John Symonds

John Symonds (12 March 1914, Battersea, London – 21 October 2006) was an English novelist, biographer, playwright and writer of children's books.

At the age of sixteen he moved to London and began educating himself by spending long hours in the reading room of the British Museum. A partial reconciliation with his father resulted in the latter funding research work that John Symonds would later mine for his own novels later in life.

His first job was at Hulton Press, working as a journalist on Picture Post and during this period he became friends with Dylan Thomas and Stephen Spender. Being exempted from military service, he edited 'Lilliput' magazine during which time he briefly married Hedwig Feuerstein.

In 1945 he married Renata Israel, and the following year (1946) he published his first novel, William Waste. This was followed in 1955 by The Lady in the Tower, and, in 1957, by another love story, A Girl Among Poets, which won praise from Sir John Betjeman, who wrote of the author's "gift for describing farcical situations".

Symonds met the infamous occultist and founder of the Thelemite religion, Aleister Crowley in 1946, the year before Crowley's death. Crowley's will left the copyright of his works to his unincorporated magical society, the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and made him Crowley's literary executor, though Crowley's legal status as an undischarged bankrupt meant that the copyrights actually ended up in receivership. At first fascinated by Crowley, Symonds became increasingly critical of his ideas and manners, in particular the use of drugs and sex. Along with one of Crowley's disciples, Kenneth Grant, Symonds edited and republished Crowley's autobiography and a number of his other works. Further to this, he authored four biographical works of his own: The Great Beast (1952), The Magic of Aleister Crowley (1958), The King of the Shadow Realm (1989) and The Beast 666 (1997). Due to his somewhat negative attitude to Crowley in these works, there were many involved in Thelema and ceremonial magic who were themselves critical of Symonds, including Israel Regardie, who called him "that most hostile biographer." Nonetheless, his significance in keeping Crowley's legacy alive has also been recognised, and it has been noted that "Regardless of his reception, it is no exaggeration to state that without the publication efforts of Symonds (and Grant) Crowley could easily have been a forgotten figure by the 1970s."

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