Hand-drawn by Burgess
Tarot pack designed by Burgess, based on his knowledge of The Tarot of the Bohemians by 'Papus'.
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- ReferenceGB 3104 AB/ARCH/A/12
- Dates of Creationn.d.
- Physical Description21 pages Manuscript
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
Burgess was introduced to Tarot cards by T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, which he first read in his early teens. In the early 1950s, while living in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, Burgess gave Tarot readings at a village fete, wearing a false beard and billing himself as 'Professor Sosostris, famous clairvoyant'. Tarot cards also play a crucial part in a short story of the 1960s "Chance Would Be a Fine Thing", in which two older women, Mrs Mills and Mrs Copley, resort to cartomancy as a means of cheating on the football pools.
Access Information
Open
Available to researchers in consultation with the Archivist due to the condition of the item.