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Weiser Antiquarian Books
Weiser Antiquarian Books is the oldest occult bookstore in the United States. It specialises in books on Aleister Crowley and his circle, magic, mysticism, eastern religions and alternative spirituality. Its earlier New York incarnation, The Weiser Bookshop, was described by Leslie A. Shepherd as "perhaps the most famous occult bookstore in the U.S."〔Leslie Shepherd, Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, 2nd Printing, Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company. Vol. 2, p. 978.〕
==Early years==
The original Samuel Weiser Bookstore was started in New York City's famous "Book Row" area by Samuel Weiser in 1926. It moved several times within the "Book Row" before relocating to 117 4th Avenue, where it remained for a number of decades.〔(Anon) International Directory For Antiquarian Booksellers 1958, Zurich: ILAB, 1958.〕 To start with Samuel Weiser Books sold general used books, but with an emphasis on the occult and comparative religion. In 1949 Samuel Weiser was joined by his brother Ben who had worked with him for a few years in the 1930s. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s they increased Weiser Books' specialist focus on the occult at a time when many bookstores refused to handle such subjects.
One of the customers of the shop was Karl Germer, successor to Aleister Crowley as head of the Ordo Templi Orientis. After Crowley's death, most of his papers and other possessions were shipped to Germer including the unbound sheets of the 1937 edition of his book ''The Equinox of the Gods''. In 1955 Germer sold the sheets to Samuel Weiser who had them bound up in maroon cloth and sold through the shop. This was probably one of the first books to be published by Samuel Weiser – although it retained the original O.T.O. title page and imprint.〔Details of the printing history of the Germer / Weiser issue of ''The Equinox of the Gods'' are given in 〕 Germer also sold Weiser a collection of the First Edition of Crowley's masterwork on the tarot, ''The Book of Thoth''. Despite being leather bound, printed on handmade paper, and in an edition of only 200 copies signed by Crowley himself, interest in "the Beast" was low at the time and for nearly two decades copies could be purchased from the shop for $50 or less (as of 2009, they command thousands of dollars).
Rising rents and urban change forced many of the bookstores out of "Book Row." A number moved into the adjacent Broadway, with Weiser, whose stock had now grown to over a hundred thousand volumes, taking a premises at 845 Broadway. The new building had a huge basement, which the Weiser brothers crammed with books on all manner of subjects. After a heart attack forced Samuel Weiser into semi-retirement, Ben Weiser was joined by Samuel's son Donald.〔Marvin Mondlin and Roy Meador, "Book Row, an Anecdotal and Pictorial History of the Antiquarian Book Trade," Foreword by Madeleine B. Stern. Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2004, pp. 99-100.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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