Published in 1949, before the repeal of Britain's Witchcraft Act in 1951, this daring magical novel heralded the return of the Old Religion from centuries of secrecy. Though Gardner was initiated into the Craft in 1939, it took him until 1946 to persuade his High Priestess that the time to emerge from hiding had come. She agreed, on the condition that his work take a fictional form, and reveal no actual magic. The rest is Herstory.