Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, Mesdames de Sévigné, Lafayette et de Stael, Sand, Colette, Nemirovsky, Beauvoir, Duras, Yourcenar, Sarraute... Women have left their mark on the history of literature, which has not always done them justice...
First edition for which no grand papier (deluxe) copies were printed.
Small marginal pieces missing at the top of the first board, a clear remnant of adhesive paper at the bottom of the first endpaper.
Copy complete with the facsimile at the end of the volume.
Precious handwritten inscription signed by Gabriele d'Annunzio to Natalie Clifford Barney: « à miss Barney et au Temple de l'Amitié attentive, cette légère torpille ‘sine litteris' est offerte par la ‘tête d'ivoire'. Gabriele d'Annunzio » (“To Miss Barney and the attentive Temple of Friendship, this light ‘sine litteris' torpedo is offered by the ‘ivory head'. Gabriele d'Annunzio”
Very beautiful testimony to the friendship between Gabriele d'Annunzio and Natalie Clifford Barney, who probably met through the painter Romaine Brooks, temporary lover of the “ivory head” but also of the Amazon for more than fifty years.
In 1909, Natalie Clifford Barney acquired the Temple of Friendship at 20 Rue Jacob and set up her literary salon, which would be held every Friday and would welcome the greatest literary and artistic personalities of the time: Salomon Reinach, Auguste Rodin, Rainer Maria Rilke, Colette, James Joyce, Paul Valéry, Pierre Louÿs, Anatole France, Robert de Montesquiou, Gertrude Stein, Somerset Maugham, T. S. Eliot, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, André Gide, Nancy Cunard, Peggy Guggenheim, Marie Laurencin, Paul Claudel, Adrienne Monnier, Sylvia Beach, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, Françoise Sagan, Marguerite Yourcenar... and, of course, Gabriele d'Annunzio whom she greatly admired.
She paid tribute to him by devoting a chapter of her Aventures de l'esprit (1929) to him: “D'Annunzio, a precious little old ivory object, works with the constancy of a monk who watches over his God.”
Fine autograph letter signed by Colette addressed to her friend Bolette Natanson. Two pages written in ink on blue headed paper from the Marignan building, the writer's residence between 1936 and 1938. Transverse folds inherent to the folding of the letter for mailing.
Moving letter addressed by Colette to her close friend following the death of her father Alexandre Natanson: "[...] ce dimanche va être un dimanche bien pénible. Je t'écris à l'heure juste où tu conduis ton père." ["this Sunday is going to be a very painful Sunday. I am writing to you at the very moment when you are laying your father to rest."] Conscious of the suffering and "chagrin" ["grief"] of her "chère Bolette" ["dear Bolette"], she affectionately offers her support "On croit toujours que la pensée, qui est une force, touche son but aussi bien qu'un message écrit." ["We always believe that thought, which is a force, reaches its target as well as a written message."], ending her letter with a very beautiful declaration: "Beaucoup de visages humains se penchent vers le tien et tu ne les aimes pas tous. Le mien, que tu ne verras pas, te suit de loin et s'inquiète de toi." ["Many human faces lean toward yours and you do not love them all. Mine, which you will not see, follows you from afar and worries about you."] Bolette would commit suicide a few months later.
Having evolved since her earliest childhood in artistic circles - she was the daughter of Alexandre and the niece of Thadée Natanson, the creators of the famous Revue Blanche - Bolette Natanson (1892-1936) became friends with Jean Cocteau, Raymond Radiguet, Georges Auric, Jean Hugo and also Colette.
Passionate about couture, she left Paris for the United States with Misia Sert, a great friend of Coco Chanel, and was hired at Goodman. With her husband Jean-Charles Moreux, they created in 1929 the gallery Les Cadres on boulevard Saint-Honoré and frequented numerous artists and intellectuals. Their success was immediate and they multiplied their projects: the creation of the fireplace for Winnaretta de Polignac, the decoration of the château de Maulny, the arrangement of Baron de Rothschild's private mansion, the creation of frames for industrialist Bernard Reichenbach and finally the creation of the storefront for Colette's beauty institute in 1932. Bolette Natanson also framed the works of her prestigious painter friends: Bonnard, Braque, Picasso, Vuillard, Man Ray, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, etc. Despite this meteoric rise, she would end her life in December 1936, a few months after her father's death.
New edition.
A fine copy.
Attractive presentation inscription signed by Anaïs Nin to Christiane Baroche’s wife: "Christiane Baroche this book I offer with uneasiness because I wrote it for american students, and France is the source and will only recognize the déjà vu. Your faithful friend. Anaïs Nin." (Christiane Baroche, je vous offre ce livre avec gêne car je l'ai écrit pour des étudiants américains, et la France est la source et n'y reconnaîtra que du déjà-vu. Votre amie fidèle, Anaïs Nin)".
New edition.
Illustrated with engravings by Jean Hugo.
Signed autograph inscription from Anaïs Nin to her friend, the writer Christiane Baroche: "Christiane Baroche. Mais en ce jour damné décharné qui s’étire aux fenêtres 'c’est un peu moi j’assume...Anaïs Nin.'"
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.
A pleasing copy.
Inscribed by Anaïs Nin to her friend, the writer Christiane Baroche: "Vos paroles Christiane Baroche : 'je veux cueillir le feu comme un dernier amant' amitié et concordances. Anaïs Nin."
Autograph note dated and signed by Marguerite Yourcenar, written from her Paris residence to journalist Marcel Baroche of the literary review Sud. Written on one of her visiting cards.
Eighteen lines in green ink, with the autograph envelope addressed to her correspondent, concerning a proposed collaboration with Yourncenar initiated by the director of Sud.
[27 December 1980,
to the journal Sud, to Marcel Baroche,Dear Sir, you have my acceptance of the proposal for a special issue on my work in 1982, together with my thanks in advance. There exist many photographs of me, a few of which strike me as fairly faithful likenesses: I do not personally possess any, but perhaps I may be able to find some to send you in due course. For the moment at least, I have no unpublished material to offer. Perhaps later…
With kind regards,
Marguerite Yourcenar.]
"27 décembre 1980, à la revue Sud, à marcel Baroche,
cher monsieur, vous avez mon acceptation au projet d'un numéro spécial sur mon oeuvre en 1982, et mes remerciements anticipés. Il existe de nombreuses photographies de moi dont quelques unes me paraissent ressemblantes : je n'en possède personnellement aucune, mais peut-être en trouverai-je à vous en envoyer en temps utile. Pour l'instant au moins, je ne possède aucun inédit à offrir. Plus tard peut-être... Bien sympathiquement Marguerite Yourcenar."
First edition of the French translation, for which no deluxe paper copies were issued.
A handsome copy, complete with its photographic dust jacket showing a tiny tear at the head of the spine, with illustrations.
Inscribed and signed by Julio Cortázar to the writer Christiane Baroche: "Pour toi, Chirstiane, avec toute mon amitié. Julio."
First edition, with no deluxe paper issue, one of the review copies.
A pleasing copy.
Inscribed, dated and signed by Annie Ernaux to her friend, the writer Christiane Baroche.
Edition published in the same year as the first.
Spine and covers faintly sunned, without seriousness.
Attractive presentation copy signed by Anaïs Nin to the writer Christiane Baroche: "Christiane Baroche vos paroles "je la sais qui m'attend jusque dans ma mémoire. Anaïs Nin."
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.
New edition.
Foreword by Wayne McEvilly.
Spine and boards faintly and marginally toned, without consequence.
Handsome presentation inscription signed by Anaïs Nin to the writer Christiane Baroche : "Christiane Baroche écrit : "Ici j'entends germer le monde. Et je m'invente au jour le jour. L'infame imaginaire que mon rêve a du vivre a l'inverse de ma vie. Anaïs Nin."
First edition, issued without any deluxe paper copies.
Occasional marginal tears to upper part of front cover, small lacks of paper to spine-ends, lack of paper to the lower left corner of the lower cover, and a small snag to lower part of lower cover.
Exceptional presentation copy from one woman writer to another, addressed by Georges de Peyrebrune to Jane Catulle Mendès: "pour mon exquise confrère / pour ma charmante amie / Madame Catulle Mendès / En souvenir / Peyrebrune".
First editions by Peyrebrune and even more so her inscribed copies are decidedly scarce: "it is still very difficult to find Peyrebrune's books nowadays" (Sophie Ménard).
First edition, with no deluxe paper issue.
A handsome copy, with the promotional leaflet loosely inserted; the verso is creased and shows a tear.
Fine dated and signed presentation inscription from Annie Ernaux to the writer Christiane Baroche: "Pour Christiane,qui m'a fait "naître" dans le bonheur il y a dix ans. Annie. 3/02/84."
Autograph letter signed by Georges de Peyrebrune to Jane Catulle-Mendès, 3 pages in violet ink on a double sheet, usual postal folds.
Rare and likely unpublished letter from the feminist novelist Georges de Peyrebrune addressed to her fellow writer, the poetess Jane Catulle Mendès. Peyrebrune, who struggled to make a living from her pen, had failed to publish one of her tales. Consoled by her correspondent, she wishes to offer her a bouquet of lilacs - symbols of seduction, nostalgia and femininity.
First edition, with no deluxe paper issue.
A small stain to the upper-left margin of the front cover; an attractive copy nonetheless.
Fine dated and signed presentation inscription from Annie Ernaux to the writer Christiane Baroche : "Voilà Christiane, je ne pouvais réellement écrire autre chose... Avec amitié AErnaux 6/01/88."
First edition, with no deluxe paper issue.
A fine copy.
Dated and signed presentation inscription from Annie Ernaux to the woman of letters Christiane Baroche: "Pour Christiane, très amicalement. Annie. 24/03/93."
First edition, with no deluxe paper issue.
A well-preserved copy.
Fine dated presentation inscription signed by Annie Ernaux to the writer Christiane Baroche: "Pour Christiane, avec notre vieille amitié, de tendre pensées 'fraternelles' AErnaux 16/01/92."
Rare first edition comprising a fine series of 40 two-tone lithographs by Yuko Watanabe depicting Japanese types, scenes of traditional life, costumes, and more: Ronin, hara-kiri, samurai, the attack on Shogun Nobunaga, a geisha’s visit, young women paying a call, a game of go...
Not in Colas, nor Hiler & Hiler; lacking from the Bn; not in Nipponalia or Cordier. Wenckstern, I, p. 228 (gives the Yokohama address, undated, and mentions two volumes, the second—of which no trace could be found—containing 25 plates).
Bound in full beige cloth, smooth spine without lettering, lithograph mounted on the upper cover; twentieth-century binding.
Minor tears affecting three remargined plates and the final leaf (backed); a few small spots of foxing; small green ink stain touching most of the prints in the margin only, not affecting the image.
First edition, one of 45 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
Full chocolate-brown morocco binding, spine with five raised bands framed with black fillets, date gilt at foot, gilt rolls on the caps, marbled paper endpapers and doublures, gilt double fillet borders on the doublures, gilt fillets along the edges, original wrappers and spine preserved, all edges gilt, slipcase edged with matching chocolate morocco, sides in marbled paper, interior lined with grey felt. A splendid binding signed by Semet & Plumelle.
A very handsome copy, perfectly bound in full morocco by Semet & Plumelle.
First edition, one of the numbered copies on alfa paper reserved for the press.
Spine very slightly sunned, otherwise a well-preserved copy.
Signed autograph inscription from Irène Némirovsky to Charles Laval.
First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
Bound in full ebony morocco, smooth spine decorated with small inlays of garnet morocco and pearl-grey box calf, the latter framing the author’s initials and the title; the first numeral of the date, given in Roman numerals, appears within a square of pearl-grey box calf. Morocco boards framed with wide panels of chocolate suede, the upper cover with a large granulated paper panel lettered with the title and date of the edition set in garnet morocco, the initials framed by a rectangle of paper taken from a map of Haute-Savoie; bluish paper endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt; housed in a chemise with a rhodoid-backed spine and slipcase trimmed with ebony morocco. Binding signed by Pierre-Lucien Martin and dated 1964.
These “memoirs-autobiography” by Simone de Beauvoir trace her life from her success at the agrégation prepared with Jean-Paul Sartre to the Liberation of Paris in August 1944.
A superb and celebrated binding, produced in a few copies, each differing slightly, by Pierre-Lucien Martin, one of the masters of twentieth-century French bookbinding.
Autograph letter signed by George Sand, addressed to her friend Stéphanie Bourjot, daughter of Étienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Four pages written in blue ink on a folded bifolium bearing George Sand’s monogram. Fold marks as usual.
This letter was partially published in Correspondance, vol. XIV, no. 7846.
A beautiful and partly unpublished letter in which George Sand discusses Marie Pape-Carpantier’s book and the education of her young maid, Marie Caillaud : « It is an excellent book, which I use to teach my young maid to read. She is extraordinarily intelligent, and this book opens her mind to all sorts of sound ideas. Educating this 18-year-old child—who, six months ago, was only two in terms of knowledge—has been a unique experience. She now seems her age, yet retains all the innocence of childhood. So every evening, we read Marie Carpentier’s little stories, and I enjoy them just as much as my pupil does. »
Marie Caillaud was only eleven years old when George Sand hired her to wash dishes and tend to the chicken coop, a task that earned her the nickname “Marie des poules.” But the writer soon recognized the young peasant girl’s intelligence, appointed her as housekeeper, and by 1856 included her in the performances of the Nohant theatre. Her education is first mentioned in early 1858, notably in a letter from George Sand to her friend Charles Duvernet: « During my winter evenings, I took on the education of little Marie, the one who acted with us. From a dish washer, I immediately raised her to the rank of housekeeper, a role for which her excellent mind makes her perfectly suited. The greatest obstacle was that she couldn't read. That obstacle no longer exists. In thirty half-hour lessons—fifteen hours in a month—she mastered all the difficulties of the language slowly but perfectly. This miracle is due to the admirable Laffore method, which I applied with the utmost gentleness to a perfectly lucid mind. » (16 February 1858)
Marie Caillaud would go on to become a notable actress at Nohant and move in the circles of George Sand’s illustrious guests: Delacroix, Gautier, Dumas, Prince Jérôme Bonaparte…
But Marie was not George Sand’s first pupil. All her life, Sand was deeply interested in pedagogy and taught not only her children and grandchildren, but also members of her household staff and local peasants.
This letter is a remarkable testament to her hands-on approach as a teacher, always seeking new and effective ways to impart knowledge : « What is lacking—or at least what I haven’t found—is a true reading method. I’ve devised one for my own use (never written down), based on Laffore’s and adapted to my own ideas. But what I haven’t found in primers for children or public school manuals is a well-crafted exercise book that teaches reading logically while also making sense of spelling. Does such a book exist? » Far from a casual activity, education was central to George Sand’s worldview. As Georges Lubin noted, her aim was not merely to teach literacy. Taught to write by her own mother at the age of five, Sand understood from an early age that the only path to equality lay through intellectual emancipation: « She understood very early on that the only road to equality was intellectual emancipation. The ignorance imposed upon women was the root of their servitude. The ignorance imposed upon the working classes underpinned class inequality. Education was the key to opening locked doors. » (« George Sand et l'éducation » in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 1976)
A beautiful and important testimony to George Sand’s tireless struggle for the emancipation of women through education.
First edition published in the author’s collected works.
Some occasional foxing.
Half black morocco shagreen binding, smooth spine decorated with triple blind fillets and gilt fleurons, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, contemporary binding.
Signed autograph inscription by George Sand : "to my friend Charles Fournier."
Handwritten note by George Sand beneath the title on the title page: "suite de Flamarande" published the same year and by the same publisher as "Les deux Frères".
"Tu me dis : Aime l'art, il vaut mieux que l'amour
[...]
Et moi. je te réponds : La langue du poête
Ne rend du sentiment que l'image incomplète" ["You tell me: Love art, it is better than love [...] And I answer you: The poet's language renders only an incomplete image of feeling"].
"Des maîtres les plus grands les œuvres les plus belles,
Auprès du beau vivant, compare, que sont-elles ?" ["The most beautiful works of the greatest masters, compared to living beauty, what are they?"]
Tu me dis : Aime l'art, il vaut mieux que l'amour ;
Tout sentiment s'altère et doit périr un jour !
Pour que le cœur devienne une immortelle chose,
Il faut qu'en poésie il se métamorphose,
Et que chaque pensée en sorte incessamment,
En parant sa beauté d'un divin vêtement.
Sentir, c'est aspirer!... c'est encor la souffrance ;
Mais créer, c'est jouir, ! c'est prouver sa puissance ;
C'est faire triompher de la mort, de l'oubli,
Toutes les passions dont l'âme a tressailli!
Et moi. je te réponds : La langue du poête
Ne rend du sentiment que l'image incomplète ;
Concevoir le désir, goûter la passion,
Nous fait dédaigner l'art et sa création ;
Formuler les pensers dont notre esprit s'enivre,
Ce n'est que simuler la vie : aimer, c'est vivre ; !
C'est incarner le rêve, et sentir les transports
Dont l'art ne peut donner que des emblèmes morts !
Des maîtres les plus grands les œuvres les plus belles,
Auprès du beau vivant, compare, que sont-elles?
Corrége et le Poussin, Titien et Raphaël,
Rubens, dont la palette est prise à l'arc-en-ciel,
Éblouissant nos yeux, ont groupé sur leurs toiles
Des visages divins et de beaux corps sans voiles !
Mais hier, quand soudain à nos regards charmés
Ces tableaux immortels se trouvaient animés,
Lorsqu'au lieu de la chair que la couleur imite,
Nous avons admiré cette chair qui palpite,
Où le sang, à travers l'épiderme soyeux,
Circule en répandant des reflets lumineux ;
Lorsque nous avons vu d'exquises créatures,
Dont les beaux torses nus, les bras aux lignes pures,
Le sein ferme et mouvant, le visage inspiré,
Faisaient vivre à nos yeux quelque groupe sacré,
Oh ! n'as-tu pas senti quelle impuissante envie
C'est de vouloir dans l'art inoculer la vie
Et ne t'es-tu pas dit, du réel t'enivrant :
La beauté seule est belle, et l'amour seul est grand !
First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on bouffant vellum paper from the Salzer mills, ours being No. 1, the only deluxe paper issue.
Handsome copy of this work awarded the Grand Prix du Roman of the Académie française.
First edition, one of 95 copies on pur fil, the only deluxe issue after 45 copies on Hollande.
A slight vertical crease on the front cover.
A handsome copy.
First edition on ordinary paper.
Half red morocco over marbled paper boards, spine lightly sunned in six compartments, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
One top corner very slightly rubbed.
Handsome autograph inscription by Charles Maurras : "A madame Colette Willy, en souvenir de la cocarde."
First edition, one of numbered copies on alfa.
A good copy.
Autograph inscription from Irène Némirovsky to monsieur Maier.
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.
First bilingual edition, one of 270 copies on Arches Ingres paper, including a photographic portrait of Ratna Mohini by her husband Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Rare and handsome copy.
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.
Fine autograph letter signed by Colette to her friend Bolette Natanson. Two pages written in ink on blue paper. Horizontal folds inherent to the mailing of the letter.
As ever protective and maternal with her friend, Colette compliments her: "Comme tu es gentille, - comme tu es Bolette". Nineteen years her senior, she praises the youth of "[her] child": "Tu es ma 'provision d'hiver', la jeunesse dont j'aurai besoin, plus tard, bien plus encore qu'à présent. Soigne-toi bien ma jeunesse en grange".
Having grown up from early childhood in artistic circles—she was the daughter of Alexandre and the niece of Thadée Natanson, the founders of the celebrated Revue Blanche—Bolette Natanson (1892-1936) formed friendships with Jean Cocteau, Raymond Radiguet, Georges Auric, Jean Hugo, and Colette.
Passionate about dressmaking, she left Paris for the United States with Misia Sert, a close friend of Coco Chanel, and was employed at Goodman. With her husband Jean-Charles Moreux, they opened in 1929 the gallery Les Cadres on boulevard Saint-Honoré and moved in the company of numerous artists and intellectuals. Their success was immediate and they multiplied commissions: the fireplace for Winnaretta de Polignac, the decoration of the Château de Maulny, the arrangement of Baron de Rothschild’s townhouse, the creation of frames for the industrialist Bernard Reichenbach, and finally the design of the shopfront for Colette’s beauty institute in 1932. Bolette Natanson also framed the works of her distinguished painter friends: Bonnard, Braque, Picasso, Vuillard, Man Ray, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, and others. Despite this dazzling ascent, she took her own life in December 1936, a few months after the death of her father.
First edition, one of 55 numbered copies on pure wove paper, the only deluxe paper issue.
Bound in half brown morocco, spines with five raised bands, gilt dates at foot, boards covered with abstract patterned paper, endleaves and doublures of brown paper, original wrappers and backstrips preserved, gilt edges, bindings signed by Thomas Boichot.
A precious copy of this foundational text of modern feminism.
Press clipping illustrated with a photograph depicting Josephine Baker on stage.
Horizontal central fold, minor tears of no consequence along the right margin of the clipping.
Inscribed and signed by Josephine Baker in black felt-tip pen a few months before her passing: "A Claude Armand ami de Jospéhine Baker 1975".
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, one of 15 numbered copies on Japan paper, the only deluxe issue.
Illustrated with 121 wood engravings and a folding coloured map.
Bound in modern half black oasis, flat spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brown oasis lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, lower cover preserved and mounted on a tab.
Autograph letter from George Sand to Gustave Flaubert dated December 21, 1867, 8 pages on two lined leaves. Published in Sand's Correspondance, XX, pp. 642-645.
From one of the finest literary correspondences of the century, this letter written on Christmas Eve 1867 is a sublime testament to the frank friendship between George Sand, the “old troubadour”, and Gustave Flaubert, christened “cul de plomb” [leaden ass] after declining his invitation to Nohant to complete L'Éducation sentimentale.
Despite their seventeen year-age gap, opposing temperaments and divergent outlooks on life, the reader is gripped by the tenderness and astonishing verve of George Sand's long confession to Flaubert. At the height of her literary fame and enjoying her theater in Nohant, Sand talks at length about politics, their separation, their conception of the writer's work, and life itself.
In this “stream-of-consciousness” letter, Sand naturally and freely sets down on paper eight pages of conversations with Flaubert who made only too rare and brief appearances in Nohant: “But how I chat with you! Do you find all this amusing? I'd like a letter to replace one of our suppers, which I too miss, and which would be so good here with you, if you weren't a cul de plomb [leaden ass] who won't let yourself be dragged along, to life for life's sake”, whereas Flaubert's motto, then busy writing L'Éducation sentimentale, was rather art for art's sake. In the end of 1867, Sand grieved the death of an “almost brother”, François Rollinat, which Sand appeased with letters to Flaubert and lively evenings at Nohant: “This is how I've been living for the last 15 days since I stopped working [...] Ah'! [...] Ah! when you're on vacation, work, logic and reason seem like strange swings.” Sand was quick to criticize him for working tirelessly in his robe, “the enemy of freedom”, while she was running up and down mountains and valleys, from Cannes to Normandy, even to Flaubert's own home, which she had visited in September. On this occasion, Sand had happily reread Salammbô, where she picked up a few lines for her latest novel, Mademoiselle Merquem.
Their literary and virile friendship, similar to Rollinat's, defied the old guard of literati who declared the existence of a “sincere affair” between man and woman utterly impossible. Sand, who has been described in turn as a lesbian, a nymphomaniac, and made famous for her resounding and varied love affairs, began a long and intense correspondence with Flaubert, for whom she was a mother and an old friend. She called herself in their letters “old troubadour” or “old horse” and no longer even considered herself a woman, but a quasi-man, recalling her youthful cross-dressing and formidable contempt for gender norms. To Flaubert had compared the female writers as Amazons denying their femininity: “To better shoot with the bow, they crushed their nipples”, Sand replied in this letter: “I don't share your idea that you have to do away with the breast to shoot with the bow. I have a completely opposite belief for my own use, which I think is good for many others, probably for the majority”. A warrior, yes, but a peaceful warrior, Sand willingly adopted the customs of a world of misogynistic intellectuals, while remaining true to herself: “I believe that the artist should live in one's nature as much as possible. To the man who loves struggle, war; to the man who loves women, love; to the old man who, like me, loves nature, travel and flowers, rocks, great landscapes, children too, family, everything that moves, everything that fights moral anemia,” she then adds. A fine evocation of her “green period”, this passage marks the time of Sand's country novels, when, mellowed by the years, she gave herself over entirely to contemplation to write François le Champi, La Mare au diable and La Petite Fadette. But her love of nature didn't stop her from conquering language over men, even though at 63 she was still “scandalizing the inscandalizable”, according to the Goncourt brothers.
Faithful to her socialist ideals, she openly criticizes Adolphe Thiers in the letter: “Étroniforme [shithead] is the sublime word that classifies this species of merdoïde [shitty] vegetation [...] Yes, you'll do well to dissect this balloon-like soul and this cobweb-like talent!” As the leader of the liberal opposition to Napoleon III, Thiers had just delivered a speech in defense of the Papal States, turning his back on Garibaldi, future father of unified Italy. Everyone in Sand's home of Nohant had had a good laugh at Flaubert's logorrhea, sent three days earlier: “Let us roar against Monsieur Thiers! Can one see a more triumphant imbecile, a more abject scoundrel, a more etroniform [shit-like] bourgeois!” he wrote. Sand echoed his sentiments: “Maurice [Sand] finds your letter so beautiful [...] He won't forget étroniforme, which charms him, étronoïde, étronifère”. Against this backdrop of intense political debates, Sand also warned Flaubert, who risked jeopardizing his novel by including his criticism of Thiers in L'Éducation sentimentale: “Unfortunately when your book arrives, [Thiers] may be over and not very dangerous, for such men leave nothing behind. But perhaps he will also be in power. You can expect anything. Then the lesson will be a good one.”
Their shared socialist and anti-clericalist opinions did not prevent them from holding widely divergent views on the essence of the novel and the work of the writer: “the artist is an instrument which everything must play before it plays others. But all this is perhaps not applicable to a mind of your kind, which has acquired a great deal and only has to digest". Flaubert's detachment, his open cynicism for his characters, like a Madame Bovary harshly judged by the narrator, differed sharply from Sand's emotional and personal relationship to writing. Flaubert's almost schizophrenic attitude readily confused her and made her fear for her sanity: “I would insist on only one point, and that is that physical being is necessary to moral being, and that I fear for you one day or another a deterioration of health that would force you to suspend your work and let it cool down.” Flaubert never betrays or reveals himself through his novels, unlike Sand, who throws herself body and soul into her writing: “I believe that art needs a palette always overflowing with soft or violent tones, depending on the subject of the painting”.
While Flaubert, hard-working and full of literary anxieties, was secluded in Croisset, Sand enjoyed her freedom at Nohant, a place of family bliss but also of egalitarian living, where she “[had] fun to the point of exhaustion”. She willingly swapped tête-à-tête sessions with the inkwell for her little theater in Nohant: “These plays last until 2 a.m. and we're crazy when we get out. We eat until 5 am. There are performances twice a week, and the rest of the time, we do stuff, and the play (which) goes on with the same characters, going through the most unheard-of adventures. The audience consists of 8 or 10 young people, my three grand-nephews and the sons of my old friends. They're passionate to the point of screaming”. Persevering, she once again urged her “leaden ass” Flaubert to come out of his voluntary confinement: “I'm sure you'd have a wonderful time too, for there's a splendid verve and carelessness in these improvisations, and the characters sculpted by Maurice seem to be alive, with a burlesque life, at once real and impossible; it's like a dream.” Two years later, Flaubert would make a sensational entrance at Nohant, and Sand would leave “aching” after days of partying. During his memorable stay at Sand's he read his Saint-Antoine aloud in its entirety and danced the cachucha dressed as a woman!
Exceptional pages of George Sand in spiritual communion with her illustrious colleague; Flaubert was one of the few to whom she spoke so freely, crudely, but tenderly, sealing in words her deep friendship with the “great artist [...] among the few who are men” (letter to Armand Barbès, 12 October 1867).
Our letter is housed in a half-black morocco folder, with marbled paper boards, facing pastedown in black lambskin felt, Plexiglas protecting the letter, black morocco-lined slipcase, marbled paper boards, signed P. Goy & C. Vilaine.
First edition, numbered copies on vélin pur fil, most limited deluxe issue.
A handsome copy complete with the publisher’s announcement slip.
Rare and important presentation copy inscribed by Irène Némirovsky: "A Benjamin Crémieux hommage de l'auteur. Irène Némirovsky". Némirovsky died in Auschwitz in 1942, and Crémieux in Buchenwald in 1944.
Crémieux had published a glowing review of Némirovsky’s first novel, David Golder. Its film adaptation by Julien Duvivier was among the earliest French talkies. On this short stories collection fittingly titled Films parlés (Talking Films) Némirovsky, the émigré writer, paid homage to Crémieux, a descendant of a long-assimilated Jewish family from southern France. Two years after the publication of this collection, Irène Némirovsky’s name would appear alongside Crémieux’s in an anonymous antisemitic pamphlet entitled Voici les vrais maîtres de la France [Here are the true masters of Frabce] listing over 800 names of writers (Mémorial de la Shoah, Olivier Philipponnat).
Neither would return from the death camps: “In Geneva, in February 1945, Olga Jungelson, an envoy from the Ministry of Refugees to the Red Cross, was unable to obtain any information about her, nor about the other deported writers she had been tasked with tracing: Benjamin Crémieux, Robert Desnos, Jean Cavaillès, Maurice Halbwachs” (La vie d'Irène Némirovsky, Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat).
First edition of these extremely scarce memoirs (cf. Bourquelot V, 374. Tulard 1007. Bertier de Sauvigny 720).
Contemporary bindings in brown half sheep, flat spines decorated with gilt Romantic rolls and black floral tools, red morocco labels for volume numbers and titles, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, some corners worn, marbled edges.
Spine of volume four damaged, restorations to the spines, two lower caps rubbed, occasional foxing.
The Countess Merlin was born Maria de las Mercedes de Santa Cruz y Montalvo (1789–1852) in Havana.
Her memoirs offer valuable anecdotal insight into society life in Cuba, the Peninsular War, and more.
First edition, one of 40 copies printed on pur fil paper, this one numbered 1, the only copies on deluxe paper.
Complete with the folding map at the end of the volume.
A handsome and rare copy, untrimmed, of this work dedicated "To the glory of those who fell and those who prevailed, workers, soldiers, and commanders."
Preface by Marshal Franchet d'Esperey.
First edition on regular paper.
Spine with some faint dampstains, marginal foxing to the covers, paper toned as usual.
Inscribed and signed by Marguerite Yourcenar: "A madame Joly-Segalen hommage de l'auteur, Marguerite Yourcenar. Les vivants vont vite."
First edition, one of 115 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies aside from 35 on pure thread.
Two small spots of foxing on the front cover, a discreet crease, a handsome copy as issued.
Rare and highly sought after in deluxe paper.
First edition, one of the copies printed on pur fil paper, the only deluxe issue.
Illustrated.
A handsome copy.
First edition, one of 18 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies.
Bound in navy blue half shagreen with corners, spine with four raised bands, gilt-effect paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
A handsome copy in an elegant binding.
Inscribed and signed by Benoîte and Flora Groult to Maurice Gorrée (Benoîte signing on Flora’s behalf).
First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
Spine and covers very slightly and marginally faded, not affecting the overall appearance. A handsome copy.
First edition, one of 25 copies printed on pure wove paper, the only copies on deluxe paper.
A rare and handsome copy.
Rare and highly sought-after first edition.
Contemporary binding in black half shagreen, flat spines richly decorated with gilt ornamental rolls, discreet and skilful restoration to the foot of one joint, black paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges. Discreet restoration to the lower hinge of the first volume.
Exceptionally clean copy, virtually free of foxing (a rarity according to Clouzot, who notes that most copies are usually heavily spotted).
Provenance: from the libraries of Saint-Germain (with printed crowned bookplate beneath the titles on the half-titles); Count de Bonvouloir (with his printed bookplate, Château de Magny in Calvados, above the title on the half-title of the second volume and above the next bookplate on an endpaper of the first volume); Charles-Albert Gigault de Crisonoy de Lyonne, with his bookplate mounted on a pastedown and endpaper; and more recently Max Brun, with his bookplate mounted on the front pastedown of the first volume.
Shelving labels mounted at the top of the rear pastedowns, minor losses to white paper and some corner stains on the endpapers.
A rare copy preserved in a strictly contemporary binding.
First edition.
Some foxing to spine and boards.
Precious dated and signed autograph inscription from Irène Delmas, president of the National Association of Former Female Deportees and Prisoners of the Resistance (ADIR): "A monsieur Massin avec l'amitié et la reconnaissance des Anciennes Déportées de la Résistance. IRDelmas Présidente de l'ADIR. Paris 13 Novembre 1957." (To Mr. Massin with the friendship and gratitude of the Former Female Deportees of the Resistance. IRDelmas President of ADIR. Paris 13 November 1957.)
Our copy is exceptionally enhanced with the signatures of several members of the editorial committee of the Association of Female Deportees and Prisoners of the Resistance or former deportees to Ravensbrück camp including: Geneviève Anthonioz De Gaulle and Catherine Goetschel-Franquinet.
First edition, partly original, of the author's complete works.
Our copy retains the engraved frontispiece portrait of Madame de Staël by Müller, present in the first volume.
Some minor foxing, rare minor scratches on a few covers, holes at the bottom of the last marbled paper flyleaf in the ninth volume.
Full pinkish-red glazed calf bindings, smooth spines with richly decorated double gilt compartments, title and volume labels in green morocco, double gilt fillets framing the covers stamped in their centres with gilt coats of arms, gilt-rolled leading edges, marbled endpapers and endboards, gilt lace framing on pastedowns, all edges gilt, very elegant english bindings of the period.
According to Clouzot, this is the first, most sought-after, and by far the finest edition of the complete works of Madame de Staël.
Compiled by Baron Auguste-Louis de Staël-Holstein (1790–1827), her eldest son, and the Duke Achille-Charles-Léonce-Victor de Broglie (1785–1870), her son-in-law, this collection of the Complete Works is well composed, carefully printed and error-free. Compiled with genuine filial piety and a respectful family spirit, it presents, from a literary point of view, the best text of the definitive version of each of the Baroness's complete works.
A very fine copy in a perfect decorative binding with arms and in full glazed calfskin of the period.
First edition, one of 35 numbered copies on Holland paper, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
" What will be dispersed here, let it be said that for some it is a bit of time's treasure. Of the manna from which we draw what we need to make ourselves this shell_ the furnishing in the very broad sense where it conditions as much the choice of books as of [ornaments] plants or birds. So rare are those who, like Lise Deharme, have known how to extract what is electively made for them from both the interior [exterior] and the exterior [interior]. "To the country that resembles you", is it not of this that Baudelaire spoke?
And one finds again his melancholy in seeing, in the wind, fly like seeds [fly in the wind like a thistle] these things that so much passionate discernment had gathered as if, around the one who surrounded herself with them, they had come obeying a law of pure attraction.
The poetic taste of an epoch in what it has of specific, has sparkled there as nowhere else. That in particular it may be permitted me to say that [in its sovereign caprice, and what it exalted of the present and retained of the past] Surrealism, through several of us, has keenly undergone the ascendancy of this sovereign caprice.
"Write down everything that passes by your window" said [says] Lise and [no longer thinks today of keeping anything for herself, only the] here she adds: keep nothing but what you hold from the source's murmur of that year and from the perfume of the Moss Pot.
But everything from which she separates thanks to her will remain so charged with spirit that nothing will be able to extinguish it in its gravitation toward other destinies"
