An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

come to England and compel full redress of this abominable injustice. In June of this year, I placed a statement of the case before Mr. James Douglas, the literary editor of the Sunday Express, who had initiated this campaign of calumny by printing, under his own name, a grossly vituperative review of Mr. Crowley’s novel “The Diary of a Drug Fiend”. His article misrepresented the moral purpose of that work, as recognised in numerous reviews of it by men of letters in reputable journals : it was an orgie of salacity and, in essence, a lie. I placed a copy of this statement before the editorial board of the Sunday Express, pointing out that the assertion that Mr. Crowley had served a prison sentence (in America or else- where, whether for the crime alleged or for any other offence) was demonstrably untrue, and asking simply for the full and frank withdrawal of that particular lie. At the same time I sent you privately a full statement, supported by documents, not only refuting your editor’s calumnies, but containing sufficient positive truth concerning Mr. Crowley’s life and work to prove that the case put forward by the Sunday Express was as false in the spirit as in the letter. I did everything I could to ensure that these representations should come to your personal — 10 —