Crowley, The Stratagem and Other Stories.

Edward Alexander Crowley, known as Aleister, was born on 12 October 1875 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and died in Hastings in 1947 (he was cremated in Brighton on 5 December). His father, Edward Crowley, was the wealthy owner of a brewing company and the family lived very comfortably; his parents were members of the very puritanical Darbyist sect, and the young man had to sit through endless prayers and Bible readings before every meal throughout his childhood. Family legend has it that his mother, fed up with his indomitable and independent character, nicknamed her son Edward "The Beast", in allusion to the Apocalypse, a nickname that Aleister would retain with pride.When his father died, Aleister Crowley was eleven years old and his mother moved to London. She placed the teenager in the care of her brother, T.B. Bishop. The child received a good but severe education at a school run by the Darbyists, whose rigorous methods bruised the teenager's sensibilities, making him abhor Christianity for the rest of his life. He brilliantly completed his schooling at the very famous "Trinity College" in Cambridge, already secretly dabbling in the occult sciences and in particular in alchemy.When he came of age, he inherited a comfortable fortune which allowed him to live as he pleased, as a dilettante, without having to answer to anyone.