La Vogue

Complete first edition of the first series of the most important literary journals of the late 19th century, containing the pre-publication of Rimbaud's Illuminations. No deluxe issues of this magazine printed, except for five copies of the last issue on Japon.

Bradel bindings in half brown cloth, smooth spines decorated with a central gilt flower, twice ruled at foot, gilt date at foot of first volume, red sheepskin title labels with slight scratches, bent upper spine-ends, rubbed paper boards, original covers preserved for each issue, lower edges rubbed, bookseller's labels pasted to the endpapers of the first volume, contemporary bindings.

First ever printed appearance of Rimbaud's Illuminations published in La Vogue, a periodical which welcomed poètes maudits or “cursed poets” and introduced Walt Whitman to French readers. The journal contains the most important collection of Rimbaud's poems ever published during his lifetime, the majority printed here for the first time.

Numerous contributions, including Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, A uguste Villiers de L'Isle Adam, Charles Morice, Paul Adam, René Ghil, Jules Laforgue, Léo d'Orfer, Stendhal, Charles Henry, Stuart Merrill, Edouard Dujardin, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Félix Fénéon, Paul Bourget, Walt Whitman, Théodore de Wyzewa, Fedor Dostoïevski, Porphyre Kalouguine, Charles Vignier, Alfred Dehodencq, Jean Ajalbert, Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, and Emile Verhaeren.

“In 1886, he [Rimbaud] was published in La Vogue. The title of the magazine was a guarantee of temporary success. On the contrary it was lasting, because Illuminations thus revealed, and Une Saison en Enfer [A Season in Hell] thus rediscovered, far surpassed the fashionable trinkets of the time and went to the heart of the matter” (Pierre Brunel, Arthur Rimbaud, ou L'éclatant désastre).

The journal effectively revealed Rimbaud to the public by publishing with Verlaine's help the first issues of the poem Les premières communions and especially Les Illuminations (no. 5 to 9) which also included eleven other poems by Rimbaud dating from 1872. It was also thanks to its reissue in La Vogue that A Season in Hell was resurrected and made available to readers, as almost all copies of the first edition were still missing. The journal also includes the first two stanzas of his disturbing poem Le Cœur volé, probably recounting Rimbaud’s rape, as well as another piece titled Tête de faune.

The poems of Illuminations were first printed after many twists and turns: the manuscripts entrusted to Verlaine during his last meeting with Rimbaud passed from hand to hand before being published serially from 13 May 1886 by the director of La Vogue Léo d'Orfer and its editor-in-chief, the early Symbolist writer Gustave Kahn. After a quarrel with the latter, d'Orfer left the journal and took the manuscripts of the last five poems of Illuminations, which were later published posthumously in 1895 by Vanier. Verlaine procured Rimbaud manuscripts for La Vogue while mourning his époux infernal and genius poet who had long since abandoned his poems as well as literature in general. As Alain Bardel notes, “From June 7 onwards, Rimbaud's name [misspelled ‘Raimbaud’ on p. 233] is preceded by the word ‘feu’ (deceased) in the table of contents of La Vogue. Rumors of the poet's death spread throughout Paris. Rimbaud was actually in Tadjourah preparing his caravan, loaded with rifles that he planned to sell at a good price to Menelik II, King of Shoa.” In issue no. 11 he is even described as an “equivocal and glorious deceased” by admirers of his work, who knew nothing of his activities in Africa. Kahn continued the publication of Illuminations in La Vogue, eventually completed in issue no. 9 of June 21-27, 1886. Also in the pages of this magazine, he published the entirety of A Season in Hell in three issues, after the unexpected discovery of a first edition copy – the entire print run had never been put on sale.

According to Michel Murat, the first edition of Illuminations a few months later owes much to this pre-publication in La Vogue, as its young publisher Félix Fénéon “did not see the manuscript up close and edited the booklet using the pre-first edition [in La Vogue], without referring back to the manuscript.” However, Fénéon changed the order of the poems later restored by the authors of Rimbaud's Pléiade (updated complete works edition) to the original arrangement printed in La Vogue. This order still prevails today up to most recent editions.

Some consider Les Illuminations to be Rimbaud's last verses, and all agree on their considerable influence on poetry and the arts, starting with Paul Claudel:

“Since the initial thunderbolt that struck me when I received La Vogue, where I read Illuminations for the first time, I can say that I owe Rimbaud everything I am intellectually and morally” (letter to Mallarmé, 26 July 1897, in André Guyaux, Rimbaud, L'Herne, 1993).

1886, the true “year of free verse” (Eric Athenot) for La Vogue, did not end with Rimbaud: “The publication in La Vogue from June 28 to August 2 of texts by [Walt] Whitman translated by Laforgue accompanied the emergence of free verse in France, drawing Whitman into the Symbolist movement and ensuring him lasting visibility in France [...] 1886 brought together Laforgue, Whitman, and Rimbaud in publications that finally made the work of the latter two visible” (L'appel de l'étranger, Traduire en langue française en 1886). In the pages of the magazine, Jules Laforgue initiated the meeting of these two giants by publishing the very first translations of Leaves of Grass alongside the first printing of Illuminations. Without their knowledge, Rimbaud and Whitman championed Symbolism and the beginnings of free verse through their presence in this journal of the newly created movement. Verlaine also recalled in his preface to Illuminations' first edition the English influence in Rimbaud's collection, whose title was inspired by his famous stays in London.

This important albeit short-lived journal also contains the second series of Verlaine's Poètes maudits, Jules Laforgue's Le Concile féerique, Félix Fénéon's study of the Impressionist painters, and Jean Moréas and Paul Adam's Thé chez Miranda. Its contributors included Edouard Dujardin, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Charles Henry, Charles Morice, Huysmans, and Stéphane Mallarmé.

A very rare complete copy of this journal, a cornerstone to any collection Rimbaud collection. The publication of Vogue marked a founding moment in the publication of Rimbaud's poems and is considered by André Guyaux “the real date of publication of his works”. It allowed readers to discover the work of the “poet of ellipsis and leaps” (according to Saint-John Perse), the “son of Heaven” (Mauriac), the “ardent and chaste angel of the Ardennes” (Cocteau), the “anarchist by spirit” (Mallarmé), the “man with soles of wind” (Verlaine), and the “eccentric traveler” (Delahaye).