Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) poet, painter, novelist, explorer, mountaineer, chess master, classical scholar and drug addict was the founder of a religion called thelema , which, he claimed, had superceded Christianity. He was totally at odds with the morality of his time, as this account of his life clearly shows. Reviled in his lifetime, his fame following his death has risen steeply. John Symonds was Crowley's literary executor, and his biography of Aleister Crowley is the fullest account of the life of this most bizarre Englishman. The present edition has been considerably revised and augmented, and remains the standard work on Crowley.