Facile : an exceptional encounter between Paul Eluard and Man Ray

Facile is one of those books that mark time and which go through decades. Outcome of the collaboration between Paul Éluard and Man Ray, under the aegis of the surrealist publisher Guy Lévis-Mano, the book gives 12 poems accompanied by 12 heliogravures centered on the figure of Nusch Éluard, muse and wife of the poet. The harmonic resonance that surfaces from these pages builds an eroticism that has lost none of his poetic and visual enchantment.

 Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [MAN RAY] - ÉLUARD (Paul). Facile. Paris, G.L.M., 1935. small in-4° in leaves, illustrated cover. First edition of 12 poems by Paul Éluard illustrated in text with 12 heliogravures by Man Ray of Nusch Éluard's body. Limited to 1 225 copies. One of the 1 200 copies on velum paper.

Catherine Pozzi : the purity of classical poetry

It is in 1987, with the publication of her journal, that the work and the character of Catherine Pozzi (1882-1934) is rediscovered. Born into an aristocratic and wealthy family, the young woman, bright and well-educated, met at home José-Maria de Heredia, Paul Bourget. After studying with tutors, she completed her education spending one year at Oxford. At 25, she married the succesful playwright Edouard Bourdet, and of that consensual union, was born a son, Claude. A year after ther birth, the young mother experiencing the first symptoms of tuberculosis. Catherine Pozzi resumed her studies and got the baccalaureate at the age of 37. In 1920, she began a relationship with Paul Valéry that lasted 8 years. The important correspondence between the two lovers, published by Gallimard in 2006, shows the the tumultuous of the relation and also the influence that the author had on Catherine Pozzi's work. The poet died in Paris in 1934, undermined by disease and drugs.

Of her publications, essentially posthumous, we note, in addition to her journal, her correspondences with Jean Paulhan and Rainer Maria Rilke. If her work is the reflect of a time and of her skills, her poetry, although dazzling, is marked with a classicism and purity worthy of the greatests. The collection Poèmes, published in 1935, gives a reading of six pieces ; the last "Nyx" ("night" in Greek) was composed at one go, a month before the death of the poet :

O you, my nights, O long-awaited black-
ness, O proud country, O obstinate sec-
rets, O long looks, O thundering clouds
O flight beyond skies which are closed

O great desire, O scattered surprise
O beautiful journey of th’ enchanted sprite
O worst evil, O grace that flies
O open door where we enter night

I don’t know why I die today
Before th’ eternal rest above.
I don’t know for whom I’m prey
 I don’t know for whom I’m love.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• POZZI (Catherine). Poèmes. Paris, Mesures, s.d. [1935], booklet in-8. First Edition. Limited to 410 copies, one of the first 10 on Holland paper.

Jules Supervielle : a quiet strenght

Jules Supervielle (1884-1960), raised between France and Uruguay, is a man between the two worlds, both in his life and in his work. Contemporary of the Surrealists, he does not adhere to the movement, rejecting the too much emphasis given to unconscious writing. His poetry iwants to be humanist, in a simple and transparent way, and mixes everiday life with a marvellous aprehension of scenery.  Childhood and death are two recurring themes of his work (he lost his parents in a tragic accident while he was still a baby). His early writings are influenced by a Larbaud or Laforgue. He develops a quiet lyricism that addresses the great mysteries of the universe with humility. Poetry, stories, theater : his work breaks with conventional models while maintaining a commitment to accuracy and delicacy in his use of language.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Les poèmes de l'humour triste. Ornés de dessins inédits par Messieurs André Favory, André Lhote et Dunoyer de Segonzac. Paris, la Belle Edition, 1919, tall in-8. First edition with original illustrations. Limited to 315, this one on Arches paper. 
• Le Survivant. Paris, Gallimard, 1928, in-4 tellière. First edition. One of the 110 copies in-quatro tellière. 
• Boire à la source. Confidences de la mémoire et du paysage. Paris, Editions Corréâ, 1933, in-12. First edition.
• L'Arche de Noé. Paris, Gallimard, 1938. Press copy with a dedication to the French writer Yves Gandon.
• Oublieuse Mémoire. Paris, Gallimard, collection "Métamorphoses", 1949, in-12, broché. Edition originale. Mention fictive d'édition. 
• Shéhérazade. Comédie en trois actes. Paris, Gallimard, 1949, in-12. Editin originale. Un des 8 premiers exemplaires sur Hollande. 
• Premiers Pas de l'Univers. Contes. Paris, Gallimard, 1950, in-12. First edition. One of the 15 first copies on Holland paper.
• Le Voleur d'enfants. Comédie en trois actes et un épilogue. Paris, Gallimard, 1949, in-12. First edition. One of the first 8 copies on Holland paper.  

"Les Ziaux" by Raymond Queneau with an inscription to Maurice Blanchot

Les Ziaux is the second collection of poems published by Raymond Queneau in 1943 at Gallimard,  house edition he joined in 1938 first as a reader, translator and then a member of the reading committee. The book we offers is an issue reserved to press with a dedication to the writer Maurice Blanchot. The latter joined Gallimard through Jean Paulhan and he published his first novel in 1941, Thomas The Obscure, a dark and abstract text. Both authors have a fascination for literature, its mechanical and share a taste for philosophy. They also have a common friend, Michel Leiris. They both found themselves at Georges Bataille's place who gathered his contemporaries to feed thoughts for his college of sociology.

In Les Ziaux, the work of Queneau on phonemes and language wears a playful tone that is characteristic of his talent. "La Petite aube" becomes "la microaube" and "quand le soir meurt , la toute petîte crêpe... la crépuscule." Below, the poem that gives its name to the collection.  

LES ZIAUX 

les eaux bruns, les eaux noirs, les eaux de merveille
les eaux de mer, d'océan, les eaux d'étincelles
nuitent le jour, jurent la nuit
chants de dimanche à samedi 

les yeux vertes, les yeux bleues, les yeux de succelle
les yeux de passante au cours de la vie
les yeux noirs, yeux d'estanchelle
silencent les mots, ouatent le bruit 

eau de ces yeux penché sur tout miroir
gouttes secrets au bord des veilles
tout miroir, tout veille en ces ziaux bleues ou vertes
les ziaux bruns, les ziaux noirs, les ziaux de merveille

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• QUENEAU (Raymond). Les Ziaux. Paris, Gallimard, collection « Métamorphoses », 1943, in-8, olive green revorim binding signed by Jean de Gonet (8/200). First Edition. Issue reserved for the Press service on "châtaignier" paper, with a dedication from the author to  : à Maurice Blanchot / « Mais qui voit ? Qui entend ? Qui parle ? »  / amical hommage / Queneau. [to Maurice Blanchot / "But who sees? who hears ? Who speak ?" / friendly compliments /Queneau]. 

The skills of Valentine Penrose

The phantasmagoria of Valentine Penrose 's images and poems, by the clever and marvel of  her writing, by the naive objectivity of her collages, make me gain confidence in myself and in the virtues of truth given.

In these words Paul Eluard evokes the work of Valentine Penrose (1898-1978) in Dons des Féminines, from which he wrote the preface. The poetess and surrealist collagist had multiple lives : in England with her husband, the photographer Roland Penrose, in Spain, where she mes a guru, in India where she went to live in an ashram with the painter Alice Rahon Paalen,  in Algeria where she  wassent in 1944 after enlisting as 3rd class soldier. Woman of character with a beauty appreciated by the surrealists, Valentine Penrose  celebrates womanish, sometimes flirting with racy eroticism.

  
Currently, the librairie Loliée offers : 

• Penrose (Valentine). Dons des féminines. Préface de Paul Éluard. Paris, Les Pas Perdus, 1951, in-4, covers. Édition illustrated with 25 full page collages by Valentine Penrose. Limited to 400 numbered copies. Preface by Paul Éluard.

Fautrier / Zadkine : two visions of Ganzo's poem, Lespugue

The poetry of Robert Ganzo (1898-1995), classical in its form and modern in its intensity and clarity, has inspired many painters. Lespugue, the poet's second collection released in 1940, was first illustrated by Jean Fautrier and published in 1942 with lithographs printed by Mourlot Brothers. The woman the painter imagined is all curves and bends, evoking the Venus of Lespugue after which Ganzo named his collection. In 1966, Ossip Zadkine gave us a more cubist, torned vision of the poem.
(To consult: the article by Pierre Assouline on his blog La République des Livres)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Fautrier (Jean) - Ganzo (Robert). Lespugue. Avec 11 lithographies originales de Jean Fautrier. S.l. (Paris), s.n.é., 1942, in-4 oblong, in leaves, covers. Edition illustrated with 11 original lithographs by Jean Fautrier. Limited to 123 copies signed by the author and the artist. One of the 90 copies on China paper.
• Zadkine (Ossip) - Ganzo (Robert). Lespugue. Illustré par Ossip Zadkine. Paris, Marcel Sautier, 1966, in-8, in leaves, covers, wood case by binder Antonio Perez-Noriega. Edition illustrated with 6 full-page original etchings by Zadkine. Limited to 200 copies signed by the author and the artist. One of the 19 copues on pearly Japan paper with a double suite of the etchings on pearly Japan paper, each print signed by the artist. Copy with a double dedication by the author (dated 1966 and 1979) and a dedication by the artist. JOINED : Ganzo (Robert). Lespugue. S.l.n.é, 1940, in-12, in leaves, covers. First edition with a frontispiece by J. Thomas made after the statuette of Lespugue. One of the first 100 copies on old Japan paper, with a second state of the frontispiece and a dedication by the author to the bookdealer Marx Delattre.

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.

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.
  

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.

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.

Victor Hugo and Olympio's figure

In Les Voix Intérieures (Inner Voices), a collection published in 1837, appears the character of Olympio, Victor Hugo's poetic double. This figure is emblematic of what the poet must be, a guide for the people and leaders. He is the one who sees the truth, the future and who is responsible for transmitting them. André Maurois, in the biography Olympio: The Turbulent Life of Victor Hugo, says : "Writing love poetry is natural to the young man, the poet approaching maturity expects something else for himself. Victor Hugo, between 1836 and 1840, is concerned not to play any public role. Praising nature, the sun and Juliette [Drouet] was good, but can not complete the entire life of a man who wants to "be a spirit driver." Criticism in the Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of the Two Worlds) does not appreciate this Olympio and Gustave Planche writes in the July 15 1837 issue : "It is unfortunate that the name of Olympio is absolutely impossible, but the intention of Mr. Hugo, by creating this barbarism is quite evident. It is clear that in his thought, the idea of himself endorsed the idea of the Olympian Jupiter [...] Mr. Hugo is no longer capable of vision, he found himself a priest and an altar ... " The year of the publication of Les Voies Intérieures, Hugo goes alone at Les Metz, place of his clandestine affair with Juliette Drouet. In the collection Les Rayons et les Ombres (Rays and Shadows), published in 1840, Hugo uses again his allegoric figure in the poem "La tristesse d'Olympio" (The sadness of Olympio). The eternal beauty of nature contrasts with the remembering of a lost happiness. With these verses, Hugo writes a monument of romantic poetry. But, as Maurois states : " criticism, nor Juliette Drouet, then did see the perfection of what was thrown away with a wonderful profusion. "
(Victor Hugo's portrait: © Library of the National Assembly - Irene Andréani photo)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers:

• Hugo (Victor). Les Voix Intérieures. Poésie. Œuvres complètes. VI. Paris, Eugène Renduel, 1837, in-8, binding of the period. First edition.
  
• Hugo (Victor). Les Rayons et les Ombres. Poésie. Œuvres complètes. VII. Paris, Delloye, 1840, in-8, beautifull binding by G. Mercier. First edition. Joined : an autograph letter of Sophie Gay to Victor Hugo in which she praises this collection, dated Versailles May 21 1840 (3 pp. in-8).
• Maurois (André). Olympio ou la Vie de Victor Hugo. Paris, Hachette, 1954, in-8. First edition. One of the first 60 copies on Holland paper.

The narrative poetry of Robert Desnos

Robert Desnos joins André Breton in the early Surrealism and became one of the key members of the movement. He tells his dreams, writes and draws in a state of trance. He uses his technique to express the spontaneity of his inspiration. He feels quickly shut by the doctrine of Breton and left the group in 1930. His style became less eccentric. Desnos develops then a poetry closer to the harsh reality marked by the Second World War. From this period dates Etat de veille (literally "standby state"), which reflects this form of narrative poetry specific to Desnos.

"Poser sa tête sur on oreiller
Et sur cet oreiller dormir
et dormant rêver
A des choses curieuses ou d'avenir,

Rêvant croire à ce qu'on rêve
Et rêvant garder la notion
De la vie qui passe sans trêve
Du soir à l'aube sans rémission.

Ceci est presque normal,
ceci est presque délicieux
Mais je plains ceux,
Qui dorment vite et mal,

Et, mal éveillés, rêvent en marchant.

Ainsi j'ai marché autrefois,
J'ai marché, agi en rêvant,
Prenant les rues pour les allées d'un bois.

Une place pour les rêves
Mais les rêves à leur place."

Rêves - in Etat de veille - 1944

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers first editions of Robert Desnos :

• Deuil pour deuil. Paris, Editions du Sagittaire, les Cahiers Nouveaux, 1924, in-16. Copy on Rives paper.
• Corps et Biens. Paris, N.R.F., 1930, in-8. One of the 109 first copies on Lafuma paper.
• Etat de Veille. 10 gravures au burin par Gaston-Louis Rond. Paris, Pour mes Amis, 1943, in-4, en feuilles, chemise. 10 full page original engravings by Gaston-Louis Rond. One of the 20 copies on Arches paper including one original drawing, 1 suite of the engravings on China paper and 5 refused engravings.
• Mines de rien. Paris, Broder, 1957, in-12, in leaves, publisher's case. 4 full page originals engravings in color by André Masson. Limited to 130 copies on Rives signed by the illustrator.
  
• Mines de rien. Paris, Broder, 1957, in-12, beautiful binding by Semet et Plumelle. 4 full page originals engravings in color by André Masson. Limited to 130 copies on Rives signed by the illustrator. Un des 10 copies not mentionned in the limited edition, including a suite in black of the engravings, each engraving justified an dsigned by Masson.

Ode to New York

"All your muscles are tensed
New York victorious
centuries of smoke
and here before you
as distant lonely clouds
stand your destiny
which is like the hesitation on the edge of a precipice
like gap that separates night of morning
doubt that nothing calms
like fire raising
like silent and hope and madness "
Extract from the book of poems Odes by Philippe Soupault - photo Keystone from the same book

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Soupault (Philippe). Odes. Paris, Pierre Seghers, 1946, in-4, illustrated cover. First edition with illsutrated with various pictures. Copie on vellum paper.
  
• Soupault (Philippe). Le Grand Homme. Novel. Paris, Charlot, 1947. First edition. Frontispiece by André Masson.

The lyrical studies of Banville

Well-acquainted with Hugo and Gautier, friend of Baudelaire who greeted his talent since the publication of his first collection, Les Cariatides, Théodore de Banville goes against realistic poetry and rejects the drift of romanticism towards an easy and weepy style. For him, the beauty of poetry comes through a ceaselessly work on language. He called, besides, his poems collections lyrical studies. Both by his themes and his obsession with the purity of verse, he became one of the leaders of Parnassianism. His impressive work - 17 collections of poetry, rhyme plays, publications in periodicals - remains a model for many french poets of the second half of the 19th century. Banville also had a decisive influence on Mallarmé, Leconte de Lisle, Verlaine, Catulle Mendès, he regularly received at home. In 1871, he even housed Rimbaud, who was initiated to poetry with the journal Le Parnasse Contemporain, and who sent him several of his poems.


The publication in 1857 of Les Odes funambulesques marked a turning point in his style, more flexible, and brought him consecration. Les Nouvelles Odes Funambulesques, published in 1869, contain the famous poem "Promenade Galante" which, for the story, was set to music by Charles Koechlin.

Currently, The librairie Loliée offers :

• Banville (Théodore de). Nouvelles Odes Funambulesques. Paris, Lemerre, 1869, in-12. First edition with a a frontispiece by Léopold Flameng. One of the 10 copies on Holland paper (with two more conditions of the frontispiece).

Les Chambres by Aragon

" Les chambres lettres déchirées
Il en reste des cris éteints le désordre d'avoir
Eté le désordre toujours d'être A partir d'un
Certain jour vivre n'est plus jamais que sur-
vivre
Plus jamais que ce désordre appelé dérisoi-
rement mémoire"

Quote from Les Chambres, poème du temps qui ne passe pas by Aragon.

Les Chambres is a late poetic collection published in 1969. Aragon goes back on one of his obsessions : time and, to quote the entire title, "le temps qui ne passe pas" (time that does not slip by). The text resounds this peculiar harmony proper to the poet who, playing with the syntax, detunes the traditional rythm of rhyme, flirts with a poised prose.
(On line reference : Aragon, la mémoire et l'excès a book by Olivier Barbarant).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [Man Ray] - Aragon. Les Chambres. Poème du temps qui ne passe pas. Paris, Les Editeurs Français réunis, 1969, in-12, in leaves, case. One of the 80 copies signed by Aragon and including in frontispiece, an original etching by Man Ray, numbered and signed.
  

A poem like two drops of rain

"Réduites dans vos secrets
Etrangères délaissées
Mes lointaines compagnes
Aux chairs sentimentales
Belles à peine belles mais toujours belles
Plus simples que le malheur
Plus précieuses que la beauté
De vos lèvres abattues
De votre sourire effondré
Vous me confiez vos poisons
O mithridatisées

Et j'oppose à l'amour
Des images toutes faites
Au lieu d'images à faire."

Quote - Comme deux gouttes d'eau (literally "like two drops of rain")
by Paul Eluard

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Eluard (Paul). Comme Deux Gouttes d'Eau. Poème. Paris, Editions Surréalistes, 1933, thin in-12. First edition limited to 175 copies on green paper. Rare.

Pegasus (Survage)

After a post regarding Le Cheval by Tolstoy, here Pegasus, "the Source" in Greek and a traditional symbol of poetic inspiration. This book, published under the aegis of the New Parisian Circle, brings together a set of poems by Jean Cocteau selected from Renaud and Armide, Neiges, Plain-chants, Cherchez Apollon. Each poem is illustrated by the painter native to Russia Leopold Survage who builds, in ten engravings, a mighty and elegant Pegasus.

The preface, a first edition, is one of the last pieces wrote by the author. At the end of the book, one can read this poignant note: "L'idée de ce livre réunissant sous le thème de Pégase des poèmes de Jean Cocteau illustrés par Léopold Survage avait été soumise au poète et lui avait plu. Quelques jours avant sa mort il nous invita à Milly-la-Forêt pour nous remettre les textes et la préface qu'il avait spécialement écrite mais au jour de notre rendez-vous, il n'était plus là."

Currently, la librairie Loliée offers :

• Survage (Léopold) - Cocteau (Jean). Pégase. Paris, Nouveau Cercle Parisien du Livre, 1965, in-folio, casing. Limited edition to 170 copies on vellum paper. 10 orginal engravings by Survage.
  

Dedicaces by Verlaine

Dédicaces is perhaps the most heterogeneous collection of poems by Paul Verlaine. It contains 4 ballads and 37 pieces dedicated to his friends. There is included in the first edition of 1890 (followed in 1894 an expanded edition) a portrait of Verlaine at the hospital. It is one of the many portraits done by F.-A. Cazals, cartoonist and close friend, during the convalescence of Verlaine to Broussais, his "sanitary prison", in which the poet, depressive, made several stays.

Despite a growing celebrity, Verlaine does not get over the remarriage of Mathilde, his wife, and is affected with not seeing his son. Between wanderings, absinthes and hospitalizations, he holds on with the help of his friends. Dédicaces is released through the intermediary of Léon Deschamps who, after the parting of Verlaine with his publisher Vanier, brings out the book at the editions of La Plume-Bibliothèque Artistique et Littéraire.


Put back in this context, Dédicaces, bouquet of sonnets offered by Verlaine to his friends, has a very moving dimension.
(source : album Verlaine - bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard - 1981)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Verlaine (Paul). Dédicaces. Drawing by A.F. Cazals, engraved by Maurice Baud. Paris, Bibliothèque Artistique et Littéraire, 1890, in-16, bound. First edition. On of the 50 copies on Holland paper signed by the author.

Matisse and Les Fleurs du Mal

Classical by conscience and education, modern by intuition, Baudelaire, divided by his own convictions, builds the model of a new and demanding poetry which founds his summet with Les Fleurs du Mal (here the whole text, in french). During the publication, the book is caught in the turmoil of a lawsuit for moral offense and for religious outrage - this last charge eventually dropped. Baudelaire is fined and forced to delete six pieces of the collection. The next edition, in 1861, fills out the first collection with thirty new poems. En 1866, Poulet-Malassis, Baudelaire's editor, who took refuge in Belgium, publishes under the title Les Épaves twenty three poems by Baudelaire of which the six censured pieces. For that, he will be condamned by the tribunal of Lille. The definitive and posthumous edition of 1868 is composed of 151 pieces, but again without the six censored poems. These will be pusblished, with those of Les Épaves, in 1869 at Brussels in a book entitled Complément aux Fleurs du Mal de Charles Baudelaire.

In 1944, Matisse, in regard of his friend Rouault who illustrated Les Fleurs du Mal in 1927 for the editor Vollard, chooses to illustrate the famous collection and makes a selection of 33 poems. The book includes an original etching for the frontispiece, 33 full-page photo-lithographs, 33 wood-engraved lettrines and 38 line-drawn decorations (10 full-page). The drawings, for the major part women faces, comprises also portraits of Baudelaire, Apollinaire and a self-portrait. In the book, published in 1947, the line is aerial and flimsy, representative of the painter's taste for uncluttered work, representative of his genius for simpleness.

(Sources : www.ac-strasbourg.fr/pedago/lettres/Fleurs - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Fleurs_du_mal)

Currently, the librairie Loliée can offer you :

• [Matisse] - Baudelaire - Les Fleurs du Mal. Paris, La Bibliothèque Française, 1947, 320 copies issued, signed by the artist.
  
• Baudelaire - les Fleurs du Mal. Paris, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1860, in-12, bound. Original edition with the first cover.
  

Poésie pour Pouvoir

Poet? Writer? Painter? Henri Michaux is all of this.

«J’écris pour me parcourir. Peindre, composer, écrire : me parcourir. Là est l’aventure d’être en vie.» (in Passages, 1950).

Poésie pour Pouvoir is a rare work. The original and illustrated edition was published in 46 copies on Arches paper. The page setting of the text, cycle of poetic remarks, is made by Michel Tapié, relative of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Dadaïst in his time, distinguished theorist and promoter of the Art Informel. The black and white graphics give to the book an elemantary dimension. The original bending in teak wood, studded on the cover, intensifies the raw strengh of this odd object. The fabrication of the bending was stopped and few copies with this original cover in teak can be found.

Currently, the Librairie Loliée can show you :

• MICHAUX, Henri – Poésie pour Pouvoir. Original Edition. Text and frontispiece by Henri Michaux. Page setting by Michel Tapié. S.l. (Paris), René Drouin, 1949, in-4. 46 copies on Arches paper, signed by Henri Michaux and Michel Tapié.