Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded: The Life of Aleister Crowley, Kaczynski Richard

The name Aleister Crowley instantly conjures visions of diabolic ceremonies and orgiastic indulgences--and while the sardonic Crowley would perhaps be the last to challenge such a view, he was also much more than the Beast, as this authoritative biography shows.

Perdurabo--entitled after the magical name Crowley chose when inducted into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn--traces Crowleys remarkable journey from his birth as the only son of a wealthy lay preacher to his death in a boarding house as the worlds foremost authority on magick. Along the way, he rebels against his conservative religious upbringing; befriends famous artists, writers, and philosophers (and becomes a poet himself); is attacked for his practice of the black arts; and teaches that science and magick can work together. While seeking to spread his infamous philosophy of, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, Crowley becomes one of the most notorious figures of his day.