Inscribed by Aleister Crowley to ffep. in black pen 'Sans Mot Dit [or Dire], 31.5.09' ['without a word'], with the additional ownership signature of Dot Lowe to ffep. and also to upper pastedown, to which the address 'Gt. Easton Rectory' is added. Very good, vellum slightly grubby, spot of soiling to upper cover, front joint creased, slight spotting to early leaves.
First issued separately, Crowley's Works were reissued in a single volume, which itself appears in several different issues including the Essay Competition issue and as here the Travellers' Edition. There were a number of different bindings, but the present full vellum seems to be the deluxe issue. The vellum ties in the present copy appear original, although other copies were issued with silk ties.
Dot Lowe's name has been previously mentioned in a list of Aleister Crowley's lovers in the Yorke collection, although her precise identity has remained a mystery. Crowley's own 'library copy' of his collection of poems, The Winged Beetle (1910), provides a clue in the form of a manuscript annotation in Crowley's hand to The Wings on page 34: 'Written at Boleskine after shooting a seagull and sending wings to Dot Lowe' (Potter & Potter Auctions, October 20th 2022, lot 382). This annotation reveals several of the printed dedications in the book, with both The Wings, and The Eyes of Dorothy having printed dedications to 'Dot', while The God and the Girl, dedicated to Dorothy L---, and The Silence of Columbine, and Belladonna, dedicated to Dot L---, also seem likely candidates.
The appearance in the present volume of the address at Gt. Easton Rectory is the key to unlocking Dot Lowe's identity. Mary Kathleen Capell was the daughter of Ada Augusta Hawkins and the Reverend Horatio Bladen Capell, who served as the rector of Great Easton in Dunmow from 1877-1918. Capell married her second husband, the outrageously wealthy Edward Aubrey Courtauld Lowe, in June 1900. Although they divorced in 1906, she likely continued to use the name until she married her third husband, Captain William Frederick Ullathorne Cosens in 1914, emigrating with him to Australia - it is on this emigration paperwork, and later her daughter's birth certificate, where she used the name 'Dorothy'.
Given that her father was the rector at Great Easton, it seems clear that Mary was Dot Lowe, with 'Dorothy' being a chosen name. Little more is known about her life and her relationship with Crowley, but it seems from her social circle that they would have had ample opportunity to meet. Her second husband, Courtauld Lowe, was a regular visitor to the Strand, and his name appears as a buyer from the upmarket Wardour Street taxidermist Walter Burton, perhaps offering a clue to Crowley's gift of a seagull's wings.
