Mercure de France, n°136 à n°138, tome XXXVIII, année 1901

First edition.
Full soft grey mouse-colored cardboard binding, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.
Contributions by R. de Gourmont "Le Chemin de velours", M. Gorki "Vingt-six et une", P. Claudel "La Ville, acte III", L. Charpennes "Essai sur la prostitution au temps de Jésus", R. de Bury "Michelet, sa veuve, et M. J. Clarétie", A. Delacour "Le Pape rouge", Dr A. Prieur "Essai sur la psychologie du dépeçage criminel", A. Samain, C.-H. Hirsch "La Liaison de Properce", E. Magne, R. de Gourmont, Rachilde, L. Bloy "Johannès Joergensen et le mouvement catholique en Danemark", L. Evrard "Eloge des vieilles maisons", E. Verhaeren "Les Salons".
Handsome interior condition.
The 'Mercure de France' was originally a French review, founded in the 17th century under the name 'Mercure Galant', which would evolve to become, in the 20th century, a publishing house.
Under the influence of Rémy de Gourmont and Alfred Jarry, a literary review took up the name 'Mercure de France' in 1890 and featured symbolist texts, notably by Jean Moréas, Ernest Raynaud, Jules Renard, Louis Dumur. Gradually gaining recognition, this review would publish both the greatest Parnassians (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Heredia, etc.) and witness the emergence of Jarry's Pataphysics.
The publishing house was born in its wake. It notably published the first works of Gide and Claudel, of Colette, of Apollinaire, of Georges Duhamel?