February 10, 2011

Léon-Paul Fargue, Parisian to the core

Leon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947), son of a dressmaker and an engineer who did not recognize him till adolescence, was a student of Mallarmé he later attended the literary salon, and had among his comrades at Henri IV High School , Alfred Jarry, a very close friend. Handsome young man, he led, like a Baudelaire, a bohemian life, valued for his humor and his sense of observation. His first collection Poèmes, published in 1905, showed his virtuosity and also his gravity (the belated recognition of his father and then his death had a strong influence on his work). In 1911, Tancrède, a poetic novel written years earlier, is published. Declared unfit f, Fargue did not do his service in First World War. He got close  with the Surrealists without joining the group. He founded with P. Valéry and (sources : wikipedia, association Léon-Paul Fargue)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers L.-P. Fargue first editions : 
  • Haute Solitude. Paris, Éditions Emile-Paul Frères, collection l’Émilienne 1941, in-12, covers. One of the 20 copies on Hlland paper.
  • Pour la musique. Tancrède suivie de Ludions. Paris, Gallimard collection « Métamorphoses », 1943, in-12, covers.  One of the 2200 copies on Châtaignier paper. With an inscirption from the author to the critic and writer Marice Sailet. 
  • Méandres. Genève - Paris - Montréal, Éditions du Milieu du Monde, 1946, in-12, half brow morocco binding, covers. Limited to 145 copies, one of the 130 copies on  "volumineux blanc spécial".
  • Dîners de Lune. Paris, Gallimard, 1952, in-12, covers. One of the first 25 copies on Holland paper. 
  • Pour La Peinture. Paris, Gallimard, 1955, in-12, broché. One of the first 25 copies on Holland paper.