THE BLACK ART
Book Details + Condition: Jarrolds Publishers (London), 1968. Vintage reprint from the 1936 edition, with an Introduction by Dennis Wheatley. Hardcover. 320 pages. Master occultist Rollo Ahmed presents a history of the dark arts, including sorcery, witchcraft, alchemy, vampires, werewolves, voodoo, necromancy, exorcism, The Black Mass, and satanic sex rites. Please see below for more information on Ahmed. Contents include:
- The Earliest Records of Black Magic
- The Ancient Magic of the East
- Egyptian Rites and Practices
- Jewish Necromancy and Magic
- Medieval Sorcery and Black Magic
- Witchcraft, Vampirism and Werewolves
- The Alchemists and Sorcerers
- Black Magic and Sex-Rites
- The Black Mass
- Elementals
- Methods of Counteracting Sorcery
- And much more.
Rollo Ahmed was a Guyanan national, born Abdul Said Ahmed c.1898. He emigrated to England in the inter-war period, initially to work as a theatrical performer and latterly as a herbalist, Yoga teacher, author, lecturer and occultist. Like other immigrants, Ahmed’s attempts to gain conventional employment were thwarted due to the widespread racism of the period. As a result, he played on his ‘exoticism’ in England as a self-promotional tool – for example, claiming to have been born in Egypt so as to enhance his reputation as a purveyor of esoteric wisdom. He was a familiar face on the 1930s Bohemian literary scene, counting Dennis Wheatley and Aleister Crowley amongst his friends, but struggled to provide a comfortable living for himself and his family, compelling him, on occasion, to seek dubious forms of income [University of London, School of Advanced Study].
Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; wear to boards; library markings to spine; college bookplate to inside front board; book distributor stamp to title page; approximately 1/4 of the text has highlighting and inked underlining. One page's corner torn off, and one page with a repaired tear.
