Beastly pretender

As far as I’m concerned, the Aleister Crowley pseudo-offspring [ FT414:32-37] with the most distinction was Harry Smith, the experimental filmmaker and field recordist behind the famous Anthology of American Folk Music. A student of alchemy and the occult, Smith eventually joined Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis.

According to an article in The Miami Rail by Kevin Arrow, “Harry Smith claimed to be either the lost son of the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Russian tsar who escaped assassination during the Russian Revolution, or the orphan of British occultist Aleister Crowley, depending on who he was talking to. Public records indicate that he was actually born in Portland, Oregon. He was brought up in the Pacific Northwest by parents who were practising Theosophists.”

Interviewed for Sing Out! magazine in 1968, Smith told John Cohen: “As a matter of fact, my mother did know Crowley at about that time. She saw him running down the beach, perhaps in 1913 or 1915.” When Cohen said, “But he’s not your father,” Smith replied, “I don’t know… I suppose there’s a possibility that President Coolidge was.” Though Smith clearly liked the possibility he might be related to Crowley, it’s obvious the possibility was a very small one.

Brett Taylor

Wartburg, Tennnessee