Ross G Caldwell
About the authorship of the “Bibliographical Note”, Richard Kaczynski in Perdurabo says (2nd edition, p. 530): “The book contained nine color plates of the cards, technical appendices, and a bibliographic note (by Crowley but attributed to Martha Küntzel).”
He gives no source for this assertion, but I find that Crowley’s diaries confirm it. For Thursday 30 September, 1943:
“Wrote Cordelia, Cohen. Bibliographical
note for Taro thank God that’s over!”
So there you have it. Kaczynski doesn’t speculate on why Crowley may have credited Küntzel, and I can only offer a vague guess. She had recently died, and Crowley was fond of her, despite her support for Hitler; perhaps he had suggested that she write such a bibliographic note sometime in the early stages of writing the book (1938-1940), and, whether she produced something or not, he may have honoured her memory by writing one in her name.
He wrote the following about this “venerable lady” in letter XLVIII of Magick Without Tears (about 1944):
"Now here I must tell you a story which may throw a good deal of light on much that is obscure in the political situation of '25 to date. The venerable lady (S.H. Soror I.W.E. 8° = 3□) who, on the death of S.H. Frater 8° = 3□ Otto Gebhardi, succeeded him as my representative in Germany (note that all this pertains to the A∴ A∴; the O.T.O. is not directly concerned) attained the Grade of Hermit (AL I, 40)."
Martha Küntzel, Soror I.W.E. (Ich Will Es) apparently died in 1941. According to Kaczynski (Perdurabo p. 420) and Marco Pasi (Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics, p. 18), her dates are 1857-1941; she was therefore about 18 years older than Crowley.
He gives no source for this assertion, but I find that Crowley’s diaries confirm it. For Thursday 30 September, 1943:
“Wrote Cordelia, Cohen. Bibliographical
note for Taro thank God that’s over!”
So there you have it. Kaczynski doesn’t speculate on why Crowley may have credited Küntzel, and I can only offer a vague guess. She had recently died, and Crowley was fond of her, despite her support for Hitler; perhaps he had suggested that she write such a bibliographic note sometime in the early stages of writing the book (1938-1940), and, whether she produced something or not, he may have honoured her memory by writing one in her name.
He wrote the following about this “venerable lady” in letter XLVIII of Magick Without Tears (about 1944):
"Now here I must tell you a story which may throw a good deal of light on much that is obscure in the political situation of '25 to date. The venerable lady (S.H. Soror I.W.E. 8° = 3□) who, on the death of S.H. Frater 8° = 3□ Otto Gebhardi, succeeded him as my representative in Germany (note that all this pertains to the A∴ A∴; the O.T.O. is not directly concerned) attained the Grade of Hermit (AL I, 40)."
Martha Küntzel, Soror I.W.E. (Ich Will Es) apparently died in 1941. According to Kaczynski (Perdurabo p. 420) and Marco Pasi (Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics, p. 18), her dates are 1857-1941; she was therefore about 18 years older than Crowley.