Mercure de France, n°485 à n°488, tome CXXIX, année 1918

First edition.
Full flexible grey paper boards, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.
Contributions by M. Coulon "Le Problème de Rimbaud, sa solution", G. Houard "Les Bombardements par avions à grande distance et l'aviation américaine", E. Dujardin, E. Cazal, H. Lalande "La Raison du cancer", Péladan "Les Dévotes d'Auvergne VII-fin", H. Mazel, C.-H. Hirsch, P. Louis "Les Courants politiques en Allemagne", G. Prévôt "Rémy de Gourmont et la guerre", J. Supervielle "Poèmes", E. Laloy "Le Livre jaune sur l'Alliance franco-russe", Rachilde, G. Batault "L'Idée de Progrès et la guerre, d'après Xénophon, stratège athénien", J. Chopin "Les Yougoslaves et l'Entente", Ezéchiel "La Résolution de Sa Sainteté le Pape Benoït", R. Maurice "L'Evolution des méthodes d'offensive de 1915 à 1918", H. Bachelin "Sous les marronniers en fleurs I-VIII".
Copy illustrated with a portrait of Henri Davernois by André Rouveyre.
Handsome interior condition.
The 'Mercure de France' originated as a French review, founded in the 17th century under the name 'Mercure Galant', which evolved to become, in the 20th century, a publishing house.
Under the impetus of Rémy de Gourmont and Alfred Jarry, a literary review adopted the name 'Mercure de France' in 1890 and offered symbolist texts, notably by Jean Moréas, Ernest Raynaud, Jules Renard, Louis Dumur. Gradually gaining recognition, this review published both the greatest Parnassians (Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Heredia, etc.) and witnessed the emergence of Jarry's Pataphysics.
The publishing house was born in the wake of this. It notably published the first works of Gide and Claudel, of Colette, of Apollinaire, of Georges Duhamel?