Draughtsman, painter, designer and printmaker specialising in bizarre subjects, which stemmed from his interest in mysticism and the occult. Aleister Crowley, Satanist and self-styled Great Beast 666, was a friend and later an enemy of Spare. Born in London, he exhibited in his early teens a drawing at the RA which was highly praised. Studied at Lambeth School of Art and Royal College of Art. After an abortive attempt at editing a hoped-for successor to The Yellow Book for the publisher John Lane, Spare had more success in the early 1920s with The Golden Hind, which he jointly edited with the writer Clifford Bax. Experimented for a time with automatic drawing. Eventually became a recluse and pauper. A pen portrait of Spare is included in Hubert Nicholson’s autobiography Half My Days and Nights.