One cannot quite profit from vows we declare,
Yet don’t give up ground to a world in disrepair.
Seek the Ancients’ counsel, heed them shrewdly,
And from La Confession Coupée, pull the slips up slowly.
Should you find that your sins are mortal and deep,
Forget hollow temptations that dazzle and creep.
But do not consign all your whims to disgrace -
Choose the sin that best suits your appetite’s taste,
And enter the New Year with pleasures embraced...
First edition, taken from the Mémoires de la Société royale et centrale d'agriculture, for the year 1824.
Illustrated with a folding plate inserted out of text.
Our copy is preserved in its original state, sewn and issued in a plain blue provisional wrapper.
Scattered light foxing.
A grandson of the founder and first director of the Académie royale de marine, Pierre-Marie-Sébastien Bigot de Morogues (1776-1840) devoted himself principally to agricultural matters.
Very rare first edition illustrated with 14 plates, three of which are in colour, issued as a supplement to the "Guide pratique de la fabrication de la bière" and the "Guide raisonné de la fabrication de la bière" published in 1867 and 1868.
Not in Vicaire or Bitting. Oberlé, Fastes, 1125, does not record this supplement.
Spine restored with minor losses, small marginal defects to the boards, and a stain along the right margin of the upper cover.
The author was a hop dealer and purveyor of brewery equipment in Strasbourg and in Gray (Haute-Saône).
This volume reflects the advances achieved by the brewing industry, particularly in northern France and in Belgium.
"Ce livre alsacien est un des meilleurs traités sur la fabrication de la bière"(Oberlé).
The plates depict the malt kiln of the Arlen brewery, the Carpentier germ-removing machine, the boilers of the Brasserie de l'Eléphant in Strasbourg, a mixer, a vat with its wave-breaker, the cooling trough of the Brasserie du Pêcheur, and more.
Rare.
Rare first edition.
Our copy is issued in its original state, unbound and preserved in wrappers.
Not recorded by Oberlé. Only two copies located in the CCFr (Cherbourg and Montpellier).
Alexandre Lesdos (1813-1865) was a member of the Société d'Agriculture and of the Société Académique de Cherbourg.
In this work, he devotes an entire chapter to the wines of Saint-Émilion, noted for their "bouquet as delicate as that of the violet." (our own translation)
First edition of this paean to intoxication, adorned with a charming engraved frontispiece depicting Bacchus seated on a barrel, holding a wine cup in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.
Cf. Vicaire 326. Bitting 415. Barbier II, 75 d. Oberlé, Une bibliothèque bachique, 523 (for the 1798 ed.).
Bound in contemporary fawn half-calf with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets, marbled paper boards, corners slightly worn, edges speckled red.
This work abounds with anecdotes and quotations drawn from the history of many lands. It asserts "that wine gives wit," offers "a catalogue of some illustrious drinkers," and claims "that wine wins us friends & reconciles us with our enemies," or again "that it is good for one’s health to get drunk now and then," though one must not "carry drunkenness too far." Born into a family of Protestant refugees,
Albert-Henri de Sallengre (The Hague, 1694–1723) was a lawyer at the Court of Holland, advisor to the Prince of Orange, and financial commissioner for the States General of the United Provinces.
Minor brown spot to the right margin of the first leaves, a few ink annotations and a stamp on the slightly soiled white endpapers.
A pleasing and rare copy.
Provenance: from the library of Fridrich Otto de Munchhausen, with his engraved bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.
New edition.
Spine lightly toned.
Work illustrated with photomontages by Val Telberg.
Inscribed by Anaï Nin to her friend, the writer Christiane Baroche : "Christiane Baroche whose dreams are strong and have roots and bear fruit. Anaïs Nin."
First edition of this concise treatise on rural economy, attributed to the Duke of Sully, the famed minister of Henri IV, born at Rosny and who bore the name of that estate.
His well-known commitment to the development of agriculture has passed into national lore. However, it cannot be excluded that another author, sharing the same territorial designation, may be responsible for the text.
Contemporary full mottled fawn sheep, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and gilt tools, gilt fillets, Havana morocco lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps, gilt fillets to board edges, red sprinkled edges.
Some repairs to the binding. Manuscript ex-libris inscriptions “Cousturier, Prieur de Champsanglard [Creuse]” and “Denesmond, prêtre” on the title-page of the first volume.
The booklet is followed, as very often with this title, by two short agronomic treatises, which vary from one copy to another.
In this copy:
This work is in fact the reissue of the original edition, published under a new title: the 1772 edition was entitled "Dissertation sur les vins".
One hundred blank leaves have been bound at the end of the text.
The work saw an expanded edition in 1782, which was subsequently reprinted. (Cf. Simon BG: 510. Not recorded by Vicaire, Oberlé, or Bitting. Lacking from the Kilian Fritsch Collection.)
Contemporary half mottled tawny sheep with vellum-tipped corners, the spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments, marbled paper sides, red edges.
An important treatise on vinification by a former wine merchant’s employee who had worked in France, England, and Holland.
The volume details the methods then used to preserve and improve wines, as well as to treat those that had spoiled. One chapter is devoted to the manner of making wines in Champagne (pp. 135–179). It is also, however, a veritable compendium of “fraudulent recipes”…
An open invitation to fraud, so much so that the censor responsible for granting approval was visibly unsettled: this dissertation "contient les formules suivant lesquelles on sophistique les vins, cependant on peut le laisser imprimer, parce qu'elle n'apprend aux frelateurs de vins que ce qu'ils savent bien faire et qu'elle fait connaître au public qui et prévenu, que les vins frelatés sont dangereux et les moyens qu'on emploie pour le tromper". [D. Denis, Histoire socio-économique de la vigne et du vin.]
Original linen-backed lithograph, featuring a large portrait of Liane de Pougy by A. Gallice after a photograph by Léopold-Emile Reutlinger ("cliché Reutlinger" stated on the plate). Printed by G. Bataille. Horizontal and vertical fold marks, discreet traces of rolling at the hem of the dress, four pasted and stamped tax stamps, and a shadow in the left margin.
Exceptionally rare original poster advertising a performance by the dancer and courtesan Liane de Pougy, renowned for boldly displaying her beauty on stage and for the openly sapphic loves recounted in her writings (Idylle saphique, 1901). This unrecorded document is the only copy we can trace.
Autograph Manuscript Poem in Russian, entitled “Ананасы в шампанском,” signed by Igor Severyanin, twelve lines in three quatrains on a single sheet, with minor punctuation variations from the text originally published under the title Ouverture (Увертюра), inaugurating his collection Pineapple with Champagne (1915), from which it took its name.
Autograph Manuscript of the Masterpiece by the whimsical poet Igor Severyanin, one of the most emblematic poems of Russian literature, embodying the “Ego-Futurism” movement founded by the poet at the end of 1911 - the very first Futurist movement established in Russia.
On the eve of the Revolution, this work, both inspired and violently criticised by Mayakovsky, stands at the crossroads of Dadaist provocation, Futurist dynamism, and the dandyism of a bourgeois class soon to disappear.
Autograph manuscript by Louis Pasteur. One page in black ink on a single leaf, with numerous erased words and crossed-out passages.
Unpublished note by Pasteur on his rabies vaccine.
Pasteur was under the scrutiny of countless of opponents, scientific as well as political, and bemoans the "attacks as violent as they were incomprehensible" he endured. The manuscript also announces the popular success of his vaccine, as subscriptions for his future Institute were in full swing.
Fourth edition, partly original, revised and considerably enlarged from these lectures given at the Paris School of Pharmacy. The work is illustrated with 600 figures within the text.
Slight losses or small corner tears to the spines and boards, minor scattered foxing.
A pleasant copy.
First edition on vélin d'Angoulême (laid paper), complete with all six condemned pieces, with the usual typographical errors.
Contemporary red half sheepskin binding, spine with four raised bands framed in gilt adorned with gilt fleurons, red percaline boards, marbled endpapers , speckled edges.
First edition, illustrated with in-text vignettes (cf. Vicaire 733; Bitting 391; Cagle 273; NUC: only 2 copies listed. Not in Oberlé, "Fastes").
At the CCF, copies only at the BnF and Sainte-Geneviève.
Contemporary half green sheep binding, spine darkened and faded, decorated with triple blind fillets, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
"Une des particularités de ce traité culinaire, c'est qu'il est 'dédié à la Sainte Vierge, mère de Dieu'" [Vicaire].
Another distinctive feature is that the work, divided into 1,187 paragraphs, exemplifies a scientific method and clarity worthy of a publication by Baillière.
Manuscript ownership inscription at the foot of the title page, occasional foxing.
Reculet (as stated on the title page) was “cook to Madame la comtesse d’Auteroche and Madame la marquise de Courtarvelle at the châteaux of Touchaillon and Lierville.” Which, however, hardly explains why the Virgin Mary should be the dedicatee of a work “qui traite d'une science à laquelle la décence convient si bien” [sic]. Rare and curious.
First edition.
Only one copy listed in the CCF (BnF).
Bradel binding in full marbled paper boards, smooth spine, green shagreen title label with a small loss, modern binding.
Very rare report of the administration of the "Argenterie, Menus-Plaisirs et affaires de la chambre", which under the Ancien Régime formed part of the King's Household, in charge of the "King’s pleasures"—that is, the organization of court ceremonies and entertainments.
Compiled from 393 records (and 21,000 invoices).
By drastically reducing the expenses of his household, Louis XVI retained only a single “Maître des Menus-Plaisirs”, endowed with a budget infinitely smaller than that of his predecessors.
First edition, of which there were no large paper copies.
Near contemporary red half morocco over marbled paper boards by P. Ruban, spine in six compartments, raised bands bounded by black fillets, date gilt at foot of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, top edge gilt.
Attractive ex libris engraved by Provost-Blondel on pastedown, representing a helmet with a feather, medallion and a strip with the motto “Tojours en face.” The ex libris belonged to Victor Coué, a 2nd Lieutenant killed in the First World War.
This copy has two frontispieces: one lithograph heightened by Félicien Rops showing a caricature of Barbey d'Aurevilly with the caption “Il n'a pour page que son ombre. TS [his page is none other than his shadow]” and a portrait of the author engraved by Paul-Adolphe Rajon (1843-1888).
This copy is further enriched with the eponymous series of engravings by Félicien Rops done between 1882 and 1886 with a view to a new edition by Alphonse Lemerre.
The meeting of these two major works of literature and history of art from the end of the 19th century makes for an exceptional and unique copy, since – contrary to what is generally thought – Rops' prints never actually accompanied Barbey's text in a genuine illustrated edition.
The series is composed of three frontispiece plates: La Femme et la folie dominant le monde I et II [Woman and Madness Ruling the World I and II], Le Sphinx [The Sphinx], and six others referring respectively to six of Barbey's short stories and figuring at the beginning of each: Le Rideau Cramoisi [The Cramoisi Curtain], Le Plus Bel Amour de Don Juan [Don Juan's Finest Affair], Le Dessous de cartes d'une partie de whist [The Undersides of the Cards in a Game of Whist], à un dîner d'athées [At an Atheists' Dinner], Le Bonheur dans le Crime [The Joy of the Crime] and La Vengeance d'une femme [A Woman's Revenge].
A very good copy in a practically contemporary binding.
First edition, one of 480 numbered copies on laid paper, only grands papiers (deluxe) copies besides 20 Arches and 100 service de presse (advance) copies on laid paper.
Our copy is complete with the rare vignette etching drawn and engraved by Hans Bellmer printed 'en sanguine' present in only around 200 copies.
Preface by Jean Paulhan.
Spine very lightly faded.
A beautiful copy of this masterpiece of erotic literature.
Autograph letter signed from Georges Bataille to Denise Rollin, 40 lines in black ink, two pages on one leaf.
George Bataille and Denise Rollin's relationship lasted from the autumn of 1939 to the autumn of 1943 and left behind it a short but passionate correspondence. This letter dates from the early days of their connection, but already reveals Bataille's agonies: “Perhaps I was too happy with you for some months, even though suffering did not wait long to interrupt, at least for a time, a happiness that was almost a challenge.”
A passionate lover, Bataille moved from exultation to the deepest doubt and even offered his lover a potential way out of their relationship: “If you can't take it, me, any more, I beg you, don't deceive yourself any longer: tell me it's me, and not some foible I could have avoided and which is easily repairable.” He would rather be sac-
rificed on the altar of their love than have a relationship that was bland and flavorless: “Understand me when I tell you that I don't want everything to get bogged down, that I would really rather suffer than see a sort of shaky mediocrity as a future for you and me.”
Earlier in the letter, he turns to humor to tear him away from his worries: “I hardly dare make you laugh by telling
you that I've lost weight, so that my trousers occasionally fall down, because I've not yet gotten into the habit of tightening my belt to the new notch.” Then, he goes back to pleading: “I write to you like a blind man, because that is what you make me when you talk to me the way you do when you leave or when you phone, you make me fall into a darkness that is almost unbearable.” He then tries to get a grip on himself:
“there are moments I'm ashamed of doubting you and being afraid, or of stupidly losing my head.”
Finally, hemmed in by all his doubts as a lover, Bataille tried to find some respite in talking about the family that he had made up with Denise and her son Jean (alias Bepsy): “If you write me, tell me how Bepsy's doing, which is perhaps the only thing that you can tell me that doesn't touch something painful in me.”
In a 1961 interview, Bataille looked back on this time: "Le Coupable is the first book that gave me a kind of satisfaction, an anxious one at that, that no book had given me and that no book has given me since. It is perhaps the book in which I am the most myself, which resembles me the most... because I wrote it as if in a sort of quick and continuous explosion." The letters addressed by Bataille to Denise during this period contain the seeds of the feelings that explode in Le Coupable as in all of Bataille's work. His writing is an ebb and flow of love and suffering, between ecstasy and disappointment, calm and energy, mixing familiar and formal tones, compliments and reproaches. The letters are often impossible to date with precision as they all proceed from the same movement of ecstatic flagellation.
In 1943, Georges Bataille found a house in Vézelay where the couple settled with Laurence (Georges and Sylvia's daughter), and Denise's son Jean. It was there that Bataille completed his book Le Coupable as well as his love story since barely a month after their arrival, Diane Kotchoubey, a young woman of 23, moved in with them. Before the end of the year, Bataille left Denise Rollin for this new flame.
These previously unknown letters were kept by Bataille's best friend Maurice Blanchot who from 1944 became the new lover Denise Rollin, this woman with a "melancholic and taciturn" beauty who "embodied silence". The crumpled letters (one is even torn into five pieces) are as much the precious trace of Bataille's extraordinary passion as they are a valuable source from a little-known period of his intimate life which was until then only perceived through the eyes of his friends. Above all they are of an exceptional literary quality and reveal several sides to him: the man, the accursed, the worshipper and the profaner... all that, according to Michel Foucault, makes Georges Bataille "one of the most important writers of this century”.
First appearance of the 18 poems by Charles Baudelaire published on pages 1079–1093 of the Revue des Deux Mondes, showing numerous variations from the text of the first edition issued in 1857 by Poulet-Malassis & De Broise.
Full black shagreen binding, smooth spine, double blind-ruled borders on covers, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, slightly later binding.
A rare and attractive copy.
New edition.
A handsome copy.
Signed presentation inscription from Albert Cossery to a friend: "Pour Jean-Pierre à qui je souhaite une vie de miel. Albert Cossery."
Pirate edition of 1812, imprint dated 1796. It features the exact pagination of the genuine 1796 edition, as well as the 13 plates and 2 frontispieces by Monnet, Mlle Gérard and Fragonard fils engraved by Baquoy, Duplessi-Bertaux, Dupréel, Godefroy, Langlois, Lemire, Lingée, Masquelier, Patas, Pauquet, Simonet and Trière. The pirate edition is identified by the letters “R. p. D.” in the plates' lower margins, as they have been retouched by Delvaux. In addition, the fillet preceding the date on the title-page is wavy, and the title is presented in seven lines rather than eight.
Bound in full morocco, slight rubbing on the corners, all edges gilt, splendid binding signed by Hardy.
A very fine copy in a magnificent decorated full morocco binding by Hardy.
First edition, one of 150 numbered copies on offset, only print after 20 numbered copies.
Title vignette glued on the first board.
Text in French, English and German.
Illustrated with 14 photographs of the author performing different kinds of suicides.
First edition, an advance (service de presse) copy.
Some lacks to foot of spine, clear stains and scratches to head and foot of upper cover, tiny foxing to the endpapers, the last endpaper is covered with notes in pencil made by the dedicatee.
Autograph inscription from Irène Némirovsky to Michel Corday.
A substantially cropped print bearing the same penciled number on the back of our photograph (11214), is in the Reutlinger archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Album Reutlinger de portraits divers vol. 53, p.3). We have been unable to find any other examples of this photograph in other public collections. A similar photograph belatedly dedicated to Maurice Chevalier went on sale in 2008.
A beautiful, sultry shot of Colette probably taken the year of her banned dance show "Rêve d'Egypte" at the Moulin Rouge where she shared the bill – and a scandalous kiss – with her cross-dressing aristocrat lover Missy.
"Colette was a nude dancer, which at the time meant that she [...] draped herself in vaporous veils, concealing part of her anatomy under animal skins" (Paula Dumont). Colette had already used animal skins, hugging her figure in this picture, as a sensual costume in Charles Van Lerberghe's Pan, accompanied on stage by Lugné-Poe and Georges Wague. This was the first time anyone had dared to go without a flesh-colored body suit. Justifying her choice, she went on to say: "I want to dance naked if the body suit bothers me and humiliates my plasticity".
At the time of this photograph, in 1907, Colette was performing in countless shows, following her debut two years earlier in Nathalie Clifford Barney's Sapphic Salon where Mata Hari also danced. For Colette, dance was synonymous with emancipation in more ways than one - as a means of sustenance and liberation of her body which finally belonged to her after her separation from her abusive husband Willy in 1906. Her undulating, almost gestureless dance was linked by contemporary critics to that of Loïe Fuller and Isadora Duncan; her greatest success remained "La Chair", a risqué mime show she performed two hundred times in Paris and was subsequently produced with a new cast in New York's Manhattan Opera House. It was also in the halls of Parisian dance venues that Colette flaunted herself freely on the arm of her lovers. Her scandalous union with Missy, the virile Marquise de Morny who accompanied her on stage in male costumes, contributed to the fame of her performances.
This is probably the rarest photograph of Colette taken by Reutlinger who also photographed her draped in Grecian style or wearing her costume from "Le Rêve d'Egypte".
A rare visual testimony to a revolution in dance costume brought about by Colette, a key figure in twentieth-century artistic and literary Paris.
First edition, one of 25 copies on handmade laid paper, numbered and justified by the publisher, the only deluxe issue.
Bradel binding in half chocolate-brown morocco with corners, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, illustrated wrappers by Manuel Orazi and backstrip preserved.
Work illustrated with 136 black and colour drawings, in- and out-of-text, by Georges Bottini.
Bookplate mounted.
Our copy is enriched with a full-page original drawing, signed by Georges Bottini and heightened in black ink, depicting Jacques Beaudarmon wearing a bowler hat and conversing with the « môme ». This drawing appears as a woodcut illustration on page 133.
The drawing is inscribed by Georges Bottini to M. Casanove « en grande sympathie ».
Very rare deluxe copy of Jean Lorrain’s masterpiece.
First edition following the unobtainable mimeographed version produced by the author.
Inevitable minor wear along the edges of the covers and spine, restoration to the upper left corner of the front cover, newspaper clipping laid in. Barnes & Noble price sticker affixed to the front cover.
Commentary by Paul Krassner.
This incendiary pamphlet, issued by the marginal and modest Olympia Press, newly re-established in New York, was printed in only a small number of copies.
Gender discrimination, hate speech and incitement to genocide, a violent and unrepentant attempted murder of one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, the advocacy of anarchic violence in a grotesque burst of laughter, the elimination or humiliation of half of humankind...
In her misandrist pamphlet, Scum Manifesto (« Society for Cutting Up Men »), Valerie Solanas shows no empathy, grants no room for moderation or reconciliation, and makes no exception in her plan to eradicate men save for « the men who methodically work towards their own elimination [...] [such as] the transvestites who, by their splendid example, encourage other men to demasculinize themselves and thus render themselves relatively harmless ». The first manifesto of radical feminism is not addressed solely to women, but also embraces in its struggle the sexual identities cast aside by the phallocratic society Solanas sought to destroy with unprecedented rage for such a cause.
« Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex. »
In 1971, Emmanuèle de Lesseps, taking on a French version, translated this opening as:
« Vivre dans cette société, c'est au mieux y mourir d'ennui. Rien dans cette société ne concerne les femmes. Alors, à toutes celles qui ont un brin de civisme, le sens des responsabilités et celui de la rigolade, il ne reste qu'à renverser le gouvernement, en finir avec l'argent, instaurer l'automation à tous les niveaux et supprimer le sexe masculin. »
At once an insurrectionary political programme, a paranoid delirium and a poetic text, Solanas's manifesto unsettles by refusing to be confined to any single genre—serious, utopian, or satirical. The real question posed by such a work may not be one of morality, but of the author's right to claim excess. Published after her attempted murder of Andy Warhol, Solanas’s manifesto is the literary and literal assertion that men hold no monopoly on violence.
Though presented as an urgent cry of anger, SCUM was in fact the product of two years of thought and writing before Solanas, lacking a publisher, mimeographed it herself in 1967 and sold it on the street (1 for women and 2 for men), meeting no success.
Seeking recognition, Valerie Solanas moved in New York’s underground scene and became close to the pope of counterculture, Andy Warhol, frequenting the Factory. Unable to have her manifesto published—« the best piece of writing in all of history, which will be surpassed only by my next book »—Solanas turned to her first literary work: Up Your Ass, a play she hoped her mentor would produce. Unfortunately, Warhol rejected the piece and lost the only manuscript. In compensation, he offered her roles in two of his films. Dissatisfied with this minor artistic recognition, on 3 June 1968 she fired three shots at Warhol, gravely wounding the artist and achieving instant notoriety. She made no secret that her murderous act, more than a personal vendetta, was above all a political necessity and an artistic means to secure circulation of her work. Questioned on her motives, she offered this laconic reply to the courts and the press: « Read my manifesto, you’ll know who I am. »
Maurice Girodias, the notorious publisher of Olympia Press, repeatedly condemned, notably for issuing Lolita and Naked Lunch, had already noticed Solanas the previous year. Though he had rejected her manifesto, he offered her a contract for future works. After the attack, he decided finally to publish the feminist pamphlet of this atypical criminal who proclaimed women’s omnipotence and the toxicity of the male sex. In a final provocation, Girodias reproduced on the back cover the front page of the New York Post reporting Warhol’s tragic hospitalisation.
Is Solanas’s book the work of a sick woman—abused as a child, prostituted as a student, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, repeatedly confined in asylums, and who would die in poverty and solitude? Or is such an interpretation itself proof of the refusal to allow a woman the extremes of delirium and anarchist utopia that men have long claimed?
In 1968, in the midst of the interminable Vietnam War, violence was no longer the sole prerogative of oppressors, and the rising anger of minorities against endemic discrimination in the United States manifested itself in violent clashes and the rise of radical groups such as the Black Panthers. Yet women remained excluded from these struggles and their rights denied by both sides, as Angela Davis and Ella Baker also denounced.
Unlike them, however, Solanas adhered to no emancipatory struggle and rejected every utopia then in vogue, which, in her view, liberated only men, leaving women at best as rewards:
« Le hippie [...] est follement excité à l'idée d'avoir tout un tas de femmes à sa disposition. [...] L'activité la plus importante de la vie communautaire, celle sur laquelle elle se fonde, c'est le baisage à la chaîne. Ce qui allèche le plus le hippie, dans l'idée de vivre en communauté, c'est tout le con qu'il va y trouver. Du con en libre circulation : le bien collectif par excellence ; il suffit de demander ».
« Laisser tout tomber et vivre en marge n'est plus la solution. Baiser le système, oui. La plupart des femmes vivent déjà en marge, elles n'ont jamais été intégrées. Vivre en marge, c'est laisser le champ libre à ceux qui restent ; c'est exactement ce que veulent les dirigeants ; c'est faire le jeu de l'ennemi ; c'est renforcer le système au lieu de le saper car il mise sur l'inaction, la passivité, l'apathie et le retrait de la masse des femmes ».
A true detonation in activist circles, S.C.U.M. split the emerging feminist movements such as NOW and Women’s Lib and gave birth to radical feminism. Yet Solanas refused all affiliation and even rejected the support of activist lawyer Florynce Kennedy, pleading guilty at her trial even as Warhol refused to press charges against her: « Je ne peux pas porter plainte contre quelqu'un qui agit selon sa nature. C'est dans la nature de Valerie, alors comment pourrais-je lui en vouloir ». (A fascinating testimony to the psychological hold these two opposites exerted on one another).
In a fireworks display of obscenity and mocking extremism, Solanas’s work nonetheless dismantles the arguments of progressive intellectuals while exposing the inescapably patriarchal structure of a falsely modern society. « S.C.U.M. stands against the entire system, against the very idea of laws and government. What S.C.U.M. wants is to demolish the system, not to secure certain rights within it. »
Fifty years on, Solanas’s manifesto retains its biting acuity, and the delirious energy of her prose cannot justify the progressive erasure of her place in social history—mirrored by her own mother’s destruction of all her manuscripts after her death.
Outraged, convinced, or stunned by the cathartic violence of the text, no reader emerges unscathed from the S.C.U.M. experience. This is doubtless due to the literary force of Solanas’s prose—almost Céline-like in its vitriol—but also to the undeniable relevance of her revolt today:
« Celles qui, selon les critères de notre « culture », sont la lie de la terre, les S.C.U.M. ... sont des filles à l'aise, plutôt cérébrales et tout près d'être asexuées. Débarrassées des convenances, de la gentillesse, de la discrétion, de l'opinion publique, de la « morale », du « respect » des trous-du-cul, toujours surchauffées, pétant le feu, sales et abjectes, les S.C.U.M. déferlent... elles ont tout vu - tout le machin, baise et compagnie, suce-bite et suce-con - elles ont été à voile et à vapeur, elles ont fait tous les ports et se sont fait tous les porcs... Il faut avoir pas mal baisé pour devenir anti-baise, et les S.C.U.M. sont passées par tout ça, maintenant elles veulent du nouveau ; elles veulent sortir de la fange, bouger, décoller, sombrer dans les hauteurs. Mais l'heure de S.C.U.M. n'est pas encore arrivée. La société nous confine encore dans ses égouts. Mais si rien ne change et si la Bombe ne tombe pas sur tout ça, notre société crèvera d'elle-même. »
New edition.
Contemporary binding in half green shagreen, spine in four compartments set with gilt stippling, gilt fillets and gilt fleurons in the corner pieces, multiple blind tooled frames on the boards, white iridescent paper endpapers, all edges gilt.
Some leaves shorter in the bottom margin.
Handwritten inscription signed by George Sand on the first endpaper: “à mon bon ami Edmond Plauchut. G. Sand".
Today the only outsider to the family buried in the cemetery of the Nohant house, is Lucien-Joseph-Edmond Plau
chut (1824-1909) who began an epistolary relationship with George Sand in the autumn of 1848 when he was a voluntary expatriate after the fall of the Republic. Leaving for Singapore, he was shipwrecked off the coast of the Cape Verde Islands and was able to save only one cassette containing Sand's letters that he had preciously bound. These missives were his salvation: they allowed him to be collected, fed and laundered by a rich Portuguese admirer of the Lady of Nohant, Francisco Cardozzo de Mello.
After several journeys toward the Far East, and several exotic presents sent to his distant and yet so close friend, Plauchut finally met George Sand in
1861. In 1870, she paid a vibrant tribute to him in the preface of her novel Malgrétout.
Despite everything, she recounts the shipwreck of which he was a victim and expresses with emotion her friendship for this courageous friend. Plauchut, much loved by the Sand family – and particularly George's granddaughters who nicknamed him Uncle Plauchemar – was an integral part until his death in January 1909.
The handwritten signed inscriptions on La Mare au Diable are very rare, this one is from a superb provenance.
First edition on ordinary paper.
Work illustrated with wood engravings by Henri Jadoux.
A pleasing copy.
Autograph inscription signed by Sacha Guitry in pencil to Henry Sorensen.
Autograph letter signed by Paul Verlaine to Anatole Baju, one page in ink on a watermarked leaf. Two small discreet adhesive reinforcements to verso. Published in Correspondance Verlaine, vol. III, CDLIII, p. 26–27.
An important letter by Verlaine, the most Decadent of poets, to the editor-in-chief of the journal Le Décadent, which published many of his poems. The poet announces the forthcoming release of a collection entitled Amis, a provocative allusion to the scandalous sapphic poems he had privately printed in 1867 under the title Amies.
First edition, one of 300 numbered copies signed and justified by Frans de Geetere, reserved for the friends of La Marie-Jeanne, the only copies printed on deluxe paper.
As stated in the limitation, our copy is complete with a manuscript leaf from the work and an original drawing by the author depicting two reclining nude women, signed by him.
A desirable copy, complete with its rare promotional wraparound band: "le livre qu'aucun éditeur n'a osé publier".
The first edition, first printing, numbered in the press, with only 23 large paper copies on Hollande paper.
With a frontispiece portrait of Apollinaire by Picasso.
Discreet restorations to spine.
With a chemise of half red morocco over paper boards by Boichot, spine in six compartments, date to foot of spine, identical paper slipcase with red morocco edging.
Rare autograph inscription signed by Guillaume Apollinaire: “for Henri Ghéon whose poetry I am fond of, Guillaume Apollinaire”.
This copy also with five manuscript corrections by Apollinaire on pages 71, 77, 92, 110 and 189.
A good copy with a rare autograph inscription by the poet.
An autograph quatrain in black ink has been mounted on the verso of the frontispiece.
First edition.
Contemporary Bradel binding in grey cloth-backed marbled boards, smooth spine decorated with a gilt floral motif, gilt date and double fillet at foot, brown shagreen label, original wrappers preserved; a contemporary binding executed for Léon Vanier with the binder's ticket pasted ton front pastedown "Reliures Léon Vanier 19 quai Saint-Michel Paris" .
Our copy exceptionally contains a faded original photograph by Otto Wegener depicting Paul Verlaine standing with a cane and wearing a top hat; exceptional signed autograph inscription by Paul Verlaine in the lower right margin of the print: "A Léon Vanier son édité et ami. P. Verlaine." (To Léon Vanier, his published [author] and friend. P. Verlaine)
First edition of the French translation, of which no deluxe copies were issued.
A horizontal crease to the front cover, otherwise a well-preserved copy.
Rare signed presentation inscription from Tom Wolfe to the journalist and literary critic Bernard Pivot: "To Bernard Pivot with a deep bow and profound thanks for such a marvelous evening. Tom Wolfe September, 9, 1988."
Tom Wolfe's masterpiece was splendidly adapted for the screen by Brian De Palma, starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, and Morgan Freeman.
First edition, one of 105 numbered copies on vélin neige, the only deluxe copies issued after 12 on pur fil.
Handsome copy.
Original photo - Christopher Street Liberation Day March, New York - "The Kiss, Judy Bowen and Philip Raia""On June 28, 1970, I attended the first New York Gay Pride March. The date marks the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which launched the LGBTQ+ liberation movement in the U.S. We left from Christopher Street, a gay cultural mecca in Greenwich Village, and walked up 6th Avenue to Central Park. To end the day, a kissing contest was held in the middle of the park! It was a great moment of joy, love and freedom. This couple, who kissed for hours under an umbrella, obviously didn't care about photographers" (Interview with Clément Thierry, 2021)
First edition on ordinary paper.
A handsome copy despite a few tiny spots on the front cover, with the promotional band preserved.
Inscribed by Jean d'Ormesson to the Belgian literary critic Pol Vandromme : "... les baisers les plus affectueux de Casimir et l'amitié reconnaissante de J.O."
First French edition translated by Abdelmalek Faraj.
Spine and boards marginally discolored and sunned, handsome interior condition.
Very fine autograph inscription signed by Pierre Dermenghem, on two pages, to Henry de Montherlant enriched with an autograph inscription signed by Abdelmalek Faraj.
Manuscript annotations by Henry de Montherlant, in blue ink, on the back board.
First edition, one of 120 numbered copies on Lafuma pure wove paper, the only large-paper issue.
Endpapers very slightly and marginally toned, two small tears at foot of spine.
A rare and much sought-after copy in original state.
Autograph letter most probably unpublished signed addressed by Juliette Drouet to her lover Victor Hugo, four pages written in black ink on a bifolium.
Transverse folds inherent to mailing, fold joining the two leaves reinforced with a fine strip of pasted paper barely perceptible.
Absent from the very complete online edition of Juliette Drouet's letters to Hugo by the Centre d'Études et de Recherche Éditer/Interpréter (University of Rouen-Normandy).
Very beautiful declaration of love and admiration by Juliette Drouet, the day after Hugo's plea defending his son. Charles Hugo had been brought before the assizes, and condemned despite his father's intervention, for having valiantly castigated the execution of Claude Montcharmont.
Hugo's great love addresses this letter in troubled times, where father and son find themselves at the forefront of the scene for their abolitionist positions. Scandalized by the execution of Montcharmont, a 29-year-old poacher from Morvan, Charles Hugo publishes an article in l'Événement which earns him a trial for contempt of respect due to the laws: the Second Republic already exists only in name, and the press is subject to frequent attacks, further aggravated here by the notoriety of the Hugos. Victor wants to defend his son and delivers a plea that remains famous: "Mon fils, tu reçois aujourd'hui un grand honneur, tu as été jugé digne de combattre, de souffrir peut-être, pour la sainte cause de la vérité. A dater d'aujourd'hui, tu entres dans la véritable vie virile de notre temps, c'est-à-dire dans la lutte pour le juste et pour le vrai. Sois fier, toi qui n'est qu'un simple soldat de l'idée humaine et démocratique, tu es assis sur ce banc où s'est assis Béranger, où s'est assis Lamennais !" (My son, you receive today a great honor, you have been judged worthy to fight, perhaps to suffer, for the holy cause of truth. From today, you enter into the true virile life of our time, that is to say into the struggle for the just and the true. Be proud, you who are but a simple soldier of the human and democratic idea, you are seated on this bench where Béranger sat, where Lamennais sat!)
Despite Hugo's historic intervention, Charles is condemned to six months in prison and 50 francs fine - a decision that Juliette bitterly castigates, overwhelmed by anguish at the outcome of the trial: "J'ai beau savoir que cet arrêt inique est non seulement supporté avec courage par vous tous, mais accepté avec orgueil et avec joie par le plus directement intéressé dans cette malheureuse condamnation, la fatigue et l'inquiétude que j'ai éprouvé pendant toute cette interminable journée d'hier m'a laissée une douloureuse courbature physique et morale" (However much I know that this iniquitous verdict is not only borne with courage by all of you, but accepted with pride and joy by the one most directly concerned in this unfortunate condemnation, the fatigue and anxiety I experienced during all that interminable day yesterday has left me with a painful physical and moral ache).
12 juin jeudi matin 7h
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on hollande, the only deluxe issue (grand papier) after 10 copies on japon.
Bound in gray half morocco in panels, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, abstract decorative paper boards, black onionskin pastedowns and flyleaves, original wrappers preserved, pastedown bookplate, top deckled edge gilt, binding signed Boichot.
Small tears with small lacks of paper to the margin of an endpaper and on the front cover.
The work is dedicated to Paul Verlaine who wrote the preface "which was a way of advertising to gay readers" (Graham Robb, Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, p. 210).
Precious signed and inscribed copy to Catulle Mendès who will go on to write six years later "the first description of a male homosexual orgasm" (Graham Robb) in his novel La Maison de la Vieille.
This novel, although still tinged with a moralistic, guilt-ridden view of homosexuality, features the first gay sex scene in a French novel. It takes place near the Opera, in a palatial Turkish bath house, one of Paris' most famous cruising spots at the time when the influence of the Arabian Nights and the prospect of hedonistic pleasures were all the rage: "In this overheated atmosphere, Jacques savors the pleasures of body reflection and massage. Then comes the 'unpleasant brusqueness of the shower' before entering the steam bath, where several bodies lie naked and immodest. Suddenly, a young man of twenty appears with 'an aristocratic bearing, a blond head, the fat, bulging chest of the Capitoline Antinous statue'. It was love at first sight. Jacques looks out for him, follows him 'panting' and thus succumbs to 'unnatural vice'" (François Buot, Gay Paris, Une histoire du Paris interlope entre 1900 et 1940).
Neil Bartlett even suggests Oscar Wilde might have read the novel based on the plea he wrote to the Home Secretary from Reading Gaol, which features a similar description of his erotomania (Paul Hallam, The Book of Sodom, 1993).
This deluxe copy is exceptionally inscribed to Catulle Mendès, who also pioneered the writing of novels centered around gay and lesbian protagonists.
Provenance: library of Comte René Philipon, specialist in occult sciences, collector, entomologist and patron of the arts, with his pastedown bookplate featuring the Rosicrucian symbol of the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality, II, 6694.
12 large paintings on silk: 24 x 34.5 cm, depicting couples embracing. These works seem very close to the style of Yamamoto Schoun.
A folding collection covered with a patterned green silk fabric. The silk paintings are loosely inserted into movable paper frames. Label on the upper cover missing. Cloth is faded, with a few perforations, dampstains in the lower part of the upper cover, and missing edges. First board is split at the head and foot of the joint.
Although the colors are quite varied, they all rest on and derive from a dominant pale green, the color found on the boards. The palette mixes different shades of green with complementary colors in the clothing (red, blue-gray...). Couples are always clothed, with clothing playing a revealing role, an integral part of Japanese eroticism. The decor shows a variety of everyday objects, such as teapots and boxes. In each of the paintings, elements frame and circumscribe the scene: screens, sliding walls, windows, but beyond a perfectly balanced composition: the interiors participate in the unveiling, in a staging intended for the gaze.
Original autograph letter by the Marquis de Sade, consists of 27 lines of relatively tight handwriting. Most likely written to his wife, as evidenced by the letter's origin from Sade's family. The letter is physically composed of two glued pieces of paper. On the verso the Marquis wrote 19 lines and scrupulously crossed them out - a few words and letters are still quite visible.
Cited in Maurice Lever's biography, 'Donatien Alphonse François, marquis de Sade', Paris, Fayard, 1991, p. 631.
Edition illustrated with 12 original colour watercolours by Gerda Wegener, printed hors texte, one of 400 numbered copies on Arches laid paper.
Spine and boards faintly sunned at the margins, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Augmented and revised edition originally published by a Belgian friar in Cologne in 1634. It was very successful in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, all the way to Mexico (El pecador arrepentido, Mexico, 1716). One copy is even recorded in the library of poet Guillaume Apollinaire (BHVP, 8-MS-FS-19-014).
Full roan binding, spine with four raised bands, gilt tooling in compartments, red morocco title label, spine-ends, joints and corners restored.
A handsome copy of this innovative confessional manual, which "encouraged self-reflection on several hundred sins, ranging from embracing heresy to cheating at games. Categorized according to the Ten Commandments, brief definitions of the sins were printed on pre-cut paper. This allowed the user to pull the slips up individually so that they extended over the superimposed paper margin, thereby serving as topical reminders for reflection and confession, to be tucked under the margin again after the confession. The ability to select, manipulate, and categorize particular textual units introduced in this book can be seen as a precursor to modern information management systems. (Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University)
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.
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.
Postcard after an original photograph by David Hamilton depicting a young girl walking through a flower-filled meadow.
A fine copy.
Signed by David Hamilton in black felt-tip pen at the foot of the card.
Provenance: from the collection of the noted autograph collector Claude Armand.
Postcard-format reproduction of a photograph by David Hamilton depicting a nude woman seen from behind, gazing at herself in a mirror.
Signed by David Hamilton in black felt-tip pen at the lower right corner of the card.
A handsome copy.
Provenance: from the collection of the noted autograph collector Claude Armand.
First edition printed in 300 numbered copies on pure rag vellum from the marais, ours being one of the 246 containing illustrations in the text.
Work illustrated with 18 unsigned drypoints in the text by Fernand Hertenberger.
Boards uniformly and lightly sunned.
Rare and handsome copy.
Long autograph letter signed by Claude Farrère, approximately 160 lines in blue ink (8 pages on two double leaves), to his friend Pierre Louÿs thanking him notably for his thoughtfulness.
Traces of folds inherent to being placed in an envelope, envelope included.
Claude Farrère praises his friend's thoughtfulness towards him: "Thank you for your letter... not only because it is exquisite, - six times more than you can believe, - but much more because I know very well that you told it to me so as 'not to worry me...' as you say." and is amazed by the problems raised by these recent articles: "Said in parentheses, I am quite stunned by the one relating to controversial articles. Not only have I not written any."
He is more concerned about the suspicions he arouses regarding his alleged opium consumption: "I was informed by my own commander that the ministry, based on my first book, supposed that opium was not foreign to me. The same commander protested, arguing that, for so many months that I had served under his orders, he had absolute certainty that I had not committed the slightest sin! But I doubt that his word is very appreciated in Paris..." and about the hatred that an officer bears him.
Despite these problems, Claude Farrère wants to reassure his friend: "I want, my dear friend, for you to be absolutely at peace about me. I absolutely don't care myself." while lamenting that the latter is abandoning the south of France this year: "Tamaris without you, how do you expect the celestial mechanism to continue turning? And me (?) You would systematically push me to suicide. Don't forget that I'm writing a quite bloody book, and that I live in the iniquitous society of people who, for a half-yes or a quarter-no, disembowel themselves!"
He concludes his letter with new rumors concerning him: "Of course, Madame de X has gratuitously supposed horrible things: I am not the lover of the other lady from the milliner's. Come now! how could a young man such as myself, decent, and too well brought up (cf. Madame P.L.'s opinion) etc..."
Original autograph manuscript of a short story by Boris Vian, written in 1945 and published posthumously in the collection Le Loup-Garou in 1970.
Highly dense manuscript of 17 pages on 9 sheets, written in black ink with deletions and corrections, on perforated graph paper, dated “25.10.45” at the end of the text. One of the very rare manuscripts dated by the author.
Exceptional manuscript of Boris Vian’s first short story, written at the age of 25, just a few months after the Liberation.
