Comte de Gobineau : wachful eye of his time

Remarkable man by his abundant literary production, Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882) entered in politics with the support of Alexis de Tocqueville who made him Chief of Staff to the Foreign Ministry. He eventually led a diplomatic career posted to Persia, Greece, Brazil and Sweden. Gobineau wrote many poems, articles, novels, short stories. He attracted the admiration of some contemporaries, notably Richard Wagner. But public recognition did not come. it's his Essay on the Inequality of Human Races which brought him posthumous fame. European Racist movements from the late nineteenth century seized the book and borrow away a large part of Gobineau's ideology who is marked, de facto, as one of the founding fathers of racial thinking. That tarnishes the reputation of his work which is, however, rather diversified. More than a historian, Gobineau has emerged as a lyric writer and a romantic, close to Stendhal or Mérimée.

Currently, la librairie Loliée offers :

• Gobineau (Comte de). Céphanolie, Naxie et Terre-neuve. Souvenirs de voyage. Le Mouchoir rouge - Akrivie Phrangopoulo - La Chasse au caribou. Paris, Plon, 1897, in-12, original covers and back, binding (Vermorel). First edition.
• Gobineau (Comte de). Essai sur l’Inégalité des races humaines. Paris, Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1884, 2 volumes in-12, binding. Second edition.
• [Gobineau (Comte de)] - Dreyfus (Robert). La Vie et les Prophéties du Comte de Gobineau. Paris, Cahier de la Quinzaine, Seizième cahier de la sixième série, 1905, in-12, bradel bradel. Copy with a dedicace from the author to Marcel Bontemps.
• Gobineau (Comte de). La Fleur d’or. Paris, Grasset, « Les Cahiers Verts », 1923, in-12. Copy on vergé bouffant paper.

Olvier Debré signs

Figure of abstract painting, Olivier Debré (1920-1999) studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.He joined the architectural studio ran by his uncle and attended the one of Le Corbusier. He made his first paintings around 1943, influenced by Picasso. After the war, he met with the avant-garde : Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël, Pierre Soulages. His work, still then figurative, slided towards abstract art, based on the construction of tint colored areas. Strongly inspired by nature (storms, typhoons), the artist's approach is to materialize, eliminating any realistic depiction, the feelings of these violent events: "I refrains from being called a landscaper. I translate the emotion which is in me in front of a landscape ... It is not my will acting but the emotion that dominates me. I am only sincere in the shock, the momentum." Besides painting, Olivier Debré is passionate for architecture. He create, among others, the stage curtains of the Comédie Française, the Hong Kong Opera and the Shanghai Opera. He collaborated with choreographer Carolyn Carlson for whom he designed the sets and costumes for the ballet "Signs" whose theme is inspired by his painting.
(sources : Evene, Wikipedia)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Debré (Olivier) - Jamme (Franck André). Pour les Simples. Illustrations by Olivier Debré. Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 1987, in-8, in leaves, cover. First edition. One of the 50 first copies on Arches paper with two original engravings signed by Olivier Debré.
• Debré (Olivier) - Marester (Guy). Une Nuit qui n’aura pas de fin. Encres de Olivier Debré. Paris, Bernard Dumerchez, 2005, in-8 carré, ein leaves, cover. First edition with 7 inks by Olivier Debré. One of the first 75 copies on Arches paper.

Zürn / Bellmer : Dark Spring

Compagnion of Hans Bellmer, Unica Zürn, born in Berlin in 1916, had with the surrealist artist met in 1959, a stormy relationship marked with various interments in psychiatric clinics. It's from Bellmer's flat that Unica jumped out of the window in 1970. Fragile, Unica Zürn described her childhood as wonderful. This period was nevertheless marked by the divorce of her parents, and the loss of the family home, where his father, writer, used to collect objects brought back from his travels. "Dark Spring is the story of her childhood's impressions pushed up to their tragic consequences. Between a father beloved but distant and a hated mother, the little girl will learn about the adult world, and will discover an horrifying and fascinating sexuality, a crazy love which will lead her to suicide "(biography from Belfond publisher -1971).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [Bellmer (Hans)] - Zürn (Unica). Sombre Printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay. Burin original de Hans Bellmer. Paris, Pierre Belfond, collection des « Cahiers du regard », 1970, in-folio, in leaves, publisher's case. First french edition with, on frontispiece, an original engraving by Bellmer, numbered and signed. Limited 170 copies on Arches paper, this one compelted with a suite of the engraving on Japan paer, numbered and signed.
  
• [Bellmer (Hans)] - Zürn (Unica). Sombre Printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay. Paris, Belfont, « Cahiers du Regard », 1971, thin in-8. First french edition with, on frontispiece, a reproduction of Bellmer's engraving.
  

Mucha's arabesques

Slavic, Alfons Mucha (1860-1939) was formed in Vienna and Munich before settling in Paris where he made his name by making illustrations in magazines, newspapers and books. Sarah Bernhardt, seduced by his style, ensured the reputation of the artist from 1894 to 1900 : Mucha became the sole creator of her posters. With an important production (drawings, pastels, sculptures, objects, jewelry), Mucha established himself as one the masters of Art Nouveau. In 1900, he created a spectacular setting for the Universal Exhibition. He decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina pavilion and got the silver medal. He went on with his illustrator activities and signed the poster advertisements for brands such as Moët et Chandon or Nestlé. Between 1912 and 1926, Mucha put his skills to serve a monumental project to the glory of the Slavic people. Believer and humanist, Mucha thought that art can participate in the uplifting of the soul. He raised money from wealthy American industrialists and got a particular support from Charles R. Crane who invested in The Slav Epic, composed of 20 scenes covering nearly 1,000 square feet of painted canvas. This gigantic work provides an important evidence about the rise of Nationalism in Europe. Settled in Czechoslovakia in 1910, Mucha took part in the birth of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. He drew the weapon of the new nation, stamps, banknotes. In 1939, the country is occupied by Germany and the Republic ends. Mucha, a Freemason, is interrogated by the Gestapo. He died shortly thereafter in July of that year. After the war, forgotten by the communists who do not appreciate this "bourgeois art" , Mucha's work is finally rediscovered in the 60s.

Published in 1900, Clôches de Noël et de Pâques (Bells of Christmas and Easter), collection of three tales by Emile Gebhart, is representative of the art of arabesque of Mucha who frames the text of many floral ornaments.
(sources : Wikipedia, Mucha museum)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Mucha (Alphonse) - Gebhart (Émile). Cloches de Noël et de Pâques. Illustrations et décoration par A. Mucha. Paris, Champenois, Piazza, 1900, in-4, publisher's green case . Edition illustrated with 80 colored plates by Mucha. Limited to 252 copies. One of the 35 copies on Japan paper, with a suite in black on China paper of the 80 plates.

The Monk by Lewis : a major literary influence of Surrealism

Classic from Gothic literature, The Monk is an early work, written by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775 - 1818) originally to entertain his mother. It was published for the first time in 1796. The book, subversive by its themes (incest, kidnapping, torture, pacts with the devil, necrophilia, exorcism...) but also conventional by its morality, is very well received by the public to the point that the author earned the nickname "Monk Lewis." But, the criticism was outraged by the story and launched censure. So much so that Lewis published a second expurgated edition in which he withdrew the most scandalous part - when Antonia's mother offers her daughter a truncated version of the Bible to protect her from verses she considered unhealthy.
In the nineteenth century, The Monk influenced French writers including the young guard of Romanticism. In the twentieth century, in his Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton, makes of The Monk a literary model, with Les Chants de Maldoror, of the movement. In 1931, Antonin Artaud proposes a new approach, The Monk by Lewis told by Antonin Artaud published by Denoël & Steele. In the preface, he writes :
"That, therefore, all those whose spirit of new data flows back to the closed and purely organic senses as to their droppings, those who feed on the common residue and the usual excrement of the mind called reality, I continue to hold as an essential work The Monk, which shakes this reality at full arms, drags in front of me witches, apparitions and larvae, with the most perfect natural, and which finally makes supernatural a simple reality.(Photo: Matthew Gregory Lewis by Henry William Pickersgill - National Portrait Gallery, London - source: wikipedia).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers the rare first French edition :

• Lewis (M.G.). Le Moine. Paris, Maradan, an V (1797), 3 volumes in-12, green binding from the period. First French edition before the one published by Maradan the same year in 4 volumes.
  

Poetical pluralism of Jorge Camacho

Cuban painter, born in 1934, Jorge Camacho studied law till 1952 when he decided to devote himself to painting. He travelled to Mexico in the 50s with the painter Jose Luis Cuevas and is interested in Mayan culture. In 1959, he moved to Paris where he met André Breton. He joined the Surrealist group and in 1965, participated at the XI International Exhibition of Surrealism. He became a close friend of Henri Michaux and Joyce Mansour. In 1967, he exhibited at the Salon de Mai in Havana organized by Wifredo Lam, also Cuban. From 1968 he became interested in studying the science of alchemy, the Cabala, shamanism. Curious about everything, collector of "primitive art" Jorge Camacho fuels his art by drawing from various cultures and artistic creations: jazz, Andalusian music, French and Haitian poetry, photography. He lives and works between Paris and Andalusia since 1975.
(sources: wikipedia, maison de l'amérique latine)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [Camacho (Jorge)] - Bedouin (Jean-Louis). Libre Espace. Paris, Seghers, 1967, in-8, in leaves. First Edition. One of the 66 first copies on Holland paper with an orginal engraving numbered and signed by Camacho.
  
• [Camacho (Jorge)] - Mansour (Joyce). Faire signe au Machiniste. Couverture et Illustrations de Jorge Camacho. Paris, Le Soleil Noir, 1977, in-8. First edition illustrated in black by Camacho. Copy on vellum paper.
• [Camacho (Jorge)] - Canseliet (Eugène). L’Hermétisme dans la vie de Swift et dans ses voyages. Illustré par Jorge Camacho. Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 1983, in-12. First edition. Copy on "verger teinté" paper.

Illustrious graffitis from the Hôtel des Haricots

Albert de Lasalle (1833-1886), music columnist for the weekly Le Monde Illustré and specialized in opera, published in 1864 a remarkable book on the Hotel des Haricots (hotel of beans). This place is primarily a religious college whose nickname "Haricots" was given by students because of the meager food served at table. In 1792, the building becomes the prison of the National Guard. After the Revolution, the prison is transferred to the hotel Bazancourt. The new lazy prison system which allows good food and good wine makes the place looks like a rowdy house. So uprises the myth of the Hotel des Haricots. The place hosts prestigious guests including Alfred de Musset, Théophile Gautier, Théodore de Banville, Honoré de Balzac who made several trips including one because he failed his military obligations. In 1837, the prison was again transferred in an old granary in the arsenal district. It is this last hotel Albert de Lasalle speaks about. He transcribes the inscriptions found on the walls of "the cells of artists". He also comments the 70 drawings reproduced by the engraver Edmond Morin (1824-1182). The book alternates graffitis, poems, songs, sheet musics.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers:

• Morin (Edmond) - Lasalle (Albert de). L'Hôtel des Haricots. Maison d'arrêt de la Garde Nationale de Paris. Paris, Dentu, s.d. [1864], in-8, binding from the period. Edition with ornée de 70 drawings, in black, by Edmond Morin. Page 151 numbered 153.

Marcel Proust at Madeleine Lemaire's room

Madeleine Lemaire, born Madeleine Coll (1845-1928), French watercolorist and miniaturist, was holding the most attended artistic and literary room of the Belle Epoque. Marcel Proust met her in 1891 and is charmed by the fifty year old woman who loved to paint roses. The young author is anxious to consolidate its position and Madeleine Lemaire brought him in the game of society life. In summer, she invited her "followers" to stay at her chateau near Paris or a her villa in Dieppe. This is where Marcel Proust met Reynaldo Hahn, who became his lover. From this period uprised Pleasures and Days, illustrated by Madeleine Lemaire and completed by four piano pieces by Reynaldo Hahn, a work inspired by the dandy Robert de Montesquiou also met at the watercolorist room in 1893. In the preface, Anatole France summed up:
"Ce calendrier des Plaisirs et des Jours marque et les heures de la nature par d'harmonieux tableaux du ciel, de la mer, des bois, et les heures humaines par des portraits fidèles et des peintures de genre, d'un fini merveilleux. Marcel Proust se plaît également à décrire la splendeur désolée du soleil couchant et les vanités agitées d'une âme snob. Il excelle à conter les douleurs élégantes, les souffrances artificielles, qui égalent pour le moins en cruauté celles que la nature nous accorde avec une prodigalité maternelle. [...] Heureux livre que le sien ! Il ira par la ville tout orné, tout parfumé des fleurs dont Madeleine Lemaire l'a jonché de cette main divine qui répand les roses avec leur rosée."

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Proust (Marcel). Les Plaisirs et les Jours. Illustrations de Madeleine Lemaire. Préface d’Anatole France et quatre pièces pour piano de Reynaldo Hahn. Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1896, in-8, folder, case. First edition. One of the first 30 copies on China paper.
• Proust (Marcel). Les Plaisirs et les Jours. Illustrations de Madeleine Lemaire. Préface d’Anatole France et quatre pièces pour piano de Reynaldo Hahn. Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1896, in-8, binding by Semet et Plumelle. First edition.
  

René Char : science, a blind lighthouse

In May 1968, apart from the social events that shake France, René Char has a heart attack, first in a long series of cardiovascular accidents. He mentions that "experience" in the introductory text of the Le Chien de coeur, published a year after : "I thought death was coming, but death where, overwhelmed by an unprecedented understanding, I would still need to make a move before falling asleep, before being spread out to the universe forever." This collection, illustrated with an original lithograph by Joan Miro for the first 95 copies, expose six poems, including "Les Apparitions dédaignées" (despised Apparitions), text denouncing the absurd distortions of modern society. The poet discredits the usefulness of science which consolidate a little more the divorce between man and nature :

"Les civilisations sont des graisses.
L'Histoire échoue, Dieu faute de Dieu
n'enjambe plus nos murs soupçonneux,
l'homme feule à l'oreille de l'homme,
le Temps se fourvoie, la fission est
en cours. Quoi encore?

La science ne peut fournir à l'homme
dévasté qu'un phare aveugle, une arme
de détresse, des outils sans légende. Au
plus dément : le sifflet des manœuvres."
Qute from "Les Apparitions dédaignées" in Le Chien de coeur.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Char (René). Le Chien de cœur. Paris, G.L.M., 1969, in-8. First edition. One of the first 95 copies on Arches paper with an original color lithograph signed by Joan Miro. (Only those copies have the lithograph).

The mithycal figure of Saint-John Perse

Saint-John Perse is a mythical figure, those of the poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960. Saint-John Perse is also a figure magnified by Alexis Leger, diplomat who used for the first time that nickname with the release of Anabase in 1924. Exiled to the United States during World War II, refusing to ally with de Gaulle, Alexis Leger, businessman lurking in the shadow of the poet, has consistently built his own legend. He prepares himself the biography that opens the publication of his complete works released by the Pleiade in 1972. Renaud Meltz, a historian based at the University of Tahiti, published in 2008 an extensive biography, with 800 documented pages, and set straight the double face of this man of strategy and poetry. (See the interview with Renaud Meltz - source Channel Academy, review of Damien Le Guay).
The poetry of Saint-John Perse, admired for its precision and purity, is difficult and not quite engaging for big audience. It builds a hypnotic and almost liturgical music. Saint-John Perse, during the speech at the Nobel Banquet, precise his vision of what the outcome of poetry is :
"True to his office, which is deepening the mystery of man, modern poetry engages in a business whose prosecution concerns the full integration of man. There is no prophecy in such poetry. Nor is it purely aesthetic [...] It finds a ally in beauty, supreme alliance, but does not take it for an end or its sole nourishment. Unwilling to separate art from life nor love from knowledge, it is passion, it is power, and innovation that always goes beyond bounds. "

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Anabase. Paris, N.R.F., 1924, in-4. Firs Edition. One of the 62 copies on Vergé paper.
• Quatre Poèmes (141-1944). Buenos Aires, Éditions des Lettres Françaises, 1944, petit in-4, in leaves. First edition. One of the 30 copies on Whatman paper, single deluxe edition.
• Quatre Poèmes (1941-1944). Buenos Aires, Éditions Sur, in-12. First collective edition in the collection "La Porte Étroite" ran by Roger Caillois. This rare edition was withdraw and replaced by a second one which does not contain the preface by Archibald Macleish.
• Pluies. Buenos Aires, Éditions des Lettres Françaises, 1944, booklet in-4. First edition. One of the 300 copies on Holland paper.
• Pluies. Buenos Aires, Éditions des Lettres Françaises, 1944, booklet in-4, beautiful binding in grey cal leather, folder and case (P.L. Martin). First edition. One of the 30 first copoes on Whatman paper.
• Chronique. Paris, Gallimard, 1960, in-4. First edition. One of the 165 copies on Holland paper.
• Discours de Stockholm. Marseille, Cahiers du Sud, 1960, booklet in-8. First edition released with the issue n°358 (december 1960). Limited to 100 copies on Lafuma paper.
• Lettres à l'Étrangère. Textes réunis et présentés par Mauricette Berne. Paris, Gallimard, 1987, in-8. First edition. Onf of the 32 copies on vellum " pur chiffon", single deluxe edition.

Albert Marquet's last print

"By an accurate use of tones and values, by a genuineness use of connections and effects without equal today, Marquet substitutes the simplicity, purity, authority of his vision to our own vision in idyllic and sprawling places where fantasy took him from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, the North Cape to the Sahara " wrote Georges Besson in the preface of the album Albert Marquet, ten original prints. This book, sixth of the series "The Master of the Contemporary French Print, is published by Rombaldi in May 1947. The painter died shortly after. Of the ten prints available, nine are signed by the artist. As explained in the leaf joined to the first edition, the third print, entitled "Children on the beach", probably the last he realized, was not completed when death occurred to the artist.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Albert Marquet. Dix estampes originales présentées par George Besson. Paris, Rombaldi, collection « Les Maîtres de l’estampe française contemporaine », 1947, in-folio, covers, red publisher's folder. Album with 10 original prints, one heading and a tailpiece by Albert Marquet. Limited to 100 copies on Lana vellum paper and few personal copies.

Obliques : literary magazine of the 70s

Established by Roger Borderie, the magazine Obliques, published in the 70s and 80s, proposes monographs of first importance on varied themes (Sade, Wagner Kierkegaard, the German Expressionism, The Surrealist woman, the myth of Don Juan, Sartre, Artaud, etc.), which represent the tendencies and literary influences of that time. Michel Camus, chief editor of the magazine from 1976 till 1983, groups together texts of numerous writers and thinkers: Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Michel Butor, etc.
The issues, in deluxe edition, include, for the greater part, original engravings numbered and signed by artists as Jean-Luc Parant, Félix Labisse, Camille Bryen, Fred Deux, etc. To underline : the magnificent serie of photographic prints signed by Henri Maccheroni which is proposed with the issue dedicated to Sade.


Currently, the Librairie Loliée offers a set dedicated to the magazine Obliques and its various publications :

Obliques issues n°1 à 21 :

• Strindberg. N°1. Paris, Editions Borderie, 1972, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 150 copies on Arches paper with a drawing by Jean-Luc Parant signed by Parant and Michel Butor.
• Genet. N°2. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1972, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 150 copies on Arches paper with an original engraving numbered and signed by Fred Deux.
• Kafka. N°3. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1973, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition.One of the 99 copies on Arches paper (without the announced engraving which was not printed).
• Don Juan. N°4-5. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1978, in-4, two volumes bounded in one. Third edition on vellum paper.
• L’Expressionnisme Allemand. N°6-7. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1976, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 99 copies on Arches paper (without the announced lithograph which was not printed).
• Boris Vian de A à Z. N°8-9. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1976, in-4, bicolore cover. First edition. One of the 124 copies on Arches paper with an original lithograph numbered and signed by Félix Labisse.
• Sade. N°10-11. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1977, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 99 copies on Popset Rosemary with a serie of 9 photographies by Henri Maccheroni.
• Artaud. N°12-13. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1976, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of 83 copies on Ingres M.B.M. Arches Chamois paper with an engraving numbered and signed by Camille Bryen and an engraving signed by José Quiroga.
• La Femme Surréaliste. N°14-15. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1977, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 99 copies on Arches paper with an engraving numbered and signed by Léonor Fini, a serigraphy numbered and signed by Titi and Jean-Luc Parant, and an audio tape with on face 1 a text read by Titi and Jean-Luc Parant and on face 2 sur a radiophonic montage ont the Surrealist woman made by Jean Couturier.
• Robbe-Grillet. N°16-17. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1977, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 83 copies on Arches paper with a lithograph in colors by Pierre Maltais and an engraving by Grégory Masurovky, numbered and signed by the artists.
  
• Sartre. N°18-19. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1981, in-4, two voluems bounded in one. One of the 99 copies on Arches paper with a lithograph "logoramme" by Christian Dotremont, numbered and signed by the artist. et signé par l’artiste.
• Brecht. N°20-21. Paris, Éditions Borderie, 1979, in-4, broché, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 99 copies on Arches paper.

Obliques, special issues :

• Bellmer. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1975, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One 150 copies on Lana paper with an original engraving by Hans Bellmer.
  
• Kierkegaard. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1975, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 33 copies on Arches paper.
• Butor - Masurovsky. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1976, in-4, illustrated cover. Edition on vellum paper with an "engraving-manuscript composigned by Michel Butor and Grégory Masurovsky.
• Vian (Boris). Cantilène en gelée. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1978, in-4. Reprint of poems first edited in manuscript form to 200 copies. Copy on arches paper with an engraving numbered and signed by Alanore.
• Lossowski (Pierre) - Zucca (Pierre). Roberte au cinéma. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1978, in-4, publisher's binding. First edition on vellum paper.
  
• Wagner. Numéro spécial. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1979, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition. One of the 99 copies on Arches paper.
  
• Butor (Michel) - Valey (Michel). Don Juan dans la Manche. Pour Michel Sicard. Numéro Spécial. S.l., Obliques, 1975, in-8, illustrated cover. First edition signed by Michel Butor, Michel Valey et Michel Sicard.
  
• Personimages. Numéro Spécial. S.l., Obliques, 1977, in-8, broché, illustrated cover. Issue published after the exhibition of art work made by students of a work reinsertion center, under the direction of Jean Révol.
  
• Lulu. Numéro Spécial. S.l., Obliques, 1979, in-8, illustrated cover. First edition.
  

Outside the magazine Obliques :

• Les Cahiers Obliques. Revue trimestrielle. N°1 et N°2. Nyons, Éditions Borderie, 1980, in-8, illustrated covers. First editions of those notebooks dovoted to Bellmer and Sartre, and giving a light version of the Obliques magazine which was long to prepare.
  
• [Parant(Jean-Luc)]. Le Bout des Bordes. S.d., Éditions Borderie, 1980, in-4, publisher's binding.
  

Joseph Kessel and Russia

Constantly placing himself in the heart of History being built, Joseph Kessel (1898-1979), a writer-reporter, seized with nearly 80 novels and 80 years of existence, the major developments of his time. He wrote in particular on Russia. During the First World War, engaged as volunteer, he was assigned on a mission in Siberia. He published in 1922, his first work, a series of short-stories on the Bolshevik Revolution. The theme of the Russian diaspora is recurrent in his work. Joseph Kessel worked with two major immigrant figures of the Russian illustration : Alexandre Alexeieff for Les Nuits de Siberie - that evokes the atmosphere of Russian cabarets, and Natalia Goncharova for Le Thé du capitaine Sogoub. In this latest book, Kessel writes the poignant encounter, around a samovar, between distinguished Russian immigrants and an ex-captain of the White Army who proudly evokes his memories.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Gontcharova (Nathalie) - Kessel (Joseph). Le Thé du capitaine Sogoub. Nouvelle illustrée d’images hors-texte gravées par Nathalie Gontcharova. Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1926, in-8. First edition with 6 original engravings by Gontcharova. One of the s 1000 copies on Annonay vellum paper.
  
• Alexeieff - Kessel (Joseph). Les Nuits de Sibérie. Eaux-fortes de Alexeieff. Paris, Flammarion, 1928, in-8. First edition with 5 etchings by Alexeieff. One of the 40 copies 40 "not to sale" copies on Rives vellum paper.
• Kessel (Joseph). Secrets Parisiens. Paris, Éditions des Cahiers Libres, 1930, in-12. Firsit edition on vellum paper.

Les Diaboliques (The She-Devils) according to Féliciens Rops

Les Diaboliques (The She-Devils), collection of short-stories, was published for the first time in 1874. The stories full of sulfurous eroticism caused controversy. Barbey d'Aurevilly was prosecuted for "insulting public decency and morality, and complicity." He withdrew the book from sale and prosecutors seized the remaining copies. To avoid trial, Barbey d'Aurevilly asked the help of his political acquaintances. He obtained a dismissal but the seized copies have already been destroyed. It was not until 1882 that Barbey d'Aurevilly republished Les Diaboliques, at Alphonse Lemerre's edition, with a portrait by Paul Adolphe Rajon and nine compositions by Félicien Rops (Le Rideau cramoisi - Le Plus Bel Amour de Don Juan - Le Bonheur dans le crime - Le Dessous de cartes d'une partie de whist - A Un Dîner d'athées - La Vengeance d'une femme ; two etchings for the postface and an etching untitled representing a woman hugging a sphinx). The Belgian artist boldly captures the decadent dimension of Barbey d'Aurevilly's style.

This collaboration is one of the greatest testament to the Symbolist aesthetic of that time.
(to consult - in french : Myriam Watthee-Delmotte's study ).

Currently, la librairie Loliée offers:

• ROPS (Félicien). Dix eaux-fortes pour illustrer les Diaboliques de J. Barbey d’Aurevilly. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, s.d. [vers 1900], small portfolio of ten etchings, in leaves (193x137 mm), publisher's folder.

Georges Hugnet, a released surrealist

Georges Hugnet (1906-1974) grew up in Buenos Aires where his father opened a branch of the family firm specialized in wood furniture. He moved to Paris in 1913. Man with many talents, Hugnet composed poems, wrote articles, made photo-montages, was also a publisher. In 1920, he became friend with Marcel Jouhandeau, his neighbour, who introduced him to Max Jacob. With financial support from his father, he founded the Editions de la Montagne, whose goal was to publish his own work and those of friends as Tristan Tzara, Gertrude Stein. He joined the Surrealist group in 1932 through Tzara who introduced him to André Breton. Hugnet left the movement in 1939. Breton reproached Hugnet for maintaining friendship with Paul Eluard, who distance himself with the leader of Surrealism because of their political disagreement during the Spanish Civil War. However, in occupied France, Georges Hugnet joined La Main à la plume, a group that maintained the surrealist publications while Breton went into exile in 1941. While officially out of the movement, Georges Hugnet never ceased to be a part of it.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Le Droit de Varech. Illustrés de 5 lithographies par Eugène Berman. Précédé par le Muet ou les Secrets de la vie. Paris, Editions de la Montagne, 1930, in-4, bound in full green calf by A. Lobstein. First edition. Limited to 502 copies. One of the first 10 copies on Japan paper, signed by the author and the illustrator, and with 5 original full-page lithographs by Eugène Berman. (only the 100 first copies include those lithographs).
• Le Droit de Varech. Illustrés de 5 lithographies par Eugène Berman. Précédé par le Muet ou les Secrets de la vie. Paris, Éditions de la Montagne, 1930, in-4. First edition. Limited to 502 copies. One of the first 25 copies on Holland paper, signed by the author and the illustrator, and with 5 original full-page lithographs by Eugène Berman. (only the 100 first copies include those lithographs).
• La Belle en dormant. Paris, Editions des Cahiers Libres, 1933, in-12. First edition. One of the 500 copies on vellum paper.
• L'Apocalypse. Paris, G.L.M., collection "Habitude de la Poésie", 1937, in-16. First edition. One of the few copies on two-coloured glossy paper.
• La Femme facile. Illustrations de Christine Boumeester et Henri Goetz. Paris, Jeanne Bucher, 1942, in-12 oblong, in leaves, illustrated cover. First edition with a frontispiece and 14 lithographs by Christine Boumeester and Henri Goetz and with the text reproduced in facsimile. Limited to 115 copies. One of the 5 copies reserved to the author, on "mûrier de Tonkin" paper, enhanced with a plate lithograph of Ch. Boumeester.
• La Nappe du Catalan. 64 poèmes et 16 lithographies en couleurs. Paris, s.n.é., 1952, in-4, illustrated cover, folder and case. First edition of poems by Hugnet and Cocteau composed simultaneously on restaurant tablecloths. Illustrated with 16 lithographs by Cocteau, coloured by Hugnet. Limited to 113 copies, this one on Rives paper enhanced with an ink and wash drawing, and a dedication by Georges Hugnet to Valentine Hugo.
  
• 1961. Illustré de quatre photo-montages. Paris, chez l’Auteur, 1961, in-8, in leaves, illustrated cover. First edition with 4 photo-montages by Georges Hugnet. Copie on vellum paper.
  

Canada seen by Clarence Gagnon

In the early thirties, Clarence Gagnon (1881-1942), who grew up in rural Quebec, undertook an ambitious project: an illustration of the novel by Louis Hemon, Maria Chapdelaine, the flagship title of Franco-Canadian literature. It took more than five years to complete this command which contains 54 gouaches. The criticism is unanimously dithyrambic and Gagnon is recognized as a major Canadian painters. Trained at the Académie Julian, the painter who lived many years in Paris, explained in 1931: "It was not the over-sensitivity of the misunderstood that made me move to Paris....Over there, I paint only Canadian subjects, I dream only of Canada. The motif remains fixed in my mind, and I don't allow myself to be captivated by the charms of a new landscape. In Switzerland, Scandinavia-everywhere, I recall my French Canada."

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Gagnon (Clarence) - Hémon (Louis). Maria Chapdelaine. Illustrations de Clarence Gagnon. Paris, Editions Mornay, 1933, in-4, illustrated cover. Edition with 54 illustrations, in colours, by Clarence Gagnon. Copy on Rives paper.

Annual closing 2009

Dear readers,
The bookshop will be closed from August, 01 to August, 23.
See you for the reopening.

Vicente Huidobro, creationist

Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), poet from the Chilean aristocracy, publishes his first texts in the early 1910s. In 1916, he moves to Europe with his wife and children and lives between Paris and Madrid. He associates with Surrealists and Spanish avant-garde. Rejecting the authority of André Breton, he begins to theorize the Creationism, a movement that promotes a poetry free of any reference, completely invented : "Create a poem by borrowing from life's patterns and turning them, giving them a new independent life (...) Nothing anecdotal or descriptive (...) Make a poem as nature makes a tree ". [in Manifestes, p. 49, editions of the La Revue Mondiale, 1925].
In Madrid, he influences the birth of the Ultraïsme, Spanish literary movement that intends to exceed the aesthetic standards of the time. Huidobro publishes other books, contributed to various journals (Nord-Sud, L'Esprit Nouveau, and the Spanish issues La Revista Cervantes, Ultra, etc.).. In 1925, he returns to Chile to edit a political newspaper, Acción, denouncing the fraudulent activities of famous politicians. Some thinks he can run for the Presidency. The poet escapes a bomb attack and flees the country. He continues his poetry work and his political activities,from France and Spain and returns, after some years, in Chile.
Never hesitating to judge his peers, Huidobro is often perceived as a man with an imposing ego. While it is true that his opinions are decided, sometimes bitter, full of an aristocratic confidence, Vicente Huidobro remains a figure of the time, regarded with Pablo Neruda - another personality with Breton he never stops criticizing - as one of the most important poets of Chile.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Manifestes Manisfeste Manifest Manifes Manife Manif Mani Man Ma M. Paris, Éditions de la Revue Mondiale, 1925, in-12. First edition.
  
• Tout à coup. Poems. Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1925, in-12. First edition with a portrait, in frontispiece, by Picasso.
  
• Tremblement de ciel. With a portrait by Juan Gris. Paris, Éditions de l’As de Cœur, 1932, in-12. First French edition with a dedication to the painter Joseph Sima.

Le Yaouanc 's equilibrium of frame forms

"Not only in the present context, but in his collages for example, Le Yaouanc sometimes contrives things so that the centring of the image, the margins imposed, the placing of the thing painted or engraved or pasted, assume a predominant importance in relation to the given motif which is not allotted all the workable space of the canvas, the collage, the engraving. The painter assumes the role of framer, here, by situating the motif (the statement) in, for example, a rectangle or an oval described on what might be considered the essential element of the work, so adding to the equilibrium of the composition or drawing a sort of suspension - sometimes in the middle, sometimes not - comprising tinted margins that seem to represent a positive accumulation of frames around the still-life that is indeed far from being "still" : a better description of this effect would be the equilibrium of framed forms ."

Louis Aragon - "Pierre sur Pierre" in Le Yaouanc Lithographies - La Pierre d'Angle - 1975

Currently, the librairie loliée offers :

• Le Yaouanc (Alain) – Aragon (Louis). Le Yaouanc Lithographies. Paris, La Pierre d’Angle, 1975, in-folio, in leaves, black publisher's folder. First edition of « Pierre sur Pierre », a text by Aragon who interprets this album composed of 63 color lithographs by Alain Le Yaouanc. One of the 150 copies on Arches paper numbered and signed by Louis Aragon and Alain Le Yaouanc, and including an original lithograph numbered and signed by the artist.
• Derrière le Miroir. Le Yaouanc. Paris, Maeght, n°176 – 1970, in-4, in leaves, illustrated cover, publisher's case. Issue released for LE Yaouanc's exhibition at the Gallery Maeght. One of the 150 copies on Lana paper numbered and signed by the artist, including 8 original lithographs in color.

Marie-Antoinette under the fervent look of Léon Bloy

In 1877, Léon Bloy wrote La Chevalière de la Mort, (Knigthood of death) one of his first texts. This thin study is not released before 1891, in a magazine of the city of Gand and published in a limited edition of 100 copies. Bloy, in the style of Thomas Carlyle, whom he admires the sens of History, tries to look in a spiritual and visionnary way at Marie-Antoinette's figure: "Marie-Antoinette n'est ni profondément touchante, elle ne s'empare des âmes avec une si souveraine puissance d'émotion que parce qu'elle n'est pas une sainte." His tone is often provocative and humorous : "Quand à cette pauvre Marie-Antoinette, elle vint en France comme ce délicieux arc-en-ciel du matin qui présage dit-on, le mauvais temps". He describes Louis XVI as a "Rien des Lys" and goes on : "Marie-Antoinette couchée pendant vingt ans en travers du cœur de Louis XVI, comme le Prophète sur le cadavre de l'enfant mort pour le ressusciter, n'en put jamais obtenir cette palpitation de généreuse fureur qui aurait peut-être suffi pour dégonfler la vessie du bavardage révolutionnaire et, dans tous les cas, aurait honoré, du moins, sa pauvre mémoire."

Léon Bloy, making of the poor convicted Queen an heroic icon, comes to a lyric conclusion : "Elle naquit le jour des larmes, elle vécut une partie de sa vie dans les larmes dévorées, ses derniers jours dans les larmes répandues en pluie, en torrents et, enfin, sa mort, sujet de tant d'autres larmes, fut le Dies iroe, de l'ensevelissement d'une génération, d'une aristocratie, d'un trône et d'un monde".
(Picture : preparatory drawing for the official portrait of Marie Antoinette; painted in 1778 by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Bloy (Léon). La Chevalière de la mort. Gand, Typographie Siffer, 1891, in-12, original covers and back, full blue Levant binding, older and case (Huser). First edition limited to 100 copies. Ex-libris Marcel de Merre.

Magloire-Saint-Aude, the lonely rebel

In the forties and fifties, the Haitian poet Clément Magloire Saint-Aude (1912-1971) was a singular figure, that of a rebellious and solitary writer. He devoted his life to journalism and lived in a poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, whose nightlife inspired him. In 1941, he published in quick succession two collections, Dialogue de mes lampes (Dialogue of my lamps) and Tabou (Taboo). His writing, abstruse and opaque, caused the admiration of the Surrealists, including André Breton who met him in December 1945. The Haitian writer, despite his new celebrity, refused to commit himself publicly and pursued his solitary adventure. In 1949, he wrote a novel, Parias in which he outlined the circles he saw. In 1956 is published Déchu (Fallen), his latest collection of poetry. He gradually lapsed into alcohol. François Duvalier, President of the Haitien Republic, granted him in 1967 a monthly allowance to keep him up. Magloire-Saint-Aude then hardly wrote except a few articles often virulent. He died in 1971 leaving, as the only trace of his secret life, a work of great and dazzling poetry.

Aux exploits du poète las,
Mon vitrail disloqué
Aux rails de la mélodie.

Pour ma belle fille naufragée,
Tel l'harmonica du voyou.

Vers l'araignée fêlée
des stances moissonnées.

Sur le buvard aveugle
De mes talents éteints.

quote from the collection Déchu.

Currently, the librairie loliée offers :

• Magloire-Saint-Aude. Dialogue de mes lampes suivi de Tabou et de Déchu. Illustrations de Wifredo Lam, Hervé Télémaque, Jorge Camacho. Paris, chez Jacques Veuillet, collection « Première personne », 1970, in-8. First collective edition illustrated with 3 figures from the etchings of Jorge Camacho, Wifredo Lam and Hervé Télémaque.

Catalogue 2009

The librairie Loliée offers you to download the catalogue 2009 :

part 1 - part 2 - part 3

Alexandre Alexeïeff's shadows

Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982), French borned Russian, is considered one of the founders of the animation movie. In 1931, he developed with his partner Claire Parker, a wealthy American student met the previous year, a new technique known as the pin screen. Thousands of pins are mounted on a vertical panel illuminated by a raking light and can be inserted or removed at will. Alexeieff presents in 1933 Night on Bald Mountain, inspired by the music by Modest Mussorgsky, which soon became a classic of animation.

Before being a director, Alexeïeff is an illustrator. After a childhood spent between Turkey and Russia, he settled in Paris in 1921 where he worked as a theater's costumer and designer, for, among others, the Russian Ballets. Having a passion for drawing and engraving, Alexeïeff illustrated many books, both classics of Russian literature and french authors like André Malraux, Philippe Soupault, Joseph Kessel. It is the desire to give life to engravings which will push Alexeïeff to invent his revolutionary animation technique.
After the war, he turned to advertises film-makings (Biscuits Brun, Renault, Esso), which by their experimental technique, are considered true works of art.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Alexeïeff (Alexandre) - Pouchkine (Alexandre). La Dame de Pique. French translation by Prosper Mérimée. Wood engravings in color by A. Alexeieff. Paris, Pouterman, 1928, in-8, binded. Edition illustrated with 13 wood engravings in color. One of the 12 copies on Imperial Japan paper, this one of Marie Laurencin's library, signed by her hand.
• Alexeïeff (Alexandre) - Delteil (Joseph). On the River Amour. Translated by Samuel Putnam. Illustrations by Alexeieff. New-York, Covic, Friede publishers, 1929, in-8, binded. Full-page black illustrations. Limited to 1250 copies on Aurelian paper.
• Alexeïeff (Alexandre) - Andersen (Hans). Images de la Lune. Vues par Alexandre Alexeieff. Paris, Maximilien Vox, 1942, in-folio, in leaves, cover, publisher's case. Edition illustrated with 30 original engravings. Limited to 995 copies. This copy printed for the publisher and book-dealer Henri Lefèbvre.
  

Paul Eluard and Valentine Hugo : men and animals

SPIDER
Discovered in an egg,
the spider won't go in again.

HEN
Let the hen pond:
hen with its ripe fruits,
Hen with our gain.

quotes from Les Animaux et leurs hommes. Les Hommes et leurs animaux [Animals and their men. Men and their animals] by Paul Eluard, illustrated by Valentine Hugo.

Actuellement, la librairie loliée propose :

• Hugo (Valentine) - Eluard (Paul). Les Animaux et leurs hommes. Les Hommes et leurs animaux. Paris, Gallimard, s.d.[1938], in-12. New edition with 22 illustrations in black by Valentine Hugo. Limited to 1300 copies. This one with a hand-writing dedication from Valentine Hugo and Paul Eluard to the poet Philippe Dumaine.

The poetic look of Germaine Krull

Close to Surrealism, associated with the Bauhaus and member of the "new photography" - movement launched by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Germaine Krull (1897-1985) favours the graphic and poetic diversion over formalism. The modernity of her subjects (metal architecture, industrial design) earned her the nickname of the "Iron Valkyrie." Her famous shots of the Eiffel tower pushed the photographic conventions of the time. Assertive woman, Germaine Krull fled the envaded France for the United States and, then, joined Brazzaville where she headed the photography department of the Free French Forces. She was the first woman to become a war correspondent (Germany, Italy, Indochina). In 1967, André Malraux, then Minister of Culture, organized the first retrospective of her work at the French Film Library, at the Palais de Chaillot.
(sources : encyclopedia universalis, wikipedia).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Krull (Germaine) – Nerval(Gérard de). Le Valois. Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1930, tall quarto, cover printed in red. First edition illustrated with 48 photographic reproductions of Germaine Krull. Limited to 1000 copies.

Julien Green the visionary

Born American, Julien Green (1900-1998) is a writer we tend to forget the thrust. His fictional work is built along with his theater work and one of the most important literary journals - which runs from 1919 to 1998. Julien Green abjures Protestantism and converts to Catholicism in 1916. Dominated by the theme of salvation, his universe puts up a conventional reality against the search of an inner truth : "The novelist invents nothing, he guesses. He won't be wrong if he obeys this inner voice that speaks in each of us and tells us when we are in truth, and when we are not. This inner truth is all that is really essential ... " (Journal, 5 February 1933).
Between 1926 and 1929, Julien Green published three books forming a trilogy : Mount-Cinère (1926), Adrienne Mesurat (1927) and Léviathan (The Dark Journey - 1929). The respective heroes of these three novels have in common the author's obsession of not feeling lovable, are inhabited by a sense of fatality. The question of good and evil, sexuality are recurring themes of Julien Green, who was one of the few authors to be recognized by his peers during his lifetime and the first foreign-born author to integrate the Académie Française, succeeding François Mauriac.
(source : universalis.fr)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers first editions of Julien Green:

• Mont-Cinère. Paris, Plon, 1926, in-12, binding by Lévêque. One of the 25 copies on Holland paper with a dedication of the author.
• Adrienne Mesurat. Paris, Plon, 1927, in-8, binding by Tchékéroul. One of the 212 copies on velum paper.
  
• Le Visionnaire. Paris, Plon, 1934, in-12, binding by Huser. One of the 17 copies on Japan paper.
• Le Visionnaire. Paris, Plon, 1934, in-12. One of the 42 copies on Holland paper.
  
• Varouna. Paris, Plon « La Palatine », 1940, in-12, binding by P.L. Martin. One of the 17 first copies on Imperial Japan paper.
• Varouna. Paris, Plon « La Palatine », 1940, in-12. One of the 17 first copies on Imperial Japan paper.
• Moïra. Paris, Plon, 1950, in-12, binding by P.L. Martin. One of the 20 first copies on Japan paper.
• Le Malfaiteur. Paris, Plon, 1956, in-12. First édition apart edition. the text was first published in the volume V fof the Complte Work of Julien Green, under another title (Les éditiosn de Minuit) . One of the 28 first copies on Holland paper.
  
• Partir avant le jour - Mille Chemins ouverts - Terre lointaine. Paris, Grasset, 1963-1964-1966, 3 volumes in-12, bindings and cases by J.P. Miguet. One of the 57 first copies on Montval paper for the first volume, and on Holland paper for the two others volumes.
  
• Le Mauvais Lieu. Paris, Plon, 1977, in-8. One of the 30 first copies on Holland paper.