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.

Sand : Story of my Life

Histoire de ma vie (Story of My life) is the main autobiographical work of George Sand. It is regarded as a work founder of the genre, with Les Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Les Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe by Chateaubriand. George Sand draws in the correspondence of his parents to feed family portraits. Sometimes unscrupulous with dates, she focuses on her impressions, her feelings. She militates for gender equality.

Begun in April 1847, Histoire de ma vie first appears in 138 numbers from October 1854 to August 1855. The book is published the same year in 20 volumes by the editor Victor Lecou and then, in 1856, by Levy in ten volumes in-12.

(sources : http://pichot.sylvestre.club.fr - www.evene.fr)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Sand (George). Histoire de ma vie. Paris, Michel Lévy, 1856, 10 volumes in-12, bound in violet half-leathe (binding from the period).

Doisneau - Renault - 1988

On the occasion of an exhibition of photographs by Robert Doisneau (November 16, 1988 - January 22, 1989) was published a catalogue distinctive by its format in-12 and its unique and large case formed by two Renault red iron plates collated by five bolts. The diamond-shaped symbol of the French car company is laid on each plate with the name of the photographer. With the reproduced photographs now cults is proposed an interview in which Doisneau recalls those pictures : "Renault was for me the true beginning of my career as a photographer and the end of my youth".

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Doisneau (Robert). Renault. Paris, Hazan, 1988, in-12. Folder of red iron with a logo reproducing the one of Renault but mentioning the name of the photographer. Text and pictures by Robert Doisneau.

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.
  

A gentle and cubist woman by Gierlowski

A young woman has just committed suicide. Near her body, the husband wonders and relives their past.

Repeating a process used by Victor Hugo in The Last Day of a Condemned, a reference given by Dostoyevsky in the author's note of the book, A Gentle Woman refers to a drama of domestic life. The husband analyzes the facts that lead to this fateful moment when his wife decided to throw out the window. He looks again at the poor girl he married, at misunderstandings, at this day she tried to kill him, and then at the reduction of this women to the status of a submitted wife .

Polish Painter close to the Russian avant-garde and influenced by Cubism, Stefan Gierlowski offers a constructivist interpretation of this tragedy and emphasizes the isolation of the young woman in her marriage.

A Gentle Woman was also adapted into a screen movie by Robert Bresson in 1969.

Currently the Librairie Loliée offers :

Dostoievski -Gierlowski. Une Femme Douce. Traduction d'Ostoya et de G.Masson. Paris, Marcel Seheur, 1927, in-4, broché. Edition illustrated by 10 eaux-fortes etchings by Gierlowski. Limited to 301 copies. One of the first 21 copies on Japan paper.

Robbe-Grillet : Le Voyeur

Published in 1955 by les Editions de Minuit, whose Robbe-Grillet was a literary advisor for two decades, Le Voyeur recounts the journeys of a travelling salesman who crosses an island by bicycle. The book was rather coolly received by critics who went to see in this text almost without heroes and almost without a plot a mental aberration. The literary initiative pursued by Robbe-Grillet and opened two years earlier with Les Gommes, breaks with the humanistic tradition of novel. Jérôme Lindon, his publisher, get in the press kit, among others, the signatures of Roland Barthes and Maurice Blanchot who participe in make Robbe-Grillet "Pope of Nouveau Roman." The attribution of the Critics Award to Le Voyeur is the occasion of a virulent battle, at the heart of which lies the definition of literature, but also of the critical disconcerted by a problematic work .
(sources : www.universalis.fr - www.evene.fr - www.libération.fr)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Robbe-Grillet (Alain). Le Voyeur. Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1955, in-12, binding by Alix. First Edition. One of the 25 copies on vellum, only deluxe paper.
• Robbe-Grillet (Alain). Dans le Labyrinthe. Paris, Editions de Minuit, 1959, in-12. First edition. One of the 70 copies on vellum paper.

Bengt Lindström

Bengt Lindström, born in 1925 in northern Sweden, lived in Paris for many years. He died late January in his country. Painter of modernity, close to the CoBrA movement yet independent, he leaves an intense work. His thick colored canvases evoke the roughness of nature, of human soul. "His painting, rhythmical as an immemorial ritual, bewitches with its twisted faces, his grimaces, his uneasiness. A grotesque and grin world (...) In the eighties, to deepen emotional states up to panic , framing tightens on faces. It is hard to see more than the eyes and a mouth that screams or whispers. " (In La Gazette de l'Hotel Drouot, February 2008).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers:

• Nimier (Roger) - Lindström (Bengt). Paméla eut le tort de répéter sa phrase. Nouvelle ornée par Bengt Lindström. S.l., Association des Cahiers Roger Nimier, 1986, large in-4, blue fabric casing. First edition decorated with an original lithograph by Bengt Lindström numbered and signed. Limited edition of 165 copies on Arches paper.

Paris capitale

Paris Capitale is a tribute book in which each chapter refers to a typical place of the city. The text by André Maurois, known for his skill as storyteller, presents for each location a short scene between two characters. "Under the Arc de Triomphe" brings together a mother and her child, "Au Lapin Agile," an old writer and a bartender. For "The Eiffel Tower", Maurois improvise a friendly dialogue between an artist and an engineer. They are satisfied that the structure, yet qualified for its construction of "a carcass that dishonours Paris," remains in place.
The book includes ten full page lithographs by Maurice Utrillo, born in the Montmartre area, who gives a refreshing vision of Paris. It is Lucie Valore, his wife, who made the ornaments.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Utrillo (Maurice) - Maurois (André). Paris Capitale. Ornements de Lucie Valore. Paris, Joseph Foret, 1955, in-4, beautiful contemporary binding representing Paris (Manuel Gérard) . 10 full-page original lithographs in colors by Maurice Utrillo and ornaments by Lucie Valore. Limited edition to 207 copies numbered and signed by the publisher. One of the 122 copies on Johannot paper.
  

Tony Johannot, "King of illustration"

Tony Johannot is a great illustration of the 19th century. In Le Voyage où il vous plaira by Alfred de Musset, his trait flirts with the fantastic and recalls his contemporary Grandville, also born in 1803. By contrast, for Mes prisons by Silvio Pellico, his style is rather classical whereas for the illustrated edition of Moliere's works , the trait is more caricatural.

Théophile Gautier sums up the talent and reputation of this generous illustrator :

« Tony Johannot est sans contredit le roi de l’illustration. Il y a quelques années, un roman, un poème ne pouvait paraitre sans une vignette sur bois signée de lui : que d’héroïnes à la taille frêle, au col de cygne, aux cheveux ruisselants, au pied imperceptible, il a confiées au papier de Chine ! Combien de truands en guenilles, de chevaliers armés de pied en cap, de tarasques écaillées et griffues, il a semé sur les couvertures beurre-frais ou jaune-serin des romans du moyen âge ; toute la poésie et toute la littérature ancienne et moderne lui ont passé par les mains : la Bible, Molière, Cervantes, Walter Scott, lord Byron, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Goethe, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, il les a tous compris. – Ses dessins figurent dans ces volumes admirables, et nul ne les trouve déplacés. – À côté de ces pages sublimes, de ces vers harmonieux, ils sont un ornement et non une tache ; ce que tant de génies divers ont rêvé, il a pu le rendre et le transporter dans son art.»
(in Portraits contemporains).

Currently, the librairie Loliée propose :

• La Fontaine (Jean de). Contes et Nouvelles. Paris, Ernest Bourdin et Cie, s.d., large in-8, full Levant binding. First illustred edition, with engravings by Tony Johannot, C. Roqueplan, Dévéria, C. Boulanger...
• Molière. Oeuvres. Paris, Chez Paulin, 1835, 2 volumes in-4, full red Levant binding (Noulhac). First illustrated edition with 800 vignettes by Tony Johannot.
• Prevost (l'Abbé). Histoire de Manon Lescaut et du chevalier des Grieux. Paris, Ernest Bourdin et Cie, s.d. (1839), large in-8, binding. 18 compositions and 90 vignettes by Tony Johannot.
  
• Janin (Jules). L'Ane mort. Paris, Ernest Bourdin, 1842, large in-8, demi-maroquin bleu à coins (Champs). First edition. Fronstispiece, 12 compositions and vignettes by Tony Johannot.
• Pellico (Silvio). Mes Prisons. Traduction de M.A. de Latour. Paris, Charpentier, 1843, large in-8, black Levant binding (R. Aussourd). First illustrated edition. Frontisipiece sur Chine, 25 engravings and vignettes par Tony Johannot.
• Musset (Alfred de) - Stahl (P.J.). Le Voyage où il vous plaira. Paris, Hetzel, 1843, large in-8, Bblue Levant binding (Aussourd). First illustrated edition. 63 engravings and vignettes par Tony Johannot.

Claude Weisbuch : the art of movement

Claude Weisbuch, born in Thionville in 1927, studies at the National School of Fine Arts in Nancy. He then is appointed as engraving's teacher at the School of Fine Arts in Saint Etienne. He begins to make a name in the late fifties by imposing a recognizable style built on the movement. In 1961, four years after his first exhibition in Paris, he receives the Annual Art Review award. He encounters an international success, notably in Japan.
The painter who likes especially the theme of the opera, theatre and equestrian universe illustrates in 1982 for The Cent-Une edition (Society of Bibliophiles Women), a text by Tolstoy, Le Cheval. The book is decorated with six original engravings characteristics of the blow and vivacity that the artist brings to his subjects.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Weisbuch (Claude) - Tolstoï (Léon). Le Cheval. Paris, Les Cent Une, 1982. In-4, in leaves, publisher box. Édition decorated with 6 original plate engravings by Weisbuch. Limited edition to 131 copies Moulin de Larroque paper signed by the artist.
  

Kahnweiler and modern illustrated books

Henri Kahnweiler, son of a banker in Stuttgart, moves to Paris in 1902 to work for the stock market. Determined to become a paintings dealer, he frequents art shows and galleries. He meets Guillaume Apollinaire who defends a painting of Braque exhibited at the "Salon des Indépendants" in spring 1908. Kahnweiler promotes then Cubism and becomes friend with Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Max Jacob. In November 1908, he organizes the first exhibition of Braque and asks Apollinaire to preface the catalogue. A year later, Kahnweiler publishes the first book of the poet, L'Enchanteur Pourrissant. Since Kahnweiler is a paintings dealer, it appears quite obvious that the book must be illustrated. Apollinaire chooses André Derain. Kahnweiler thus becomes the first publisher to promote modern illustrated books.

During the war of 1914, Kahnweiler who does not want to fight for Germany, takes refuge in Switzerland, a neutral country. In Paris, his gallery is closed and its assets placed under seal. Kahnweiler returns to France in 1920 and succeeds in opening a new gallery with the complicity of his friend André Simon. In his home in Boulogne, Kahnweiler receives, with his wife, poets and painters. It's in this atmosphere that he mounts its publishing projects. Malraux, Artaud, Masson, Leiris, Juan Gris, Picasso, Max Jacob, Vlaminck... Kahnweiler stimulates collaborations. 24 volumes are published between 1920 and 1939.
With the second war, Kahnweiler, now French, must go into hiding because of his Jewish origins. He remains close to Limoges, while Louise, the sister-in-law of Michel Leiris, takes the direction of the gallery. At the end of the war, Kahnweiler takes back the gallery renamed Gallery Louise Leiris. Remaining an exemplary publisher, Kahnweiler disappears at the age of 94, leaving behind him 70 years of contemporary painting history. His memoirs are published in the form of radio interviews, under the title My galleries and my painters.

(source : 50 ans d'édition de D.-H. Khanweiler - a catalogue nby Jan Hugues, Paris, Galerie Louise Leiris, 1959)

Currently, the library Loliée offers among the books published by Kahnweiler:

• Vlaminck (Maurice de). Communications. Paris, Galerie Simon, 1921, in-4. First edition. Poems illustred with 19 wood engravings. One of the 90 copies on sur Holland paper, signed by Vlaminck.
• Artaud(Antonin) - Lascaux (Elie). Tric trac du ciel. Paris, Galerie Simon, 1923, thin in-8. First edition of the first book by Antonin Artaud. Illustrated with 4 wood engravings by Elie Lascaux. One of the 100 copies on Arches paper, signed by the author and the artist.
  
• Jacob (Max) - Roger (Suzanne). La Couronne de Vulcain. Paris, Galerie Simon, 1923, in-8. A brittany tale illustrated with lithographies by Suzanne Roger. One of the first 10 copies improved of a suite of the lithographies in black on China paper.

Paul Vialar : a vision of World War I

Paul Vialar, engaged during the war of 1914-1918, recounts his experience in Le Coeur et la Boue (Heart and mud). This edition of 1921 illustrated by Louis-Robert Antral, whose style evokes the one of Hermann-Paul, underlines perfectly the darkness of this trench warfare.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• ANTRAL (L.R.) - VIALAR (Paul). Le Cœur et la boue. Preface by Marcel Wiriath, wood engravings by Louis-Robert Antral. Paris, La Cigogne, 1921, in-8. Limited to 500 copies. One of the 12 copies on Imperial Japan paper.

Dulac's gems

"Edmond Dulac (1882-1953), colorist influenced by pre-Raphaelism, Japanese prints and Oriental miniatures, is part of a generation that contribute to the revival of illustrated books in the early twentieth century. Born in Toulouse, Dulac moved in England in 1905. Like his elder of fifteen years, Arthur Rackham, he started in the high-growth niche of luxurious illustrated books. Dulac drew from the same fairy tells. His delicate trait and his colors are perfectly rendered through the process of "simili" engraving. Up to the war, Dulac illustrated, each year, a book for the luxurious collection of the French editor Henri Piazza : illustrations reproduced on laminated paper, in a frieze framing. "

(source : http://expositions.bnf.fr - The exhibition "Il était une fois… les contes de fées" presented at Paris Galerie Mansart from 20 march to 17 june 2001).

Currently, the Librairie Loliée offers :

• Dulac (Edmond) - Khayyam (Omar). Rubaiyat. Paris, Piazza, (s.d.), in-4. 20 plate compositions in colors by Dulac.
• Dulac (Edmond) . La Princesse Badourah. Conte des Mille et Une Nuits. Paris, Piazza, 1914, in-4. 10 plate compositions in colors by Dulac. One of the 500 copies on Japan paper, signed by the artist.
  

Parler seul (Speaking alone) : A dialog between Tzara and Miro

Periodically felt out with André Breton about the role of art and literature in society, Tristan Tzara preaches, since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, a poetry increasingly militant. He takes position, with Aragon, against fascism and, in 1937, he joins the Committee for the Defence of the Spanish culture. Under the Occupation, Tzara helps the activities of Resistance and, in 1947, he joined the Communist Party.

Established post-war in south of France, Tzara contributes to the revival of Occitan studies. Parler seul, published in 1950, reflects this period and the willingness of the author to make a "poetry in action." Rather than define a preliminary iconographic corpus, Tzara prefers to give carte blanche to the artist. The book, illustrated with 72 black & white and coloured lithographs by Joan Miro, reflects this freedom of dialogue between poetic text and icon. (sources : http://fr.encarta.msn.com - http://theses.enc.sorbonne.fr/document37.html)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• MIRO (Joan) - Tzara (Tristan). Parler seul. Paris, Maeght, 1948, in leaves, illustrated covers, editor wrappers. First edition illustrated with 72 black and coloured lithographs by Joan Miro. Limited edition to 253 copies signed by both Miro and Tzara.

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.

Motherhood by M. Arland, illustrated by M. Chagall

"One of the first days of this year, we discovered in a village in East, Chenevière, the body of a newborn baby, of whom we could not knew if death, which took place two years ago, had been naturally. A young woman was immediately charged (...) Since I learned of the fault she was taxed with, her image did not leave me. I try to tell her story. "
This mystery opens Motherhood, a little-known text by Marcel Arland but estimated by book lovers in its edition of 1926. The volume includes 5 original engravings by Marc Chagall, entitled "Shame", "Birth", "Brawl", "Couple in bed", "Visit by the window." There are quite representative of the delicate grace of the painter, especially in the drawing of this couple of lovers seized under the duvet.


Currently, the librairie Loliée can offer :

• Chagall- Arland (Marcel). Maternité. Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1926, in-8 . Edition illustrated with five original engravings by Marc Chagall. Copy on Lafuma paper.

Bissière and the arrival of abstract art

By the age of 18, Roger Bissière leaves his notarial studies to join, in Alger, the orientalist painter Rochegrosse. After this first experience of a year, he studies art in Paris and Bordeaux. Discharged against his will from the army in 1914, Bissière sees his career start after war : he takes part in various exhibitions, writes articles in the magazine L'Esprit Nouveau created by Le Corbusier and Ozenfant. He does his first exhibition in 1921. Appointed professor at the famous Academy of Ranson, Bissière opens in 1934 an atelier devoted to fresco and attended by some of the future members of the new school of Paris (as Alexandre Garbell, Jean Le Moal and Alfred Manessier). Very active, Bissière withdraws however in 1939 in the family's house in Lot. He ceases painting. After 1945, he makes artistic hangings made of pieces of fabric, old clothes and socks. In 1950, operated for a glaucoma, Bissière is afraid of losing the sight. He produces, during his convalescence at the island of Ré, small formats with egg paint. In 1951, the Jeanne Bucher gallery exhibits untitled paintings which tend toward an abstract landscaping.

In 1954, Bissière rediscovers oil paint and realises, always for the gallery Jeanne Bucher, the model of The Canticle to Brother Sun by Francis of Assisi. Engraved on wood by Fiorini, then printed in color, the book is release at 48 copies, all signed by Bissière and Fiorini.

In 2001, the Ides and Calendes Editions, publish a catalog of the works of Roger Bissière and, thus, render tribute to one of the the french instigator of abstract art.
(sources : wikipedia.fr, bissiere.net).

Currently, the librairie Loliée can show you:

• Bissière - Francis of Assisi. Cantique à notre frère soleil. Paris, Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1954, in-4, in leaves, cover in parchment paper, folder. 11 original wood engravings in colors by Bissière. 48 copies on Auvergne paper, signed byt the artist and the engraver.

Queneau's polyphony

Erudite with an encyclopaedic mind, Raymond Queneau was interested as well in philosophy, mathematics, as languages and anthropology. His mixed experimentation among Surrealists which reach on an exclusion, did not pleased him. Queneau tells indeed, with a satirical tone, this period in Odile (1937). After a trip to Greece of which he liked the language and his service record in Algeria where he learned Arabic, Raymond Queneau is quickly aware of the danger of leaving the literary language away from the spoken language. Bringing these two extremes becomes his literary project.

In 1933, is published his first book, Chiendent, a transposition into a "neo-french" language, both classic and playful, of Discourse on the Method by Descartes. The book won the first literary prize of Les Deux-Magots. Queneau likes to truffer his books of literary references. Published in 1947, Exercices de style (1947), a novel composed of 99 different mini-romans telling the same story, is a major success . The book is inspired by the Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach, heard at a concert with his friend Michel Leiris. In Le Cheval Troyen (1963), Queneau is inspired by the work of Swift. For Le Dimanche de la vie (1952), chronicles of the suburbs life, Queneau borrows its title to Hegel.

As a lover of science, Raymond Queneau also applies arithmetic rules to the construction of his work. With Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes (1961), he manages a literary and editorial challenge. This book offers to the reader the opportunity to combine and compose poems responding to the classic form of regular sonnet. One hundred thousand billion is the number of possible combinations calculated by Queneau : "It is after all a kind of machine to produce poems, but in limited numbers. It is true that this number, albeit limited, provides reading for nearly two hundred million years ago (if reading 24 hours a day). "

In 1960, Queneau constitutes with François Le Lionnais, a literary research group called Oulipo (Workroom of potential literature) involving Italo Calvino, Jacques Roubaud and Georges Perec, spiritual son if ever there is one. (Sources : www.wikipedia.fr, www.republique-des-lettres.fr)

Currently, the librairie Loliée can offer :

• Monuments. Paris, Editions du Moustié, 1948, in-4, en leaves, folder from the publisher. First edition decorated with de 12 original engravings by Jean-Paul Vroom.
• Un Dimanche dans la vie. Paris, N.R.F., 1951, in-12, bradel. First editionOne of the 160 copies on velin paper.
  
• Si tu t'imagines. Paris, N.R.F., 1952, in-12. First edition. One of the first 82 copies on velin paper.
• Le Cheval Troyen. Visat, 1963, in-12 , in leaves, folder. First edition decorated with 20 original drawings by Christiane Alanore. Copie on velin paper (Arches).
  
• Les Fleurs Bleues. Paris, Gallimard, 1965, in-8. First edition. One of the 45 first copies on Holland paper.
  
• Le Vol d'Icare. Paris, Gallimard, 1968, in-8. First edition. One of the 160 copies on velin paper.
• Battre la campagne. Paris, Gallimard, 1968, in-12. One of the 105 copies on velin paper.
  
• Fendre les Flots. Paris, N.RF., [1969], in-12. First edition. One of the first 35 copie son Holland paper.
  

literature according to Gus Bofa

In 1923, Gus Bofa, illustrator of 20's and 30's, published under the leadership of his friend Roland Dorgelès who wrote the preface, a book of colored drawings : Literary and extra-literary Synthesis. In a warning, Bofa says humorously:
"This elliptical title, although it has a sense, is quite incorrect for the drawings that it announces. A more complete title would have been: Synthesis, Analysis, Exegesis, Prosthetics, Antithesis, Diathesis, Synopsis, Symbols, Parabola, Impressions, literary Expressions and Entertainment. "
Gus Bofa illustrates, in 40 printings, some of the more important names of literature : Proust, Dickens, Maupassant, Zola, etc.

Currently, the librairie Loliée can offer, for Gus Bofa's books :

• Synthèses littéraires et extra littéraires. Présentées par Roland Dorgèles. Paris, Éditions Mornay, 1923, in-8. First edition. 40 colored drawings of literature author's portraits by Gus Bofa. Copie on White Vergé paper.
• Le Cirque. Ving-quatre dessins gravés sur bois par Gus-Bofa. Préface de Pierre Mac-Orlan. Paris, Éditions de la Renaissance du Livre, s.d. [1923], in-8. 24 wood engravings by Gus-Bofa.

Grandville visionary

Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gerard, said Jean-Jacques Grandville, is the illustrator who left his mark, by his inventiveness and his talent as a cartoonist, on the Romantic movement, both literary and artistic, of the first half of the nineteenth century. Formed in the city of Nancy, in the atelier of his father, portraitist and miniaturist, Grandville joins Paris at the age of twenty. In 1829, he knows his first success with Les Métamorphoses du Jour, satire of the social and political life. Through hybrid characters, men by body and animals by the facial appearance, Grandville teases the ridiculous and pretentious of his time, and makes fun of the July Monarchy. His satirical drawings, yet liked by publishers, bother Adolphe Thiers who promulgates, under Louis-Philippe, a law requiring a prior authorization for the publication of drawings.

From 1835 Grandville illustrates books (Fables of La Fontaine, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, Fables of Florian, Don Quixote, etc). Grandville is never happy with his work, spends an incredible amount of time on each drawing. He continues his exploration of zoomorphic beings with Scènes de la vie privée et publiques de Animaux (1842). He is also interested in dreams and visions. The fantasy of Un Autre Monde (1844), Fleurs Animées (1947) and Etoiles (1849) disturb the public who do not recognize the spirit of the satirical cartoonist and prefer more traditional albums like Cent proverbes ( 1845).
In the last years of his life, Grandville goes through many personal difficulties among which the loss of a child. He speaks little, discovers strange shapes in every surrendings. His madness crisis worry his contemporaries.
Interned in an Asylum for Insane of the city of Vanves, Grandville died in 1847, at the age of forty-four, leaving behind this epitaph: "Here lies Grandville, he loved everything, made everything live, speak and walk, alone, he did not know how to find his way. "
Grandville shown throughout his career an amazing ability to transform everyday life in a fantasy world. His prodigious imagination appoints him as a precursor of surrealism.

(source : http://www.galerietroncin.com - wikipedia.fr).

Currently, the Librairie Loliée can offer :

• Grandville - Swift. Voyages de Gulliver..., Paris, Fournier, Furne, 1838, 2 volumes in-8, binding from the period.
  
• Grandville. Scènes de la Vie Privée et Publique des Animaux, Paris, Hetzel et Paulin, 1842, 2 volumes grand in-8, binding by Champs.
  
• Grandville- Florian. Fables. Paris, J.J. Dubochet et Cie, 1842, in-8, binding by Mercier.
  
• Grandville. Un autre Monde. Paris, Fournier, 1844, in-4, binding by Champs.
  
• Grandville - Reybaud. Jérôme Paturot à la recherche d'une position sociale. Paris, Dubochet, 1846, grand in-8, binding by Champs.
  
• Grandville. Les Métamorphoses du jour, 1854, grand in-8, binding by Hans Harper.