expedition: To the Editor,” Pioneer, 24 Aug 1905.
63 Kangchenjunga is discussed in Evans, Kanchenjunga, and Tucker, Kanchenjunga, Guillarmod, Six mois, and Crowley’s Confessions. New 87, Yorke Collection, contains additional articles, e.g., Times, 3 Jan 1930 and National Advertiser, 18 Mar 1930.
64 Colin Wells, “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” Rock and Ice, Sep 2004, 136: 58–61, 105–9. This article, although hostile toward Crowley, contains a great deal of technical information about his various climbs, and is highly recommended for those seeking a modern assessment.
65 Maurice Isserman, Stewart Angas Weaver, and Dee Molenaar, Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2008), 63. See also their discussion on page 461, where they note that Crowley’s attitude about acclimatization “anticipated today’s high-altitude mantra of ‘get in, get up, get out.’ ”
66 Geoff Powter, Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line between Adventure and Madness (Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2006), 135.
67 AC to Gerald Kelly, n.d., Old D6, Yorke Collection.
68 AC to Gerald Kelly, 31 Oct 1905, Old D6, Yorke Collection.
69 This incident was reported as “Calcutta Shooting Affray: European wounds Badmashes,” Indian Daily News and Overland Summary, 2 Nov 1905, 23. There are some difference in these accounts: While Crowley says he attended Durga Puja, the article refers to the national holiday of Diwali, the Hindu festival of light (although it’s possible these two festivals may have overlapped). AC describes firing once, but two of the six assailants were shot in the stomach and admitted in serious condition to the Chandney Hospital. While the newspaper account suggests that the unidentified European fired twice, Crowley writes in his Collected Works, “the apprehension that six savages will rob and murder you is immediately allayed by the passage of a leaden bullet […] through the bodies of two of the ringleaders” (v. 3, 229). This may make sense of the report that the bullet passed through the stomach and back one of the men, Sheik Nanka, while the other had a bullet that entered his stomach and lodged in his back. (With thanks to the research acumen of Clint Warren.)
70 Based on Confessions, 453–8.
71 Confessions, 465.
72 AC to Clifford Bax, 28 Mar 1906, New 4, Yorke Collection.
73 Confessions, 498.
74 Diary, 1906. HRHRC. Reprinted in Motta, Sex and Religion.
75 AC to Gerald Yorke, 1 Jan 1929, Yorke Collection.
76 Diary, 1906.
Chapter Seven • The Great White Brotherhood
1 The only son of Richard and Maria Fuller of Chichester, Rev. Alfred Fuller (1832–1927) attended Brighton College and Pocklington as a youth and matriculated in 1852 to St. John’s College, Cambridge; he received his BA in 1857 and MA in 1859. Inbetween, he was ordained deacon (1857) and priest (1858), and served Kirk-Hallam (1857–1860) and Stoughton (1860–1864) before becoming rector of Itchenor, a post he held from 1865 to 1879. He married Selma Marie Philippine de la Chevallerie (c. 1847–1940)—not Thelma, as is often reported—on August 16, 1875. After retiring as rector, he moved to Chichester, where his son John was born. See: Alumni Cantabrigienses. “Deaths,” Times (London), 5 Jul 1927, 44625: 18. “Deaths,” Times (London), 7 Dec 1940, 48793: 1. Family Papers of the Fuller Family of Sussex, Add Mss 28260–28316, West Sussex Record Office.
2 Fuller’s own words, quoted in Brian Holden Reid, J. F. C. Fuller: Military Thinker (London: Macmillan Press, 1987), 13.
3 J.F.C.F., “From India,” Agnostic Journal, 7 Jan 1905, 56(1): 7. For a complete list of Fuller’s contributions to this journal, see Richard Kaczynski (ed.), Two Agnostics: The Early Writings of Victor Neuburg and J.F.C. Fuller (in preparation).
4 John Frederick Charles Fuller, The Star in the West: A Critical Essay upon the Works of Aleister Crowley (London: Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1907), 211.
5 AC to Fuller, 3 Aug 1906, IV/12/3, Papers of Maj. Gen. John Frederick Charles Fuller (1878–1966), GB99 KCLMA Fuller, Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College Library (hereafter cited as “Fuller Papers”).
6 See biographical appendix, unexpurgated Confessions, v. 7.
7 117. Note that her name appears as the first word of the first line, and as an acrostic. Other acrostics occur on pages 3, 19, 35, and 67.
8 Published in Konx Om Pax.
9 This early form of the ritual is from the Aleister Crowley Papers, George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University (hereafter cited as GARL).
10 Diary, 1906.
11 “Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni sub figura CLVI,” verses 4–6, 12.
12 Confessions, 513.
13 AL iii.43.
14 Works 3: 219.
15 The Equinox 1912, 1(8): 47.
16 Published in Konx Om Pax.
17 Confessions, 546.
18 Marriage record, Q2 1860, GRO, Bootie Cul, Cumberland, 10b: 813. Birth record, Q2 1861, GRO, Ulverston, Lancashire, 8e: 681. UK 1871 census, GRO, RG10, piece 4241, 31: 21.
19 “Registered Apprentices or Students of the Society,” Calendar of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (London: Phrmaceutical Soceity of Great Britain, 1885), 207. “Transactions of the Pharmaceutical Society,” Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions 1880, third series, 10(10 Jan): 522. “Deaths,” Chemist and Druggist 1924, 101 (11 Oct): 533. For Whineray’s marriage record, see Q4 1888, GRO, Cardiff, Monmouthshire, 11a: 478.
20 Confessions, 546. Robert Smythe Hichens, Felix: Three Years in a Life (London: Methuen & Co, 1902). The chemist’s shop appears on 162–4, and is subsequently referred to on 178, 237–42 and 860.
21 “The Big Stick,” The Equinox 1911, I(6): 170. A. C. Wootton, Chronicles of Pharmacy (London: Macmillan and Co., 1910).
22 Birth record, Q2 1852, GRO, St. George Hanover Square, London, Middlesex, 1a: 148. Death record, 1931, GRO, Glendale, Northumberland, 10b: 468.
23 “Lord Bennet’s Religious Work: The Son of an English Peer an Evangelist in a Pacific Town,” New York Times, 2 Feb 1896, 12. “An Evangelist Earl: Lord Tankerville and His American Wife Now Over Here,” New York Tribune, 22 Dec 1911, 7.
24 Together they had four children (Georgina, who died shortly after birth in 1896), Charles Augusts Ker (1897–1971), Ida Lovia Sophie (1898–1900), and George William Bennet (b. 1903).
25 “Earl of Tankerville Dead: An American Girl, Wife of His Son, Is Now a Countess,” New York Times, 20 Dec 1899, 3. “New American Countess,” Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec 1899, 3. “The New Earl of Tankerville,” Washington Post, 24 Dec 1899, 10.
26 “Lord Tankerville: Talented, but Poor,” Washington Post, 22 Dec 1911, 6. Marion Elliston, “English Ancestral Homes of American Women,” Appleton’s (Booklovers) Magazine, Jul 1905, 6(1): 41–55. Shor
tly after he died in 1931, his son announced that he would cell Chillingham Castle because of the hefty taxation and death duties. “Earl to Sell Castle,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 2 Oct 1931, 7.
27 “Amateur Art Exhibition: Yorkshire Railway Porter a Prize-Winner,” Manchester Guardian, 8 Mar 1910, 13.
28 “La Marquise de Fontenoy,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 22 Dec 1911, 10. “Lord Tankerville The Chillingham Wild Cattle,” Times (London), 10 Jul 1931; 45871: 16. “The Earl of Tankerville,” Manchester Guardian, 10 Jul 1931, 8. “Lord Tankerville, ‘Singing Earl,’ Dies: Had Possessed a Fine Tenor Voice and Studied under Italian, Sbriglia: French King an Ancestor: Served as Sailor, Soldier, Cow-puncher and Evangelist—Enjoyed U.S. Ranch Experience,” New York Times, 10 Jul 1931, 19.
29 Confessions, 547–8.
30 Birth record, Q2 1883, GRO, Islington, London, 1b: 390.
31 In the 1891 British Census, Victore (sic) Neuburg is listed with his mother Jeannette Jacobs (married, age thirty-one), residing at 123 Highbury New Park. Other residents include Jeannette’s mother Rebecca (age fifty-nine, widowed head of household), and her six siblings Hannah (age thirty-four), Benjamin (age thirty-one), Sydney (age twenty-nine), Theresa (age twenty-seven), Edward (twenty-six) and Montague (twenty-one). See RG12, piece 173, 43: 23. The 1901 census for the same address still spells his name Victore, but this time Jeannette appears with the surname Neuburg; other siblings at the address were Benjamin, Theresa, and Edward. See RG13, piece 196, 38: 16.
32 Neuburg’s signed contributions to the Freethinker were limited to “Vale, Jehovah!,” 25 Oct 1903, 23(43): 684 and “The Pagan,” 21 Aug 1904, 24(34): 541. His first of many contributions to the Agnostic Journal began with “Only,” 10 Oct 1903, 53(15): 238. For a full list of his other contributions, see Richard Kaczynski (ed.), Two Agnostics: The Early Writings of Victor Neuburg and J.F.C. Fuller (in preparation). For additional biographical details, see Jean Overton Fuller, The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg (London: W.H. Allen, 1965; rev. ed. Oxford: Mandrake, 1990).
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