OCCULT. - Aleister CROWLEY. The Stratagem and Other Stories. London: The Mandrake Press, [n.d. but 1929.] First edition, 8vo (152 x 106mm.) (Mild toning, bookplate to the front pastedown.) Original black cloth backed gold patterned paper covered boards, spine with paper label (browning to label, rubbing to extremities). Note: a collection of three short stories the first of which, 'The Stratagem', was well received by novelist Joseph Conrad. This was a difficult time for Crowley so when the Mandrake Press agreed to publish the book Crowley dedicated it to Conrad, then deceased. A year later, with the Mandrake Press in financial difficulty, Crowley and a consortium of others took it over and renamed it the Mandrake Press Ltd. - And a further four related volumes (including A.E. Waite's 'The Book of Ceremonial Magic', [n.d. but 1987], 8vo) (5).