The Ninth Arch - now at printers

[Michael Staley]

The print production files for the republication of The Ninth Arch were passed to the printers yesterday morning, and printers' proofs are scheduled to reach me before the usual Christmas and New Year shutdown. The standard edition should be delivered from the printers by the end of January 2017.

There are six new plates in this edition. They are taken from an illuminated manuscript of The Book of the Law created by Steffi Grant in pen & ink and watercolour. This work was produced in the mid 1940s - one of the pages has an inscription with a date in August 1944. The manuscript is not quite finished, but it is intense and beautiful and at some point will be published as a complete work by Starfire Publishing.

Some of the plates in the first edition (2002) have been rephotographed for this edition and are reproduced in colour. These include two surrealist paintings by Kenneth Grant and a Self-Portrait by Clanda. Also in colour is an intense mid 1940s Self-Portrait by Steffi Grant. This is the self-portrait of Steffi which Kenneth Grant had with him when staying with Crowley at 'Netherwood' in 1945.

A selection of the colour plates, including two of the new ones, can be seen at the Starfire Publishing website:

www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/The_Ninth_Arch_moredetails.htm

Weighing in at 592 pages and with a 32-page section of colour and black-and-white plates, this is a substantial volume and a fitting culmination of the Typhonian Trilogies. It has been hard and protracted though intensely enjoyable work preparing this republication. When the book is published, there will be a day of talks to mark the occasion. More details will follow.

[stephen]

This is excellent news and I do have some awareness of the hard work that will have gone into the republication (perhaps, "rebirth" might be a more accurate description) of this ultimate Typhonian Trilogies volume.

At a page count of 592, I believe that is something of a significant increment ?

Did know of Steffi Grant's Book of the Law manuscript and have checked out the two colour reproductions on the website and will look forward to seeing the others. Thank you for letting us know, Michael.

[Michael Staley]

Dec 21, 2016 14:38:13 GMT stephen said:

At a page count of 592, I believe that is something of a significant increment?

The text pdf for the 2002 edition ran to 600 pages in all (including preliminaries, introduction etc), so this is slightly less. It's a fresh typesetting with the design, margins, pointsize and layout in line with previous republished volumes in this series.

[Gregory Peters]

The colour plates looks fab. Can not wait!

[stephen]

For some reason I had it in my head that the original page count was just over 500, when it was in fact just over 600.

Yes, The Ninth Arch is one big book.

[Michael Staley]

Printers' proofs arrived just before Christmas. They were by and large an excllent set of proofs. There were a few revisions to be made to the text, and light touches to some of the plates.

I was particularly pleased to see that the six plates from Steffi Grant's illuminated Liber AL turned out so well. Incidentally, a while back I came across the following passage in a letter by Kenneth Grant written in 1991.

Shortly after I was married, Gerald Yorke brought Frieda [Harris] to our flat to see my wife's work, especially an illuminated ms of the Book of the Law, which sent Frieda into raptures.

I anticipate the printers' proofing to be completed by the end of this week, and so thereafter we will be going into full print, collation and binding, with the books being delivered in the latter half of January.

[Ad Finem]

Thanks for the information Michael. I am really glad to hear thys, and look forward to seeing the new edition soon.

A.F

[Raj Don Yasser]

Looking forward to it, from what I've seen on the website the color plates look really nice. I've never seen the illustrated "Book of the Law" pages before. Is that part of a series? If so, ever published?

[Michael Staley]

Steffi Grant created an illuminated manuscript of The Book of the Law, and six pages are reproduced (at smaller size) in the forthcoming republication of The Nonth Arch. As far as I am aware, this is the first time that any of this manuscript has been reproduced. The whole manuscript consists of more than thirty pages, and was recently photographed digitally with future publication in mind. I don't at present know when that will be.