The Fine Madness Society was “founded for the provision of relief to unfortunate individuals with an incurable attraction to first editions of Aleister Crowley”. This unusual booklet contains seven poems that were to be included in a special edition of Aleister Crowley's book 777 published in 1955 by Neptune Press. The standard Neptune Press edition was issued with a vellum spine over blue buckram boards and was limited to 1100 copies. The special edition was to be limited to just seven copies bound in full morocco, and each book was to include a different poem. I have never seen a copy of this special edition but I would like to imagine it exists. However, in his book 'The Books of the Beast", Timothy d'Arch Smith gave details of the poems and suggested that the way each of the seven copies actually contained a different poem, was part of an elaborate bibliographical joke. Regardless, this is the first publication of the seven poems together. The poems are as follows: A Conjuration of the Elements; Elegy; A Meditation Upon Gayatri; Cradle Song; Hymn to Tahuti; The Insensitive; and The Hermit.

This copy is from the collection of Thelemic author Robert C. Stein (1931 – 2024), who wrote "The Mystery of the Letters and The Tree of Life" and other works. Stein was a Professor Emeritus of Biology in the New York State University System, whose involvement in the study and practice of Thelema spanned three decades and travels in five continents.