The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham Horror Classics Literary

<p><strong>Though Aleister Crowley served as I have said as the model for Oliver Haddo it is by no means a portrait of him.</strong> I made my character more striking in appearance more sinister and more ruthless than Crowley ever was. I gave him magical powers that Crowley though he claimed them certainly never possessed. Crowley however recognized himself in the creature of my invention for such it was and wrote a full-page review of the novel in <em>Vanity Fair</em> which he signed 'Oliver Haddo.' I did not read it and wish now that I had. I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation but probably like his poems intolerably verbose. -- W. Somerset Maugham</p>