The hour is not for poetry.
The hour is for poets.
To all those who preserve the voice of Humankind.
And to those who are made to fall silent.
To suspended time.
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on pur fil paper, this copy one of five not for sale.
A rare and fine copy.
Original collage by Georges Hugnet, signed in white ink "G.H. 1961". Matted and under a wooden frame without glass. A tiny 5 mm marginal tear.
An irreverent, whimsical photo-collage by the Surrealist artist and writer Georges Hugnet. Throughout his diverse oeuvre, collage represented an enduring passion for Hugnet, placing him as among the leading innovators in the medium in the XXth century.
Rare complete set of four pamphlets with poems by Georges Hugnet in first edition published during the Occupation, illustrated by Picasso, Joan Miro, and Valentine Hugo. The first titled "Non-vouloir" was limited to only 26 copies; our copy is one of the 20 copies on vergé antique de Montval, following 6 copies on japon. The three others on ordinary paper from a limited edition of 200 copies.
"Non-vouloir" was the first resistance poem published openly and signed by its author without being subjected to censorship. Composed between March and June 1940, Hugnet's poem stands as a poetic manifesto of refusal against defeat and occupation, echoing General De Gaulle's famous radio speach of June 18. Hugnet became an early member of the resistance and joined the group "La Main à plume" which printed numerous clandestine tracts. He used his bookbinding workshop to forge false documents and, under the pseudonym "Malo le Bleu", contributed notably to "L'honneur des poètes", a collection of resistance poetry published clandestinely in 1943 by the famous Editions de Minuit.
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."
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.
Rare first edition of the French translation by Judith Gautier, printed on japon-style paper.
Slight restoration work to spine and a corner of the lower cover, wrappers slightly and marginally soiled as usual.
Illustrated throughout with full-page colour woodcuts by Yamamoto.
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 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 and complete run of the 9 G.L.M. cahiers issued between May 1936 and March 1939.
A few spines slightly faded, as is often the case; otherwise a pleasing copy, complete with its original publisher’s slipcase in full grey boards, with red printed title label pasted to the spine.
With numerous contributions by most of the Surrealist poets, writers, and artists, including: André Breton, René Char, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, René Crevel, Valentine Penrose, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Michel Leiris, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and André Masson, as well as several spiritual forebears of Surrealism such as Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, and Raymond Roussel...
First edition of this biblical poem later set to music by Mondonville (cf. Barbier II, 970; Cioranescu 63676).
Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (1711–1772), violinist, conductor and composer, wrote several operas, oratorios and pastorals, as well as works for harpsichord and sacred music.
He directed the Concert spirituel between 1755 and 1762.
Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon (170–1775), a friend of Voltaire, a familiar figure in the salons and much in favour with Madame de Pompadour, was elected to the Académie française in 1762.
He left a body of dramatic works, novels and tales.
A date inscribed at the head of the title-page, which shows small spots at the foot; ink stains in the right-hand margin of the final leaf; a pleasing copy.
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.
First edition illustrated with 2 engraved plates of this rare anonymous collection of poems, recently and definitively attributed to the poet from Réunion Antoine de Bertin (1752-1790), and believed to constitute his earliest works (cf. Seth, Poète créoles, 304. Ryckebusch, Bibliographie… Réunion, 750. Conlon 71: 879.)
Contemporary-style half black sheep with corners, spine with five raised bands ruled in blind, comb-marbled paper boards, some rubbing to the covers, corners bumped, modern binding.
They were never included in subsequent editions of his Œuvres complètes.
Bertin alludes to his island in his “Vers à Jeannette. A l'Orient” (p. 68): « …Mais aurez-vous la cruauté / D'oublier un petit sauvage, / De son Isle autrefois jetté, / Sur votre florissant rivage /… ».
The edition, bearing a false London imprint, is illustrated with 2 etched plates, one as frontispiece, after drawings by Claude-Louis Desrais dated 1771.
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 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.
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).
Autograph signed alexandrine quatrain poem by the symbolist poet Adolphe Retté entitled "Les femmes au bord de la mer".
The poem, 19 lines in black ink on one leaf and dedicated to the painter Puvis de Chavannes, would appear in issue No.1 of January 1895 of the symbolist review 'L'ermitage' with some variants:
"Les femmes au bord de la mer
A Puvis de Chavannes
Calyste, Noémie et la triste Négère
Eprises des flots purs dont le chant les câline,
Sur le roc où languit une flore marine
Rêvent d'amour étrange et de grève étrangère.
Calyste est toute grave et pleure Noémie,
Ouit l'hymne fuyant de plaintives sirènes,
La brise les adule et soupire leurs peines -
Et Négère confine une fée ennemie.
Le ciel s'épanouit en pâles violettes,
La mer dort son sommeil de déesse perfide,
Vers l'horizon paré de brume et d'or limpide
Ondule un peuple lent de vagues inquiètes.
Quel héros aux beaux yeux guidera sa galère
Au port où veille triple et tentante la femme
Et viendra délivrer, leur apportant une âme,
Calyste, Noémie, et la triste Négère ? ...
Adolphe Retté."
Crease mark inherent to folding for mailing.
First edition, one of 170 numbered copies on vélin du Marais, the only issue after 30 copies on Arches.
Custom chemise and slipcase, chemise in half blue box calf, flat spine with blind and palladium-stamped lettering, date in palladium at foot, patterned paper boards, slipcase edged in blue box calf, patterned paper boards, sides and spine in petrol blue paper, signed by Boichot.
A very fine copy.
Illustrated with 3 original etchings in black by Georges Braque and one in black and grey as frontispiece.
Signed by René Char and Georges Braque on the colophon.
First edition, one of 180 numbered copies on Arches.
Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase, chemise in half raspberry-red morocco, flat spine with title gilt-stamped lengthwise, author gilt-stamped at head and illustrator stamped horizontally at foot, modern marbled paper boards, slipcase edged with raspberry morocco at head and foot, modern marbled paper boards and spine, chemise and slipcase signed by Boichot.
A very fine copy.
Illustrated with 9 original full-page lithographs in black and colors by Marc Chagall including one on the cover.
Signed by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Marc Chagall at the colophon.
Collected edition of the French translation, no deluxe copies issued.
Boards slightly and marginally soiled, two small spots on the edges not affecting the leaves.
Very rare presentation copy signed and inscribed in Arabic by Mahmoud Darwish, the poet of the Palestinian condition, on the half-title page.
First edition, a first impression copy numbered in the press.
Binding in half brown morocco, spine in five compartments, gilt date at the foot, geometric pattern paper boards and endpapers in the same paper, top edge gilt, wrappers and spine preserved in perfect condition, binding signed by T. Boichot.
Apollinaire's second major poetic work with bold graphic innovations and a portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire by Pablo Picasso as frontispiece.
“Some of the best war poems, all languages combined, are brought together in this collection, alongside experimental works such as Les Fenêtres (close to Cubism) and La Jolie Rousse, which were far ahead of their time” (Cyril Connolly, Cent livres-clés de la littérature moderne, n° 32).
A beautiful copy on non-brittle paper which is unusual, and a rare and surprising handwritten inscription signed by Guillaume Apollinaire: “à monsieur le critique littéraire de La Libre Parole, hommage de Guill. Apollinaire." (“To the literary critic of La Libre Parole, tribute by Guill. Apollinaire.”)
Who could be the recipient of this inscription, unnamed but addressed to a collaborator of the famous anti-Semitic newspaper founded by Édouard Drumont? The ostensibly philo-Semitic position of Guillaume Apollinaire is well-known. In an 1899 letter, he boasts to Toussaint Luca that he tried to provoke Henri Rochefort, who was reading La Libre Parole, by deploying L'Aurore in front of him but, as the young Dreyfusard regrets, without daring to engage the controversy. In 1902, he publicly marked his fraternity with the Jewish people with a new publication in La Revue blanche, “Le Passant de Prague": “I love Jews because all Jews suffer everywhere”. Then in Alcools, he will dedicate a poem to the Hebrew religion: "La Synagogue". But it is undoubtedly through his poem “Le Juif latin”, published in L'Hérésiarque et Cie that Apollinaire poetically reveals the essence of his particular link with Judaism: that he shares the condition of eternal stranger, the feeling of uprooting and the search for identity.
It may, therefore, seem very surprising that this poet, whose only trace of political commitment was in favor of Dreyfus, dedicated his work to a La Libre Parole journalist, even if he is a literary critic.
And in fact, La Libre Parole does not contain literary columns!
A few months before the poet's death, this laconic inscription thus proves to be a formidable and final scoff of poetic impertinence
to political intolerance...
The set of largely unpublished autograph poems by Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac is brought together by the Count in a collection entitled Le Dernier Pli des neuf voiles, whose composition extends from his very first collection (Les Chauves-Souris, 1892) to his last trilogy (Offrandes, 1915).
Set of 620 autograph leaves. 532 unpublished, first draught, handwritten on the recto and numbered in pencil, preserved in 3 chemises in half red contemporary morocco, red morocco labels with gilt author and title; the poems are then placed in the chemises with a handwritten title and a number for publication. According to a note from the author, “the differences in ink have no meaning, mere change of copy”. Rare pages from the hand of his secretary Henri Pinard: p. 20 of “Huitième voile” and p. 29 of “Neuvième voile”. 23 pages present the printed or typewritten texts of the poems and are enriched with Montesquiou's handwritten corrections.
A set of printed proofs are found at the top of the first chemise, as well as a pencil tracing after Aubrey Beardsley drawn by the author and accompanied by his handwritten indications.
First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
Illustrated with an erotic frontispiece by Félicien Rops on chine.
Custom chemise and slipcase in half morocco and paper boards signed Boichot, some discreet restorations to the spine and covers, some discreet restorations to the top margin of the frontispiece, not affecting the engraving.
“La Présidente”, honorary nickname given to Apollonie Sabatier (alias Aglaëe Savatier, her real name), was one of the most captivating Salon hostesses of the 19th century. She inspired an ethereal love in Baudelaire who composed his most mystical poems in Les Fleurs du Mal in her honor. The other artists who frequented the apartment on Rue Frochot, during her famous Sunday dinners, had more licentious feelings for this woman of surprising wit and beauty. The sculptor Clésinger portrayed her in his lascivious “woman stung by a snake”; Flaubert wrote sensual letters to her ending with “the very sincere affection of one who, alas, only kisses your hand”; she has long since been recognized as the model for Gustave Courbet's scandalous The Origin of the World.
Gautier sent her this letter in 1850. Sabatier made copies which she never published but privately distributed to her guests:
“In October 1850, Gautier sent her [this] very long letter, farcical and obscene, from Rome, commenting with Rabelaisian exaggeration what himself and his friend Cormenin had learned regarding sexuality during their travels. Gautier knew that his freedom of expression would not offend Madame Sabatier. He had long since accustomed her to it and he prided himself on his “smut” to brighten up the friendly social gatherings of the Rue Frochot.” (Dictionnaire des œuvres érotiques)
Honored indeed by this priapic attention, ‘La Présidente' gave copies to all her guests and the reading of Gautier's “indecent prose” became a popular event at Parisian soirées. However, the letter was ultimately published – luxuriously but confidentially – after the recipient's death in 1890.
After this first edition of 50 copies on papier japon, a second edition on papier vélin followed a few months later with a larger print run and without the Rops frontispiece.
A rare, beautiful and very sought after copy.
Edition printed in 50 numbered and justified copies on Arches paper by Bonaventure Fieullien, ours printed for André Bocquetin with his bookplate pasted on a guard.
Pleasant copy.
This calligraphed album, engraved and printed on his hand presses by Bonaventure Fieullien (Franciscan monk who studied at the Academy of Brussels under the direction of the Belgian painter Oswald Poreau and who worked in sculpture, stained glass and painting, but who was especially recognized for his remarkable and spectacular illustrated books with amazing idiosyncratic lettering) was illuminated by Madeleine Smets-Lefrancq.
Signatures of Bonaventure Fieullien and Madeleine Smets-Lefrancq below the justification for the draw.
First edition, one of 90 numbered copies on laid Arches paper, the only deluxe copies (grand papier) after 10 Montval.
Beautiful copy.
