Aleister Crowley in America

by Tobias Churton

  1888 (or earlier)

  Mozes Engers starts a firm in Rotterdam. Address: Wijnstraat 53.

  1889

  Address of Mozes Engers: Coolvest 69; office: Wijnstraat 53.

  1890

  May 8, 1890: Marriage of Mozes Engers and Paula Schwabacher in Odessa (mentioned in a newspaper, Haagsche Courant, May 12, 1890: M. Engers, Rotterdam/P. Schwabacher, Odessa).

  1891

  Simeon Leon Engers born in Antwerp, Feb. 22, 1891 (but his nationality is Dutch). See Antwerp police immigration records, no. 69.364 (GS film no. 2234441). “Adopted son of a multi-millionaire” (?) Crowley, Confessions.

  1891

  Address Mozes Engers’s office: Boompjes 14-16 (Jewish quarter).

  1892

  Amsterdam City Archives:

  May 5, 1892: Paula Schwabacher (& Leon), from Antwerp to Amsterdam.

  1893

  March 16, 1893: Record of marriage (again?) of Mozes Engers and Paula Schwabacher in Amsterdam.

  March 20, 1893: To Russia.

  Nov. 20, 1983: In Amsterdam; address: Nicolaas Witsenstraat 12.

  1894

  June 5, 1894: Leon’s sister Beatrice born in Amsterdam. (Murdered in Auschwitz, 1942.)

  1901

  Oct. 18, 1901: Family moves to Merau (Tyrol).

  1903

  Mozes Engers’s office address: Boompjes 69, Rotterdam.

  1904

  Mozes Engers’s office address: Boompjes 70.

  1904–1918

  Berlin Adressbücher: Mozes Engers, “privatier” (person of private means), lives on Kurfürstendamm 24 (Berlin W 15) (and Reederijstraat 8, Rotterdam).

  1907

  Firma M. Engers (Company): Mozes, his brother Izaak (= Isak Levi) (Groningen 1856–Rotterdam 1924), and Johan E. M. Sijlmans.

  1909

  Journal de psychologie, normale et pathologique, mémoire, imagination et opérations intellectuelles (1909), 356–57: review of “colored thinking” by Harris (Fraser-D.), in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology (June/July 1908), pp. 97–113. Mentions “psychochromes” (as a concept or phenomenon; source for Engers’ ideas?).

  1910

  Mozes Engers’s office: Boompjes 70 b.

  1910

  Oct. 10, 1910 Militieregisters (Military service registers): Leon Engers, artist, vrijgesteld vanwege lichamelijke gebreken (not suitable for service, bad eyesight; an affliction of the cornea). Family lives in Germany.

  1911

  Firma M. Engers has branches in London, Hull, Hamburg, Bremen.

  1911

  Summer 1911: Crowley in Paris, 50 Rue Vavin.

  1911 (maybe earlier: ca. 1908?): Leon Engers in Paris: Académie Julian; studios: Rue de Dragon 16./Sorbonne?

  1912

  Jan. 27, 1912: John Middleton Murray to Katherine Mansfield: “. . . since when I knew Crowley in Paris he had some other fellow, Kennedy.”

  1912

  Sept. 23, 1912: Leon Engers joins AA (Kaczynski, Perdurabo).

  1913

  June 30, 1913: Crowley’s studio at 76 Fulham Road, London, after the death of John Yarker (March 20), Leon Engers, Patriarch Grand Secretary General, Order of the Ancient & Primitive Rite of Memphis and Mizraim.

  Poem by AC: “To Lionel Engers-Kennedy: to the memory of Hargrave Jennings: and to A. C. W. G. and H. E. H.” in The Equinox, September, 1913, p. 91.

  1914

  Oct.: AC in New York.

  1916

  London 1916 Kelley’s Post Office Directory: Kennedy, Leon Engers: 2 Boltons Studios, Redcliffe Road SW.

  Nov. 15, 1916: Leon lives in The Hague, Prinsestraat 99 (coming from London).

  Dec. 16, 1916: Leaves Rotterdam; ship: SS Nieuw Amsterdam.

  1917

  Jan. 2, 1917: Arrival New York. Ellis Island records: Simeon Leon Engers (Dutch), last place of residence Rotterdam, Boompjes 70 b (his father’s office). Address in New York: Equitable Trust Co.

  WWI Draft registration cards 1917–1918: Address: 700 W. 70 St., N.Y. Race: Caucasian.

  March 1917 (maybe later): AC stays at Engers’ place, Lower 5th Avenue, N.Y.

  AC as a painter possibly encouraged by Engers?

  June 13, 1917, Berlin, Charlottenburg: Beatrice Engers marries Johann (Hans) Wolpe (July 3, 1887, Libau, Lithuania–March 6, 1944, Auschwitz). Merchant, later bank director.

  Sept. 18, 1917, The Magical Records of the Beast 666, diaries 1914-1920: “Success to Kennedy’s psychochromes” [= Frater T. A. T. K. A.].

  Nov. 1917: AC arranges an exhibition of Engers’s psychochromes; review in The International (Kaczynski).

  1918

  April 2, 1918: Mozes Engers dies suddenly in Stuttgart, where he stayed temporarily, Augustenstrasse 79.

  June 17, 1918, Berlin, Charlottenburg: Hans (later, John) Max Joachim Wolpe born, son of Beatrice. (John committed suicide May 1, 1963.)

  1919

  Paula Schwabacher, widow of Mozes Engers lives in Berlin, Charlottenburg, Uhlandstrasse 197 (address of J. H. Wolpe & Co.).

  Jan. 5, 1919: Oakland Tribune (magazine section), on Engers’ paintings; also in Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. (Id. in the Atlanta Constitution (Kaczynski).

  Feb. 1919: Exhibition of psychochromes at the Paint Box Galleries in Washington Square South (Kaczynski); Feb. 16, 1919, New York Tribune.

  The Quill 4, no. 2 (1919): exhibition of psychochromes with “excessively blue portrait” of AC.

  March 2, 1919, The Sun: “Is Greenwich Village really psychic?” (Paint Box Galleries review): “‘Psychochromes’ by Leon Engers-Kennedy, have been exposed to public view . . . and no undue disturbance has occurred, no windows smashed, no noses tweaked, no riotous processions nor letters to the public press; yet Mr. Kennedy insists that an advance in art has been made, that this is a new movement in which for the first time ‘the eye of the soul directs the hand of the craftsman.’”

  March 25, 1919: Anna Schwabacher née Nierenstein (Kiev 1865) dies in Eppendorfer Krankenhaus. Anna was married to Albert Schwabacher (Paula’s brother). Sons: Simon, Henry, Sonya.

  May 8, 1919, New York: Leon Engers marries Catherine Elizabeth Reilly “a very beautiful red headed Irish typist . . .” (Confessions), born March 26, 1895, New York (died Feb. 4, 1959). In 1910, Catherine lived at Manhattan Ward 20, N.Y., with her mother, also named Catherine E., a sister, and two brothers: John G. (13), Jennie (10), Joseph R. (8)—no father around.

  Reproduction of Portrait of AC by Leon Engers in The Equinox III (1) Detroit, 1919.

  Oil on canvas, 1917–1918, 36 x 24 in. (91.6 x 61 cm). NPG 6630 (purchased 2003).

  Check provenance: archiveenquiry@npg.org.uk

  1919?

  Leon (and his wife) return to Europe, to Holland according to AC’s Confessions (but the family lived in Berlin)—I assume he inherited his part of the family fortune.

  1919 (ca.)–before 1925

  Leon Engers: student of Lyonel Feininger, Bauhaus Weimar./Ph.D. Berlin? (check).

  He could have encountered the work of Itten, Klee, Kandinsky, and a student of Feininger, Werner Gilles (1894–1961), all mystically inclined expressionists.

  1920

  Nov. 20, 1920: Paula’s brother Albert Schwabacher (Landsberg an der Warthe 1856) dies in Hamburg.

  1921

  Aug. 28, 1921, Berlin, Wilmersdorf: Alexander Herman Wilhelm Wolpe born, son of Beatrice Engers & Johann Wolpe. (Murdered in Auschwitz, 1943.)

  1922

  May 9, 1922: Leon’s cousin Sonya (Sanya/Sauja) Isaac Schwabacher and his wife, Wilma, in New York.

  1923

  Sept. 17/27: Magical diaries of AC. Tunisia 1923: “Dictated (earlier) story of Kennedy”; on masturbation and guilt feelings.

  1924

  March 3, 1924: “Catherine Engers, wife of well-known German artist, is in America to arrange for animal hunting expedition in Africa, for which she will make motion pictures” (The Evening News from Harrisburg Pennsylvania, p. 20).

  March 20, 1924: Catherine (Engers) Reilly arrives
in Plymouth, coming from New York; ship: America. Stays in Hyde Park Hotel, with her youngest brother J. R. Reilly (student, 21, USA). Country of last permanent residence: Germany.

  Between March and Oct. 1924: The Engers family moves to France.

  Engers sees AC again in Paris, Hotel Blois, 50 Rue Vavin.

  Oct 12, 1924: Leon arrives in the United Kingdom, coming from Cape Town. Last permanent residence: France.

  1925

  Beatrice Engers & Johann Wolpe move from Berlin to Paris; banker Wolpe, together with a certain Fritz Klekottka (Klikottka?) accused of swindle.

  March 22, 1925, Sunday Times Sydney NSW: “Lady Doughty is down at San Remo with Mrs. Engers Kennedy the wife of the best known among the rising generation of Dutch painters”[!].

  1926

  June 18, 1926, Paris: Liliane born, daughter of Beatrice Engers & Johann Wolpe. (Murdered in Auschwitz 1942.)

  Aug. 1926: AC in Paris, out of trouble thanks to Leon Engers.

  Aug. 29, 1926, Sunday Times Sydney NSW: Australians in Paris, dinner party by Mrs. Borsdorff, attended by “Mr. and Mrs. Engers Kennedy.”

  1927

  April 25, 1927 Les Mondanités: “Mrs. Engers Kennedy” attends a party of Baron de Pilis (in Laas-Sauveterre, Pyrenees).

  1928

  Oct. 27, 1928: Leon Engers arrives in New York (intending to stay for 6 months) coming from Paris.

  Address: 44 Wall Street. Catherine’s address in Paris: 12 Rue Victor-Considérant (nearby the Montparnasse cemetery; posh studio building, where Lee Miller lived in the 1930s, Simone de Beauvoir in the 1950s). Note: in the United States he drops “Kennedy.”

  1929

  Nov. 15, 1929: Catherine Reilly arrives in New York, coming from Paris. Ship: Rochambeau.

  1931

  Feb. 10, 1931: Petitions for naturalization. Catherine Reilly applies for U.S. citizenship (her nationality, by marriage (?): Dutch). Resides at 351 W. 28th St., N.Y.

  Oct. 11, 1931: AC in Berlin, mentions the Schiffers as friends of Engers’s brother-in-law (in Tobias Churton, Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin, 2014, chapter: “Porza!”).

  1934

  Naturalization. Paula Schwabacher widow of Mozes Engers, born Odessa March 24/April 5, 1867, living in Paris, applies for Dutch citizenship.

  1935

  Johann Wolpe in Paris, tries to sell forged shares.

  1935–1940

  Leon’s and Catherine’s residence: 35 Carlton Avenue, Port Washington, North Hampstead, Nassau (N.Y.). Note: built in 1936.

  1940 U.S. Federal Census: School or college: Highest grade completed: College, 1st year (Catherine); College 4th year (Leon). Note: in the 1940s Leon becomes Dr. Engers (Ph.D. University of Berlin). Hard to check during the war and afterward. Did he make it up . . . ?

  1937

  Federal Art Show at Woodstock: Leon Engers shows On the threshold of eternity.

  July 14, 1937: Leon’s cousin Henri Schwabacher in New York.

  1938

  Beatrice Engers & husband Wolpe in Den Haag, Feb. 3–Aug. 27. Aug. 27, 1938, to Ostend.

  Sept. 26, 1938: Paula Schwabacher in Den Haag, at Wolpe’s place, Laan van Meerdervoort 377.

  1939

  Jan. 31, 1939: Naturalization of Leon Engers, residing at: 35 Carlton Ave., Pt. Washington, L.I.

  Feb. 17, 1939, divorce Beatrice and Johann Wolpe.

  Beatrice Engers and family in Ostend.

  1940

  Address of Leon and Catherine: 35 Carlton Avenue, North Hempstead Town, Nassau, N.Y.

  Artist: portraits, teacher.

  Hans (John) Max Joachim Wolpe (1918–1963) attended school in Brussels; escaped from a camp in Berlin and joined the French underground; guided the Canadian army into Calais 1944. Married Vera A. Wendel (Austria 1933–Sonoma 1973) in 1954. Divorced 1962, shot himself May 1, 1963.

  1941 (ca.)

  Leon Engers starts teaching on the art faculty of Temple University, Philadelphia. Templar Yearbook, 1944.

  1942

  WWII Draft registration cards 1942: Simeon Leon Engers. Occupation: Temple University. Residence: Port Washington (Catherine, 35 Carlton Ave.). Place of employment: Tyler School of Fine Arts, Elkins Park, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Established 1935 (tyler@temple.edu).

  Beatrice Engers and family deported from Mechelen to Auschwitz.

  1947

  Bulletin Temple University 1947: Leon Engers, “Instructor in painting.”

  1949

  Templar Yearbook (class of 1949): “Dr. Leon Engers, Instructor in Painting, received his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin. Dr. Engers who has works on exhibit here and abroad, studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, the Académie Julian, Paris, and the Bauhaus, Weimar, Germany. He was formerly a pupil of Lyonel Feininger.”

  1949–1958

  Leon Engers at Bradley University (Kaczynsky).

  Dr. Leon Engers, formerly of Temple University will teach painting and art history, replacing George Kachergis (College Art Journal 1949).

  1950

  Leon Engers, Portrait of Edgar C. Foster, 1950. (Associate professor of art, Bradley University. President of the Friends of the Bradley Library (1863–1951).

  1953

  Sept.: Dr. Leon Engers starts teaching at Bradley University in Peoria (Illinois), after eight[?] years on the art faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia (Galesbury Register-Mail from Galesbury Illinois, Sept. 22, 1953, p. 6).

  Id., Sept. 25, Engers: “A portrait should have: 1. analytical resemblance; 2. psychological insight; 3. historical implication such as observing the dress, gestures, hair styles of the period; and 4. formal values that any great work of art should have, such as color and design.”

  1955 (ca.?)

  Director of the Art Department.

  Note: student/assistant: August Schmitz (info@augustschmitz.com).

  (Students: Doug Lew, Ted Kurahara, Emily B. Johnson.)

  1959

  Feb. 4, 1959: Catherine Engers Reilly dies. (New York Times, Feb. 6, 1959, 25 “Deaths.”)

  Her brothers: John G. & Joseph R. Reilly; sister: Jennie C. Schmidt.

  1964

  Leon Engers exhibits at Bradley Gallery 20.

  1965

  Leon Engers exhibits at Fulton Gallery, New York. Self-portrait in Arts Magazine 40 (1965), p. 60.

  1970

  July 6, 1970: Leon Engers dies, Port Washington, Nassau (N.Y.) in his eightieth year. Funeral private. (New York Times, July 7, 1970.)

  Fig. A1.2. Leon Engers exhibits at Fulton Gallery, New York; self-portrait in Arts Magazine 40 (1965), p. 60. (image courtesy of Frank van Lamoen)

  APPENDIX TWO

  Sale Catalog from the Auction of the John Quinn Collection

  John Quinn purchased a number of first editions and bound manuscripts from Aleister Crowley in November 1914 during Crowley’s visit to America. This purchase formed the basis of the Crowley books contained in the John Quinn collection.

  The Aleister Crowley books in the collection were sold the afternoon of November 14, 1923, through Anderson Galleries, New York.

  The following is from the complete catalogue of the library of John Quinn, sold by auction in five parts. Published New York, Anderson Galleries, 1923–1924.

  A NOTE BY JOHN QUINN

  I have been asked to state what determined me to sell my library and also to write about the books and manuscripts. I am willing to comply with the first request, but as to the second the books and manuscripts must speak for themselves. I had no intention of selling my library until I was suddenly met with the necessity of moving from my large old-fashioned apartment with large rooms and plenty of wall space. The choice was forced upon me either of taking a very large house, which I did not care to do, or of storing my books. Then I came to feel that once they had been stored they would remain stored indefinitely, perhaps for years. That led me to the determination to sell them. The agreement was “all or nothing,” an agreement which has been faithfully adhered to, though parting with certain personal
items gave me many a pang.

  The books and manuscripts must speak for themselves. Voltaire said of Vauvenargues that he had “preferences, but no exclusions.” I might say that while I have had many preferences, I have also had exclusions. But the hatreds and the bores were long ago cast out, or rather never secured a place on my shelves. The catalogue is a reflection of a widely interested intellectual life. Many of the books are records of friendships that have enriched my life. The list is too long even to refer to them here. It is a record in part of the admirations, the enthusiasms, and affections of a lifetime.

  Most of the books were secured by me as they were issued or published and that accounts for their good condition. If I attempted to tell all that the books and manuscripts have meant to me, it would require a small volume. Gems of art, moving one still by their old music, age has not withered them nor can custom stale their infinite variety. I think it was Byron who said that when a farewell is to be final it should be brief. I cannot go through or attempt to write about or to tell what these books and manuscripts, which contain a world of beauty and romance or enshrine the records of friendships and of interests and enthusiasms, have meant to me, for they seem to me to be a part of myself, even though I may smile a little at my own feeling.

  J.Q.

  ALEISTER CROWLEY [CATALOGUE SUMMARY; AUTHOR UNKNOWN, POSSIBLY QUINN, POSSIBLY JEANNE ROBERT FOSTER.]

  One of the strangest abnormalities among the modern religious revivalists of mysticism and mystical teaching. Born of a highly respectable family, the father of which was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, he was educated at Cambridge and attained distinction there as a classical scholar. After he left the University, he engaged in literature, and privately printed a number of volumes of poetry of an unusually high quality of insight and expression. He had given himself up to the study of the arcana of knowledge and had steeped himself in the lore of magic and astrology, in the Kruptadia of the Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries, and in the secret expositions of Buddhistic rites and ceremonies. He posed as an “adept,” and conducted a church in London, in which he held the services and taught the doctrines of a religion he had elaborated out of his studies. He contemplated the building of a magnificent temple to be dedicated to this religion, and he would, probably, have succeeded in carrying out his plans, had not his conduct as High Priest of his church brought him into conflict with the authorities, so that his church was closed. He then turned again to literature, and privately printed a magazine, the Equinox, which he issued to subscribers at a high price, of a curiously interesting nature, and now very rare. The war brought him to America, where he attempted to revive interest in his church and to further the building of his temple. He gave lectures and held services and sought in various ways to obtain followers and arouse enthusiasm. He claimed to have obtained his secret knowledge from the Grand Llama of Tibet, during a personal interview. As a writer he is in a class by himself, for his subject matters deal mainly with the mysteries and symbolisms of the early expressions of religions, and more particularly with those expressions which took the forms of Phallicism and Orphicism. Curious stories are told about the retreat which he established in Italy for himself and his special devotees.