Poetry

First edition, one of 48 copies on pur fil, the only deluxe copies.

Work decorated with illustrations by Jean Hugo.

Light rubbing to extremities of the slipcase.

Superb binding in dark exotic wood marquetry signed Pierre-Lucien Martin, dated 1962.

Binding in chocolate brown box leather with bands, smooth spine, gilt title lengthwise, first cover formed of a mosaic arrangement of dark wood pieces, with grain arranged in opposite directions, bearing the title engraved vertically and the author's name revealed in acrostic, second cover formed of a large panel of the same wood with unfolded grain bordered in chocolate box leather, endpapers and pastedowns of chocolate paper, top edge gilt over deckled edges, covers and spine preserved, slipcase of chocolate paper bordered in chocolate box leather, interior lined with brown felt, elegant ensemble signed Pierre-Lucien Martin and dated on the rear pastedown 1962.

First edition, one of 75 numbered copies on surfine colored paper.
Work illustrated with 3 aquatints by Mimi Parent.
One scratch with three light stains on the first cover.
Handsome copy.
Precious and surrealist autograph inscription signed by José Pierre to Marie Cermínová Toyen: "A Toyen, les violons monégasques fabriqués secrètement dans les presbytères en partant de l'anémone de mer, José." (To Toyen, the Monégasque violins secretly manufactured in presbyteries starting from the sea anemone, José.)
Signatures of José Pierre and Mimi Parent below the justification page.

Lettre autographe signée de Pierre Drieu la Rochelle. Une page à l'encre noire sur un feuillet. Traces de plis transversaux inhérentes à l'envoi.
L'écrivain offre une très belle analyse de ses vers inspirés du front, rassemblés sous le titre provocateur de Fond de cantine, paru en 1920. Il demande l'avis de la poétesse Renée de Brimont, petite nièce de Lamartine, qui publia également à la Nrf : "Merci Madame de la décision très fine de ces vers me coupent comme un regret. Que chacun se retire dans soi-même. Que puis-je espérer que vous pensez de ces rythmes militaires [...]".

Esthétique et rare lettre de Drieu la Rochelle.

A rare 1750 reimpression of two works first published together in 1669, brought together by the fabulist from that first date.

Contemporary full brown sheep, spine with five raised bands highlighted with a gilt fillet and decorated with five compartments tooled with dandelion-shaped gilt fleurons, red morocco lettering piece, blind-ruled fillet framing the boards, gilt fillet on board edges, red edges, shell pattern marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Head and tail caps slightly split, discreet loss of leather and light scratches to boards, corners worn.

Marginal tear to p. 197, light scattered foxing, otherwise in fine condition.

First illustrated edition with 19 original lithographs by Miklos Bokor, printed in 175 numbered copies on Arches vellum, this copy being one of the 15 artist’s proofs signed and justified by the artist.

Autograph signatures of Yves Bonnefoy and Miklos Bokor at the colophon.

Signed autograph inscription by Yves Bonnefoy to a couple of close friends.

A fine copy, complete with its chemise and slipcase.

First collected edition of Paul Celan’s German translation of the poems of Ossip Mandelstam, whom he deeply admired.

Publisher’s original full white cloth, smooth spine, a copy complete with its dust jacket, which shows a few small tears at the head of the spine.

Valuable dated and signed autograph inscription from Paul Celan to his friend, the poet and translator of his works Lydia Kerr: "Für Lydia Kerr, herzlich, 12.2.1963. Paul Celan."

Later edition.

A pleasing copy, despite slight rubbing to the joints.

Rare dated and signed presentation inscription from Paul Celan to his friend, the poet and translator of his works Lydia Kerr.

First edition entirely hand-painted by Jacques Capdeville and printed in 30 numbered copies on vellum, with a small number of hors-commerce copies also issued.

Rare and fine copy, complete with its full flexible paperboard slipcase and with the musical setting of the poem by John Supko, on tracing paper.

Handwritten signatures of Philippe Denis and Jacques Capdeville in the colophon.

First edition illustrated with 12 full-page plates by Françoise Gilot, one of only 115 numbered copies on Arches vellum, the deluxe issue.

Our copy is indeed accompanied by an original lithograph by Françoise Gilot on a separate leaf.

A very good copy.

Paul Éluard’s handwritten signature on the limitation page, lightly and partially shaded as on the facing page.

New compilation of the celebrated songs by the troubadour from Sète, including "La mauvaise réputation", "Le parapluie", "Le petit cheval", "Le fossoyeur", "Le gorille", "Corne d'auroch", "La chasse aux papillons" and "Hécatombe".
Inevitable creasing and light rubbing along the margins of the record sleeve.

A small ballpoint pen doodle in blue ink on the lower cover.
Autograph signature of Georges Brassens in the lower right margin of the upper cover.

First collected edition, one of 13 numbered copies on pur fil paper, our copy being one of 3 hors commerce, the only copies on deluxe paper.

A fine copy.

First public edition of this text written under the pseudonym François la Colère, one of 50 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, the deluxe issue.

Rare and fine copy.

Third edition and the last revised by the author, partly original as 25 poems appear here for the first time, bringing the total to 151 poems (as against 100 in the 1857 edition). Copy of the second issue, with a title page dated 1869 and bearing the statement of third edition.
Illustrated with a steel-engraved portrait of Charles Baudelaire by Nargeot as frontispiece.
A few minor spots of foxing, as often encountered.
The upper cover and the half-title page bear the wording: "Oeuvres complètes". According to Clouzot, the volume was sold either separately on its own or as the first volume of the collected works, whose publication extended over several years.
It should be noted that the wrappers of this third edition are always dated 1869, while certain copies, the rarest, carry a title page dated 1868.
Notice by Théophile Gautier.

First edition of the Petits poëmes en prose, later entitled Le Spleen de Paris – Petits poëmes en prose. Second edition of Les Paradis artificiels.

Some foxing, mainly at the beginning and end of the volume.
Contemporary half black shagreen binding, spine with five raised bands ruled in gilt and decorated with gilt tools, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, corners slightly rubbed.
The half-title bears the designation: "Oeuvres complètes". The work was issued separately, either on its own or as the fourth volume of the complete works, the publication of which extended over several years.
Clouzot notes: "Très rare en reliure d'époque sans tomaison au dos".
Particularly sought after.


 

First edition, limited to 59 numbered copies on Arches vellum, signed in pink pencil by André Masson beneath the limitation statement.
Rare and fine copy.
Illustrated with two original etchings by André Masson, printed full-bleed and issued hors texte.

First edition, one of 647 numbered copies on pure rag paper, being the only deluxe paper issue after 109 reimposed copies.

Fine copy.

Edition partly original, one of 90 numbered copies on Dutch paper, the only issue following 10 on Japan, 2 on Chapelle and 2 not-for-sale copies.

Volume illustrated with 8 wood engravings by Manolo, four of which are full-page.

Manuscript signatures of Manolo and Pierre Reverdy on the colophon.

A rare and handsome copy of the only work illustrated by Manolo.

First edition of a poetry collection printed in a very small number of copies. 

No copy recorded in the CCF. A single copy held in WorldCat (National Library of Australia).

Light, scattered foxing.

Half brown percaline Bradel binding, smooth spine, date and place gilt at the foot of the spine, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved, corners slightly rubbed, contemporary binding.

Rare first edition of this work by the author, one of 150 numbered copies on antique paper, the only issue after three deluxe copies.

Some light foxing.

No copies recorded in the CCF. Only three copies listed in WorldCat.

This slender booklet brings together pieces belonging to the earliest poetic experiments of Félix-Conrad Laventure (1902–1995), who was also known for his political career in ministerial, legal, legislative and municipal life (he served as Mayor of Port-Louis and as a minister).

His first verses appeared in 1921 (in Le Mauricien and L'Essor, of which he later became editor, and where in 1924 he published a critical study of the works of Mallarmé).

Very scarce first edition of David’s first work, dedicated to Léonville l’Homme and Edgar Janson (cf. Toussaint & Adolphe A. 1411).

Spine lacking; copy cockled.

Illustrated edition with drawings by D. Rahoult and numerous wood engravings by E. Dardelet (Vicaire I, 812–813; Carteret III, 95–96).

Preface by George Sand. Grenoble, Rahoult et Dardelet, 1864–1874, issued in two parts bound in one volume, large quarto.

Half brown morocco over corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons and blind tooling, minor rubbing to the spine, covers of marbled paper framed with double gilt fillets, surface wear to the boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edge.

The first part, issued in nine instalments between 1859 and 1864, consists of a poem in local patois on the flooding of Grenoble in 1733, first published in that year.

The author, François Blanc (1662–1742), known as La Goutte, was a grocer in Grenoble, described as “impotent and consumed by gout”.

The second part, published in 1874 and illustrated by the same artists, contains a copy of the letter written by François Blanc to one of his friends concerning the flood that struck Grenoble on 20 December 1740; Jacquety de le Comare by the same author (pp. [23]–53); and a glossary by Michal-Ladichère (pp. [55]–78).

These last two items appear to be lacking from the copies described by Vicaire and Carteret, who record only 21 pages.

Printed stamp used as an ex-libris of G. Magnin of Grenoble on an endpaper.

Some foxing, and a light waterstain in the right-hand margin of a few leaves.

Autograph letter dated 3 June 1941, signed and addressed to Frédéric Lefèvre, comprising 40 lines in blue ink on two pages of a bifolium, written from Lyon.

Folds from original mailing, envelope present.

During these troubled times, Frédéric Lefèvre was difficult to reach for his friend Francis Carco: "J'ai appris par Raymond Millet - qui me donne ton adresse - que tu es à Vichy ! On m'avait dit que tu étais retourné à Paris... [...] c'est pour cette raison que je ne t'ai pas envoyé mon dernier livre mais je dois recevoir des exemplaires prochainement et le premier sera pour toi."

Francis Carco discusses his future plans: "J'irai me poser en Haute Savoie afin d'écrire le roman que je dois à Gringoire. [...] un éditeur suisse désire publier une petite plaquette de mes vers inédits. N'aurais-tu pas une copie de ceux que je t'ai envoyés à Cannes, l'automne dernier, et de ceux qui commencent par : C'est le pays de Gérard de Nerval..."

First edition of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle's first book, one of 150 numbered copies on Hollande laid paper, the only deluxe copies.
Precious autograph inscription signed by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle : « to Charles Maurras this anxious testimony. Pierre Drieu la Rochelle ex. sergeant in the 146^th Infantry. October 1^st, 1917. »
Important testimony of the young Drieu la Rochelle's admiration – then in full intellectual development – for the « master of Martigues » to whom he sends this copy of his war poems composed in 1916 after being wounded at Verdun.
Demobilized and disillusioned by a war for which he had enlisted hoping to wash away the defeat of 1870, Drieu oscillates between Aragon's communism and Maurras's integral nationalism. Having discovered the latter in adolescence, he considers him from then on as one of his intellectual masters alongside Maurice Barrès, Rudyard Kipling and Friedrich Nietzsche. In November 1918, he would write to him: « It is you, it is your prudent thought that destroyed in me, around 1915 or 1916, my Germanic conception of joyful war. Having fought in the infantry during the first winter, I already knew all too well that war was not joyful... »
Glorifying Maurras as « the greatest political thinker of the last century » (Gilles), he is – like many young people of his generation – seduced by the patriotic aura as well as the taste for action and morality embodied by the leader of Action Française. Throughout the 1920s, the ambivalent Drieu will hesitate on which political path to take, before evolving toward fascism, definitively abandoning Maurrassian conservative ideology.

First edition of this important and very rare magazine, complete with 4 issues in 3 volumes. 

Complete collection of this luxurious Surrealist magazine, edited and funded by Lise Deharme and characterized by its emphasis on photography. Covers illustrated by Man Ray, illustrations in black.

Contributions by Salvador Dali, Hans Arp, Dora Maar, Oscar Dominguez, Brassaï, Lee Miller, Jacques Lacan, James Joyce, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Ilarie Voronca, Nathalie Barney, Benjamin Fondane, Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, Alejo Carpentier, Eugène Jolas, Lise Hirtz [Lise Deharme], Raymond Queneau, Claude Sernet, Roger Vitrac, Robert Desnos, Jean Follain, Léon-Paul Fargue, Pierre Keffer, Jacques Baron, Gottried Benn, Céline Arnauld, Monny de Boully, Georgette Camille, André de Richaud, Jules Supervielle, Claire Goll, Paul Laforgue, David Herbert Lawrence, Marcel Jouhandeau, Paul Dermée, Jean Painlevé, Nadar, Pétrus Borel and Stendhal. Sunned spine on the No. 3/4 issue. Spine-ends and corners slightly rubbed, otherwise a wonderfully preserved copy. 

A very fine example of this rare avant-garde magazine, which "came into being over the course of a few dinners that brought together the dissidents of Surrealism and other poets in this hospitable abode [of Lise Deharme]. Robert Desnos provided the title. Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was the editor. Man Ray had designed the cover: a silhouette of a lighthouse against a photographic background of sailing boats. [...] It contains curiosities: a tale by Petrus Borel, a photo by Nadar, popular songs, an investigation into the neurosis of war, epitaphs taken from a cemetery of animals. Among other curiosities, a sonnet by the famous psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. It is entitled Hiatus irrationalis." (Jacques Baron, Cahiers de l'Herne Raymond Queneau, p. 333).

Autograph quatrain and tercet from Cocteau's youth, comprising fourteen stanzas signed by Jean Cocteau, with fifteen lines written in black ink and titled "Pour Abel Bonnard".
This manuscript poem, bearing two autograph corrections by Jean Cocteau, was later published in the collection "Le Prince frivole," issued by Mercure de France in 1910—the poet’s second published work.
On the verso of the bifolium, Cocteau drafted an early version of the poem: the title, the first line, and the very beginning of the second, with a slight variation from the final version.
This manuscript of Le Prince frivole was long thought to be lost: “Le manuscrit original de la main de Cocteau manque” (Œuvres poétiques complètes, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, p. 1842).
The work, praised by Marcel Proust, who hailed Cocteau as a “Banville de vingt ans qu’attendent de plus hautes destinées”, was later disavowed by the author, who eventually forbade its reprinting.
"Pour Abel Bonnard" appears among the suite of eight sonnets from the Hôtel Biron (Pour mes amis, Pour Marcel Cruppi, Pour Reynaldo Hahn, Pour Pierre Mortier, Pour Francis de Croisset, Pour Abel Bonnard, Pour le comte Robert de Montesquiou Fezensac, Pour Auguste Rodin, and Pour Elle), which were not given dedication titles in the printed edition:
"Un ogre a fait s’enfuir dryade, fée ou muse...
C’est déjà loin nos promenades au couvent !
Vous cherchiez à chaque herbe un beau nom très savant
Insoucieux et gai comme un gamin qui muse
...
Armés d’outils de fer contre un grand parc qui dort
Marchait la horde interminable des vandales
Et vous le défendiez avec vos armes d’or !"

Autograph letter signed by the dandy count, 46 lines written in black ink recto-verso, on Hotel de France de Pau letterhead, addressed to a poet friend.
Fold marks inherent to postal handling.
The poet expresses surprise at his friend's reproaches: "Pourquoi parlez-vous du mal que je pourrais vous faire ?... Alors il faudrait bien essayer, pour ne pas vous désobéir mais il me semble que je m'y mettrai sans conviction." (Why do you speak of the harm I could do to you?... Then I would have to try, so as not to disobey you, but it seems to me I would do so without conviction.) and leans rather toward a misunderstanding of his words: "Est-ce donc ainsi que vous avez interprété ma grande, dirai-je ma belle lettre à Lapauze (elle a droit aux anthologies)? Mais, dans ce cas, elle serait comminatoire. Si elle l'est, ce n'est pas pour vous." (Is this how you interpreted my great, I would say my beautiful letter to Lapauze (it deserves to be anthologized)? But, in that case, it would be threatening. If it is, it is not meant for you.)
But the poet-count-dandy does not hold it too much against her: "En attendant, ce qui est certain, c'est que je réciterai vos poèmes inédits, à l'inauguration du musée Ingres." (In the meantime, what is certain is that I will recite your unpublished poems at the inauguration of the Ingres museum.)

Autograph poem by Théodore de Banville, unsigned, entitled "Les exilés," comprising 20 lines in black ink with deletions and corrections.
Vertical and horizontal fold marks from mailing.
In the upper right-hand corner, the poet has written: “envoi de livre à Don Bernardo Calderon.”
This four-quatrain poem appears to be unpublished and was seemingly not included in the collection "Les exilés" published in 1867.
«Ce  livre, pleurant  sur la gloire
Et sur le bonheur envolé,
Renferme toute notre histoire?
Qui donc n'est pas un exilé ?
[...]

Heureux celui qui sous la mer,
Penchant son triste front blémi,
Poursuit sa route aride et nue
En tenant la main d'un ami !... »

Fine quatrain by Théodore de Banville, likely unpublished.

Posthumous first edition of Mallarmé's chronicles for the journal La Dernière mode. Preface by S. A. Rhodes.

3/4 morocco binding, spine with five raised bands, gilt title, decorative paper covers, marbled endpapcers and paste­downs. Bound as issued, top edge gilt, binding signed by Maylander. Spine and top of the front cover faded, and small trace of adhesive to one of the flyleaves.

A rare copy of the only first edition of Mallarmé published in the U.S. - bring­ing together chronicles from his great magazine of wit and opinion, The Latest Fashion, every page of which he wrote himself under various pseudonyms of both genders. Mallarmé wrote about the latest women's fashions and sang the praises of the great couturiers of the time, notably Emile Pingat and Charles-Frédéric Worth, "organizer of the sub­lime and daily celebration of Paris".

 

Autograph quatrain and tercet from Jean Cocteau's youth, comprising fourteen stanzas penned in black ink across 15 lines on grey paper bearing the poet’s silver monogram in the upper left corner.
Two pencil corrections in the poet’s hand.
This poem presents a variant of the version published in the collection "Le prince frivole," released by Mercure de France in 1910, Cocteau’s second published work; “Versailles dont on a tant dit” (appearing as “Le vieux parc dont on a tant dit” in the printed edition).



 

"The interposition of the poem between painting and music has therefore proven an excellent conductor between the arts thanks to the fact that Hahn scrupulously respected the spirit of the poem while preserving his autonomy in his composition. The link between music and painting is revealed after the other materials unite among themselves; it is in this alliance that an astonishing complementarity then operates, sought upon the soothing light of Albert Cuyp" (Nicolas Vardon)