René Boylesve storyteller

René Tardivaux (1867-1926), known as René Boylesve, is a novelist remained nowadays in the shadow, while his work and his peers acknowledgement (he was elected to the Académie Française in 1908), place him among the important writers of the late 19th / early 20th century. The Biography Of Modern French Authors, named the "Talvart" after its author's name and a reference for bibliophiles, points :

Novelist of provincial life, it is with a delicate art, all of flexibility and shades, that he has set in charming melancholic pictures, treated in greyness certain types, certain aspects of provincial and bourgeois existences ; he unveiled tender and passionate souls while their simple outsides seemed out of a novel and he depicted them with  talent od a carefull pastellist.

Like some of his colleagues, Rene Boylesve also composed libertine tales in the spirit of those of the 18th century, making as a storyteller entertaining narrations that nevertheless retain his sensitive style. Le Carrosse aux deux lézards verts (The two green lizards Carriage), whose title alone evokes the light-hearted approach, was published in 1921 illustrated with, rare thing for a first edition, compositions embellished with watercolours by George  Barbier, a Art Deco illustrator then at the height of his fame.

Currently, the library offers Loliee:

• BARBIER (George) - Boylesve (Rene). Le Carrosse aux deux lézards verts. Conte. Orné d'aquarelles de George Barbier. Paris, Editions de la Guirlande, 1921, in-4, half-gray binding (Flammarion). First edition illustrated with 52 drawings and diagrams enhanced with watercolors and 8 off-texts engraved and executed in watercolour by George Barbier. Limited to 300 copies. One of the first 25 copies on Japan paper, with a dedication to the literary critic and essayist Gonzague Truc (1877 - 1972).

"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]. 

Pierre Loti : the sweet bitterness of a sailing traveler

Julien Viaud alias Pierre Loti (1850-1923), born in Rochefort, came from a Protestant family. Attracted by the sea, he decided, at the age of thirteen, to sail across oceans, like his elder brother, Gustave, a navy surgeon. Two years later, Gustave died in the Straits of Malacca. Viaud family encountered then some serious financial difficulties. In 1866, Julien moved to Paris to prepare his entrance to Naval school. Brilliant student, he was received in 1867 and admitted to the Borda, a school ship in the Brest roads. Two years later, appointed midshipman, he took on board on the Jean Bart. His travels led him to Algeria, Turkey, Brazil, in the East, the United States and Canada ...
From the countries he visited, Loti showed a special affection for Tahiti which was first photographed by Gustave. There, he found his author's pseudonym, Loti, name of a tropical flower. In Constantinople, he lived a tragic passion with Hatice, a woman who belonged to the harem of a local dignitary. In the East, he signed a marriage contract with a young Japanese nicknamed Madame Chrysanthème, whom story is related in the eponymous novel published in 1887. It was his first great success, after An Iceland Fisherman. The same year, back in France, he married the daughter of a notable family from Bordeaux, who will give him a first son. He had, a few years later, another line of descent with Crucita, a Basque woman. In 1891, he was elected to the French Academy, against Emile Zola.
Sailing author, Loti forwards with simplicity and delicacy his traveler's impressions. But beyond the pleasant aspect of his work, always emerges a kind of sadness, anxiety which makes him more than just an exotic novelist. The man himself is more complex, fiendish that the one depicted in biographies. He also enjoyed, according to contemporaries allusions, compagny of men. His physical appearance dawns the ambiguity of the character. Gabriel-Louis Pringué met him in 1913 at a luncheon organized by the  Princess Alice of Monaco at the Chateau Haut-Buisson and wrote (in 30 ans de dîners en ville, éd. Adam, 1948) :

Loti had his face made up with rose and wore, to gain size, heeled stilts. In his strangely face shined admirable aquamarine eyes, with a mysterious depth veiled with concern. That distant look, as if lost in a dream, was unsettling. He spoke little, but when he narrated, he did it with a colorful and inimitable poetry that recalled his books whom prestigious charm belongs to eternity.

(source : Wikipédia)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• LOTI (Pierre). La Mort de Philae. Paris, Calmann-Lévy, s.d. [1908], in-12, original covers, half morocco binding (Léon Lapersonne). First edition. Copy dedicated from the author to the french painter and writer Georges Cain (1856-1919).
• LOTI (Pierre). Correspondance inédite. 1865-1904. Publié par sa nièce Madame Nadine Duvignau et N. Serban, professeur à la faculté de Jassy. Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1929, in-12, original covers, half morocco binding. First edition. One of the 25 first copies on imperial Japan paper. 
• FOUJITA - LOTI (Pierre). Madame Chrysanthème. Soixante illustrations originales en couleurs de Foujita. Paris, Éditions Excelsior, 1926, in-4. Deluxe edition with  60 illustrations in colors by Foujita. One of the 425 copies on Arches paper.

50 engravings by Zwy Milshtein

Unknown to the general public, Zwy Milshtein is a painter, engraver and writer who, aged more than 75 years old, has produced an abundant and amazing work . Born in 1934 in Moldova, Milshtein moved to Israel in 1947 with her mother and brother, then moved to Paris in 1956 after getting a scholarship. "I consider my painting as a expressionist painting with the influence of masters such as Bosch, Brueghel, Goya and Soutine" he says.
Our bookshop offers, in a binding by Jean-Paul Miguet, a set of 50 engravings in black, mounted on tabs, each numbered and signed by the artist. Most of those representing faces or figures with an urban background.
To See : the Artist's website.

Currently,  the librairie loliée offers :

• MILSHTEIN (Zwy). 50 gravures. In-16, 50 engravings mounted on tabs, binding in full old rose morocco with folder and case  (J.P. Miguet). Unique isssue bringin together 50 engravings all signed and numbered by Milshtein.

The Women Destroyed : first and only collaboration between the Beauvoir sisters

If one knows the brilliant career of the young Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), Hélène (1910-2001), youngest sister, perhaps less supported by her parents, takes time to choose her career. She mets with her sister's friends and goes out with Lionel de Roulet - then a student of Jean-Paul Sartre - who will become the companion of a lifetime. With the support of her sister freshly received professor "agrégé" in Philosophy, Hélène rents her first painter studio. In 1936, she exhibits for the first time in Paris and gets nice reviews. She is recognized by his peers long before Simone. Surprisingly, Hélène and Simone have worked together only once, for a book, The Women Destroyed, while it seems that the two sisters maintained, a priori, a quite relationship. Helen, after Sartre's death, made many round trips to Paris to support Simone. Curiously, after the death of the latter, Hélène received no authority over the affairs of her sister. It is the late adopted daughter of Simone, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, who became the legitimate heir of her mother's work. In 1990, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir published Letters to Sartre, in which Simone described her sister as an artist of little talent. Hélène was destroyed by these intimal revelations.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• [BEAUVOIR (Hélène de)] - BEAUVOIR (Simone de). La Femme Rompue. Illustré de 16 burins originaux par Hélène de Beauvoir. Paris, Gallimard, 1964, in-4, in leaves, publisher's covers and case. First edition with 16 original engravings by Hélène de Beauvoir. Limited to 143 copies, one of 7 the non-commercial issues on Lana vellum.  Copy with a dedication by the author and the artist.

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.

Hermine David : woman painter of the early 20th century

There are few recognized women painters in the first part of the 19th century. Hermine David (1886-1970) is among those who were able to establish themselves. Born in Paris, the painter and engraver, whom real name was Lionnette Cartan, grew up with her mother who always said she was the daughter of a Hapsburg prince. After leaving the family bosom at age 16, she take classes at Julian and, in 1906, participated in the first exhibition of women painters. Her good quality work soon  provided her the status of a recognized artist. In 1906, she also met Jules Pascin and got involved with the group of the School of Paris. The Berliner became his mentor and lover. But, Pascin pursued, in parallel, an affair with Lucy, a model for Albert Marquet. Yet, when in 1914 the war forced Pascin to leave France, it is Hermine David who followed him to the United States. The two painters got married in New York in 1918. In 1920, marked by the escapades of Pascin, the couple returned to France and eventually broke up. Pascin resumed his affair with Lucy, now married to the painter Per Krogh. Hhe still supported the work of Hermine David who went from exhibition to exhibition : the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Independants, an exhibition at the gallery Weil.
Worn out by the roaring twenties that yet established her, Hermine David left Paris for a time and  and developed her talent as a landscape artist, while traveling in France and Spain. In 1930, Pascin committed suicide, leaving a note to Lucy. Two years later, Hermine David receives the Legion of Honour. She never ceased to produce (painting, prints, enamels). In May 1966, she retired to the Artists Retirement Home of Nogent-sur-Marne. She died 4 years later.

Currently, la librairie Loliée offers : 

• [David (Hermine)] Larbaud (Valéry). Enfantines. Illustrés par Jeanne Rosoy, Germaine Labaye, Halicka, Hermine David. Paris, Gallimard, 1926, 4 volumes in-8,  binding in chromotypography, central illustrated medallions on each covers, case.  First illustrated edition with 24 original engravings in text by Jeanne Rosoy (tome 1), Germaine Labay (tome 2), Halicka (tome 3) and Hermine David (tome 4).  One of the 300 numbered copies on  Holland paper.
• David (Hermine) - Rebell (Hugues). Les Nuits Chaudes du Cap Français. Paris, Henri Joncquières, « Les Beaux Romans », 1927, in-8, covers. Illustrated edition of this curiosa title,  with  18 original and in colours etchings byHermine David. Copy on Rives paper. 
• David (Hermine) - Verlaine (Paul). Romances sans paroles. Gravures à la pointe sèche de Hermine David. Paris, Pour els Bibliophiles du Palais, 1934, in-8, en leaves, illustrated covers, folder and case. Edition with de 31 original etchings, by Hermine David. Limited to 200 copies on Rives paper.

Behind the "Sâr", Joséphin Péledan : an author to rediscover

The middle of the nineteenth century see the apparition, in France, of a craze for occultism and spiritualism imported from the United States. Many esoteric associations bloom among which the Order of the Rose-Croix, founded in 1889 by Stanislas de Guaita (1861-1897) and Joséphin Péladan (1858-1918). This young author, rather eccentric, made his name with the publication in 1884 of the Vice Supreme. In this first novel, Péladan denounces modern materialistic society, criticizes the naturalism of Zola and proposes an artistic revival through romanticism and occultism. If Péladan character is sometimes mocked, his talent and his views captivate several major figures of the time : Barbey d'Aurevilly who also wrote the preface to the Vice Supreme, Erik Satie and Claude Debussy, both members of the Order of Rose-Croix (Satie was also the composer's official order). Soon, Péladan virulent catholicism causes the break-up with Stanislas de Guaita.
In 1890, Péladan, who then wants to be called the Sâr Merodack Joséphin Péladan, creates a new society, the Order of the aesthetic and catholic Rose-Croix of the Temple and of the Holy Grail. In 1892, he organized the first Salon de la Rose-Croix at the Durand-Ruel gallery in Paris. Among the artists on display : Armand Point, Fernand Khnopff, and Alexandre Seon. In 1897, after the sixth and final salon of the Rose-Croix, Péladan puts an end to his activities, saying that his artistic position has been successfully transmitted. He settles down, writes art critics to subsist and dies in oblivion in 1918.
The unpredictible Sâr  left his mark on the last part of the 19th century, but also hide the writer's skills of Joséphin Péladan.

Frontispice de F. Rops

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers the following first editions :

•  Le Vice suprême. Préface deJules Barbey d’Aurevilly. Frontispice de Félicien Rops. Paris, Librairie des Auteurs Modernes, 1884,  in-12, half-morocco binding by Blanchetière. First edition. Frontispiece by Félicien Rops, preface de Barbey d’Aurevilly.
• Sémiramis. S.l. [Beauvais], s.d. [Imprimerie professionnelle], s.d. [after 1896], in-4, covers. First edition.  Copy an Japan paper.  Sémiramis was written for Sarah Bernhardt.
• La Philosophie de Léonard de Vinci d’après ses manuscrits. Paris, Félix Alcan, 1910,in-12, half sheepskin binding of the time. First edition (no deluxe paper).

When Swarte presents the futility of human striving

AT LAST!

Life is a long battle for money, sex and power, for light and inspiration... to end irrevocably as à moneyless, sexless, powerless corpse in dark earth, inspiring nothing but worms and chrysanthemums. Free at last...
The futility of human striving, the irony of results being the negatives of our goals, has been Swarte's inspiration for this portfolio.

On this lines, begins the Joost Swarte's portfolio published in 1981 by Futoropolis. The Dutch comic artist, best known for his clear line style of drawing (characteristic of Hergé's work) was discovered in France in the early seventies thanks to Willem and via Charlie, a monthly magazine of the Editions Du Square.
A Consulter : the website of the artist.


Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Swarte (Joost). Enfin ! Paris, Futuropolis, 1981, portfolio, in leaves, solid folder illustrated. Firs edition of the portfolio with 8 boards in colors by Joost Swarten, the first numbered and signed.
  

Flagrant délit : when A. Breton denounces La Chasse Spirituelle

In 1949, in a pamphlet entitled Flagrant Délit, André Breton denounced and came back on one of the funniest literary fakes of the twentieth century. On 19th May of the same year, the editor Le Mercure de France, under the leadership of Maurice Saillet and Pascal Pia, published a lost manuscript of Arthur Rimbaud : La Chasse Spirituelle. In the preface of the book, Pascal Pia put forward the parallels between the previous work of the young poet and these pages. Breton was the first to rose up and demonstrated that those writings were misleading and parody :

Even if the abuse of trust lasts only a second, there is an injury to the innocence - innocence without which there can be no emotional apprehension of a art work and that leaves us with the suspicion of a trap.

Le Mercure de France withdrew the book from sale and gave the profits to the Rimbaud Museum. The perpetrators of this fraud, the actors Nicolas Bataille and akakia Viala, finally came forward and explained their motivation : the theatrical show they had created in 1948, an adaptation of Une Saison En Enfer, was demolished by the critics and they wanted to trap their detractors.
We now know that the manuscript La Chasse Spirituelle probably never existed. This title was made up by Paul Verlaine to designate a compromising correspondence with Rimbaud, discovered by his wife Mathilde, and that he wished not to be used in a divorce proceedings.

Currently, the Librairie Loliée offers :

• [Rimbaud (Arthur)]. La Chasse spirituelle. Introduction de Pascal Pia. Paris, Mercure de France, 1949, in-8 carré, cover. Firs Edition. Copy on velum paper.
• Breton (André). Flagrant Délit. Rimbaud devant la conjuration de l’imposture et du trucage. Paris, Thésée, 1949, illustrated cover. Firs edition. One of the 100 first copies on Holland paper, signed by André Breton . Copy dedicated to Edmond Bomsel.
  

New York by Arrabal

In 1973, Balland Editions published a photography book in which Arrabal provided some snapshots from a trip to New York. The result : 55 pictures with comments by the artist and a travelog by way of introduction. Quote :

Allen Ginsberg calls me out in the street. After ten years without getting in touch, I hardly recognize him. He takes me to his apartment on the 11th Street, in the poorest sector of the Puerto Rican neighborhood. Tea boils in a dented pan and he serves it in glasses which aspire to become coffee's ashtrays. He tells me about his trip to India and corpses that are cremated near the Ganges. When we go out into the street children shout : "Es el profeta!"

God became crazy and thought he was a motobike and then he created man in his image

What? Beckett himself around the corner ! Yes, New York is marvellous !

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Arrabal. Le New York d’Arrabal. Paris, Balland, 1973, quadrate in-8, illustrated cover. First Edition with 55 black and white reproductions of Arrabal's pictures, each commented.
  
• Arrabal. Les Arrabeaux d’Avignon. Caprices Cannibales. Avignon, Médiathèque Ceccano, 1994, in-16, covers. First edition with 3 original poems by Arrabal. Catalogue published for a Arrabal's exhibition in the city of Avignon.
  

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.

R. Pouyaud / C. Geofrray : encounter at Moly-Sabata

Moly-Sabata is an artist colony founded by Albert Gleizes (1881-1953) and his wife Juliette Roche in 1927, on the banks of the river Rhône, in the district of Sablons. Robert Pouyaud (1901-1970), one of the first students of the cubist painter, moved with his wife in the region and help Gleizes to rehabilitate a former convent, first rented and then bought in 1938, that became a place of refuge and creation for the protesters who wanted to escape the machinist society of that time. Among the residents most invested were the sculptor Anne Dangar (1886-1951), the composer César Geoffray (1901-1972). It is with the latter that Robert Pouyaud created and published Suite de sons et de couleurs pour piano (Collection of sounds and colors for piano). The 3 stencils that illustrate the book are typical of the Cubist style that favor plan, volumes, multiple points of view. Robert Pouyaud and his family left soon after the adventure and moved to the city of Asnières-sous-bois, in Burgundy. Moly-Sabata remains an artist residency that welcomes creators and writers.
(sources : moly-sabata.com, fondationgleizes.fr)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Pouyaud (R.) - Geoffray (C.). Suite de sons et de couleurs pour Piano. Moly-Sabata [résidence d'artistes d'Albert Gleizes, Isère], éditions Sablons, 1931, in-folio, covers. Piano score on velum paper with 3 original stencils in colors by R. Pouyaud, signed and dated 1931. Copy with a dedication by R. Pouyaud.
  

Tric Trac du ciel : first collection of Antonin Artaud

Based in Paris for three years, Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) tries very quickly to get published. He presents his poems to La Nouvelle Revue Française, but his work is turned down by Jacques Rivière. The director of N.R.F. wrote on May 1, 1923 : "I regret not being able to publish your poems in La Nouvelle Revue Française. But I've taken enough interest to want to get to know their author."
Artaud also contacted the gallery Simon, owned by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. His poems are selected and a first collection, Tric Trac du Ciel is published the same year, with a colophon (ironically) dated May, 4 - just three days after the rejection letter of Jacques Rivière. Nevertheless, Artaud starts a correspondence with the director of the N.R.F. to clarify his approach. He wrote June 5, 1923:
"I suffer from a terrible disease of the mind. My thought abandons me at every level. From the simple fact of the thought to the external fact of its materialization in words. Words, sentence forms, internal directions of thought, simple reactions of the mind, I'm in the constant pursuit of my intellectual being. When therefore I can grasp a form, however imperfect it may be, I lay down in fear of losing all of it. I am beneath myself, I know, it's a pain, but I'm accepting it in fear of not dying altogether. All of this is badly explained and can introduce a dangerous ambiguity in your opinion on me. Therefore for the sake of the central feeling that dictates my poems and for the strong images or forms that I could find, I still offer these poems to life. "

Jacques Riviere, in September 1924, will publish the letters exchanged with Artaud who masterfully and lucidly expressed the need to literary exist.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Tric trac du Ciel. Illustré de gravures sur bois par Elie Lascaux. Paris, Galerie Simon, 1923, booklet in-8. First edition of the first colleciton of A. Artaud, with 4 original wood engravings by Elie Lascaux. Limited to 112 copies. One of the 100 copies on Arches paper, signed by the Author and the artist.
  

Fernand Fleuret : style and fantasy

Fernand Fleuret (1883-1945) grows up in Normandy, with his grandfather. He studies at various schools. Undisciplined student, he is sent to the Jesuits. Based in Paris, where he earns his living as a journalist, he begins his career as a writer by producing a stylish and fanciful poetry that appeals the literary and artistic circles of the time. He becomes friend with Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Perceau, Gus Bofa or Raoul Dufy. Fleuret, an erudite, is also known for his pastiche work, notably by rewriting erotic poems of the Renaissance found at the National Library. Tired of his socialite life style, he settles in southern France. He marries the feminist Gabrielle Réval, 15 years his senior. Fleuret, eager to resume his bohemian life, finally returns in the capital. He nevertheless keeps a deep affection for Gabrielle Reval who supports him until the end. In 1935, Fleuret receives the Renaissance book prize for Echec au Roi, a historical novel that recounts the last 10 years of the reign of Henry IV. If his work is beginning to be recognized, the writer goes through many phases of depression and hallucinations. He sinks slowly into madness and is interned at St. Anne. He dies in 1945. Pascal Pia tells about him: "No trade has been more enjoyable or more productive than the company of Fleuret and his work . I should have said it earlier and I should have shown how, by an extraordinary encounter, erudition, humour and poetry made of Fleuret a character not so common to find, and as, perhaps, there had been none since Nerval."

(source : excentriques.com, Talvart)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers various books by Fernand Fleuret :

• [Collectif]. L'Enfer de la Bibliothèque Nationale. Bibliographie méthodique et critique de tous les ouvrages composant cette célèbre collection avec une préface, un index des titres et une table des auteurs par Guillaume Apollinaire, Fernand Fleuret, Louis Perceau. Paris, Bibliothèque des Curieux, 1919, in-8,. Erotic bibliography with a detailed catalogue done by Apollinaire, Perceau and Fleuret of 930 books of the National Librairy. Copy on satin vellum paper.
• Les Derniers plaisirs. Histoire espagnole. Paris, Gallimard, 1924, in-12. First edition. Limited to 1000 copies. One of the 30 not to sell copies on Lafuma-Navarre vellum paper. With a dedication of the author to his friend, the writer Pierre Mac Orlan.
• Histoire de la Bienheureuse Raton fille de joie. Paris, N.R.F., 1926, in-8, covers, binding by Alix. Édition originale. One of the 109 first copies reimposed on Lafuma-Navarre vellum paper.
• Soeur Félicité. Récit orné de six images hors texte dessinées et gravées à l'eau-forte par Yves Alix. Paris, Au sans Pareil, 1926, in-12. First edition illustrated with six drawings by Yves Alix. Copy on Montgolfier d'Annonay vellum paper.
• De Gilles de Rais à Guillaume Apollinaire. Paris, Mercure de France, 1933, in-12. First edition. One of the 22 copies on Montgolfier vellum, only deluxe paper.
  
• Échec au Roi. Paris, Gallimard, 1935, in-12. First edition. One of the 37 first copies on vellum paper.

Claude Terrasse and Pierre Bonnard : a family spirit

Claude Terrasse (1867-1923) met the Bonnard family through the eldest son Charles, while doing civic service time. In 1890 he married Andrée Bonnard, also a musician. The couple moved to Arcachon where Terrasse is a piano teacher. He worked very early with his brother in law, the painter Pierre Bonnard. At that time, is published Petites Scènes Familières pour Piano (Familiar Little Scenes for piano). Pierre Bonnard takes pleasure in playing with the austere chromatic of lithography while Claude Terrasse already demonstrates his talent as a composer of light music with 'La fête au village" (the village party), set of four humorous partitions.
Appointed in Paris in 1896, Claude Terrasse uses the workshop adjoining his apartment to create the Théâtre des Pantins (puppet's theatre). All the Parisian artistic avant-garde is involved in this adventure. Claude Terrasse continues to work with Alfred Jarry for whom he has just composed the music for Ubu Roi, whose first representation made scandal. In 1898, is published Repertoires des Pantins (Puppet's repertory) which includes the songs created for the Claude Terrasse's puppet theatre. In this set of nine booklets, illustrated with six original lithographs by Bonnard, one can find the opening of Ubu Roi and the famous "Song of brainwashing" (full text here.)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Bonnard (Pierre) - Terrasse (Claude). Petites Scènes familières pour piano. Illustrations de Pierre Bonnard. Paris, Fromont, s.d., huge in-4, half-levant binding, folder and case (Alain Devauchelle). Rare music sheets by Claude Terrasse, illustrated with 19 charming original lithographs by Pierre Bonnard.
• Bonnard (Pierre) - Jarry (Alfred) - Franc-Nohain - Terrasse (Claude). Répertoire des Pantins. Musique de Claude Terrasse. Lithographies originales de Pierre Bonnard et Jarry. Paris, Mercure de France, 1898, 9 booklets in-4, folder and case. 6 original lithographs by Pierre Bonnard et 3 by Alfred Jarry illustrate the music of Claude Terrasse.

Utrillo : the brush and the bottle

Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) grew up in the school of life, that of the Butte Montmartre in Paris. Disturbed and already alcoholic teenager, Utrillo was raised by his grandmother. Uncontrollable, he regularly stayed in a psychiatric clinic. His mother, Suzanne Valadon, earns his living as a model for Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec or Degas. She managed to make a career and become an artist herself. She introduced her son the art of painting and found a way to curb, at least, his misconduct.
Francis Carco described the legendary figure of bad boy that Utrillo was :
"What mattered that he was a great painter! He knew it. He did not need anyone to tell him so. And after? Paying for a drink? Good. That was all he claimed. Enough of stories, ok? Enough clap-trap. Money is better and quickly! To rush to the pub, get drunk and argue. [...] He dearly loved the alcohol! In back streets [of Utrillo compositions], I always find a stubborn expectation, a hope, the perpetually and eager suffering to retain the image of his torture. This feeling dominates everything. It makes a silent drama and the sky appears as through vials of a counter where you do not want a drunken man."
(source : National Library of Netherlands)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Utrillo (Maurice) - Carco (Francis). La Légende et la Vie d’Utrillo. Lithographies originales de Maurice Utrillo. Paris, Marcel Seheur, 1927, in-4, in leaves, covers, 2 folders in one case. 10 original and full-page lithographs and a frontispiece in colors by Maurice Utrillo, a portrait of the artist (orginal lithograph) by Suzanne Valadon. Triple suite of the lithographs on Japan and China paper.
  

François Coppée - Alexis Orsat : a long friendship

Francois Coppée (1842-1908), poet who first knew success as a playwriter, lived during his lifetime recognition of his peers. Archivist at the Comédie Française, he entered the Académie Française in 1884. Mocked by the "poètes maudits" who denounced his classic, simple and populist style, François Coppée was nevertheless appreciated by the little people he liked to describe lives.
Bachelor who stayed with his mother, Francois Coppée was a socialite. Little wonder then that he befriended Alexis Orsat (1837-1906), a civil servant as Coppée used to be. The poet dedicated to Orsat the poem "A Son" in one of his first collections, Les Humbles (the Modests), published in 1872. Coppée also made him meet with J.-K. Huysmans with whom Orsat liked to go to diners of the parisian suburb. Alexis Orsat is well known in the universe of bibliophilia because a lot of the authors from the period - Zola, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Maupassant, autographed some of theirs first editions to him.
For the funeral oration of his friend, Françoise Coppée wrote:
"Orsat was, you know, a very useful and conscientious servant of the state (...) But, I'm not afraid to say it, our friend was superior to his fate, and it is a pity that his faculties were not be deployed in a larger and more free space. Everywhere, he could have been part of the elite, especially in the letters he loved with passion and which gave him the greatest joys of life. "

Currently, la librairie Loliée propose :

• Coppée (François). Les Récits et élégies. Récits épiques - L’Exilée - Les Mois - Jeunes Filles. Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1878, in-12, covers. Edition with some texts published for the first time. Copy with a autograph dedication to Alexis Orsat.
• Coppée (François). Paroles prononcées par M. François Coppée sur la tombe de son ami Alexis Orsat. S.l. [Paris], s.é [Lemerre], 8 novembre 1906, booklet in-8, covers. First edition of this text pronounced by Coppée at Orsat's funeral.
  

When Brassaï tells us the Story Of Mary

Brassaï (1899-1984) found interested in everything, seizing with a camera lens, a brush or a pen, a society in which he never was tired of walking. As his friend Henry Miller wrote in the preface to Histoire de Marie (Story of Mary), Brassaï had "the skill to place himself at the same level of anyone. There is no activity or occupation with which he is not familiar, not an area in all Paris that he has not thoroughly explored, not a subject with which he has some privacy".
Who is this Mary that Brassaï decided to tell us the story? Just his housekeeper. The book, divided into two parts, "About Mary" and "The Trial of Mary", offers a compendium of ideas declining a mixture of humor and distress. The book concludes with a list of Mary's keywords that makes us kindly smile. Quoting again the words of Henry Miller about the book, "Brassai outlined everything that is worth to be reported of a nobody, of a man of street life".

History of France
I like History.
I like all of what have happened.
History of France. History of the Kings. History
of the Queens. History of the Crusades.
But I never go to the movie theater.
I don't like what makes people laugh.
Laugh, I found no interest in it!

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :

• Brassaï. Histoire de Marie. Avec une introduction de Henry Miller. Paris, Les Éditions du Point du Jour, 1949, covers. First edition. Limited to 2600 copies. One of the 26 first copies with an original etching by Brassaï.
  

Annual Closing

Dear readers,
The bookshop will be closed from August, 02 to August, 15.
See you for the reopening.