June 13, 2015 e.v.

Ordo Templi Orientis is pleased to announce the acquisition of Aleister Crowley's personal copy of The Works of Aleister Crowley (also known as “The Collected Works”) recently offered at auction by Christie's in New York.

The only known copy printed on vellum and bound in red crushed levant morocco, this three-volume set is inscribed in Crowley's handwriting as follows:

Crowley's Last Will and Testament named Ordo Templi Orientis as the sole heir of his “books and writings and literary effects...for the absolute use and benefit of the said Order,” so it is especially fitting that this important heirloom has finally found its way home after all of these years, in accordance with the wishes of its creator.

More information about its provenance and remarkable history is available in the January 2014 issue of the bibliophile journal Caxtonian, available online here. This acquisition will have an honored place in the permanent collection of the Order's archives, which serve as an important resource for authors and scholars of Western Esotericism, Thelema, and the life and legacy of Aleister Crowley.