December 15, 2010

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.

December 01, 2010

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.

November 25, 2010

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.

November 19, 2010

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).

November 12, 2010

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.

November 03, 2010

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.

October 28, 2010

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.

October 21, 2010

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.

October 14, 2010

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.

October 07, 2010

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.

September 30, 2010

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.

September 24, 2010

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.

September 16, 2010

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.

September 09, 2010

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.

August 27, 2010

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.

July 30, 2010

Annual Closing

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

July 15, 2010

Félicien Marceau : a handyman writer

Real named Louis Carette, Félicien Marceau was born in 1913 near Brussels. From 1936-1942, he worked at the National Institute of Broadcasting. At the end of the war, he is criticized and accused of being too complacent with German occupants. Louis Carette then went into exile in Italy before settling in Paris. He changed his name and adopted the French nationality. It is in the french capital that his literary career really began. Author of novels, essays, plays, screenplays, Félicien Marceau has won numerous literary awards including the Goncourt in 1969 for his novel Creezy, adapted for the screen by Pierre Granier-Deferre . Félicien Marceau is distinguishable for his clear-cut "as a scalpel" writing and a look at once ironic and tender on human nature. In 1975, he is received at the French Academy.
(sources : wikipedia, fan-de-cinema.com).


Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Les Années Courtes. Paris, Gallimard, 1968, in-8, covers. First edition. One of the 60 copies on Lafuma-Navarre velum paper, only deluxe edition.
  • Creezy. Paris, Gallimard, 1969, in-12, covers. First edition. One of the 50 copies on Lafuma-Navarre velum paper, only deluxe edition. Prix Goncourt 1969.
  • Le Corps de mon ennemi. Paris, Gallimard, 1975, in-8, covers. First edition. One of the 35 copies on Lafuma-Navarre velum paper, only deluxe edition.

July 01, 2010

Raffaëlli and Mallarmé "Guys"

French painter of Italian origin, Jean Francois Raffaelli (1850-1924) who studied with Jean-Léon Gerôme at the School of Fine Arts, began his career at the Salon in 1870. In 1884, he got his own exhibition on the theme of scavengers and petit bourgeois. He used to visit the "grenier" of Auteuil, a town house where Edmond de Goncourt continued to receive authors and artists after the decease of his brother. In 1888, Raffaëlli offered to Stéphane Mallarmé to collaborate on Les Types de Paris (Guys of Paris), a collection he illustrated. He sent his work to Mallarmé who wrote then in regard of the drawings. The poems were published for the first time in the issue n°7 under the title "Types de la rue" (Street guys). A total of 22 authors among whom Daudet, Zola, Maupassant, Huysmans, Mirbeau, participated in this project realased by Les Editions du Figaro.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers:
  • [Raffaëlli (J.-F.)] - Collectif. Les Types de Paris. Paris, Plon, Nourrit et Cie, 1889, in-4, 10 booklets in-4, case. First edition. Many in text drawings, some in colors, by Raffaëlli. Delivery issues in perfect condition.

June 17, 2010

Joë Bousquet : spiritual mentor of his time

Born in Narbonne, Joë Bousquet (1897-1950) was only 17 years old when he committed on the front of the First World War. He quickly became the most decorated officer of his regiment. But, in 1918, he is hit by a bullet which cut through his spinal cord. Incapacitated, he spends the rest of his life lied down, legs paralysed. He composes then numbers of poems in prose, develops an mystic and erotic aesthetic, literally using writing as a way of life. He exchanges long and fruitful correspondences and receives in his room, now a literary salon, his contemporaries : Surrealists, with whom he has a special relationship, André Gide and Jean Paulhan among others. Little-know figure for the general public, Joë Bousquet, however, was the advisor and confidant to an entire generation of artists.



Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Traduit du Silence. Proses. Paris, Les Cahiers du Journal des Poètes, série poétique N°65, 1939, in-12, covers. First edition. Copy on Featherweight paper.
  • La Connaissance du soir. Paris, Les Éditions du Raisin, 1945, in-4, in leaves, cover on pearly japan paper, publisher's case. First edition. One of the 150 copies on Marais vellum paper, this one reserved to the publisher's wife, Madam J Ricciotto Canudo, with a long hand wirtten dedication from the author.
  • Lettres inédites à poisson d’or. Traduction de Adriano Marchetti. Gravures sur bois de Giampiero Guerri. Cesena, s.é. (chez l’illustrateur), 1997, in-4, in leaves, illustrated cover, hard folder illustrated and signed by the artist. Edition illustrated with 2 original wood engravings numebred and signed by Giampiero Guerri. Limited to 99 copies. Text in French and Italian.

June 02, 2010

Pascal Le Gras : serial offender artist

Born in 1962, Pascal Le Gras, born in 1962, studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Caen and does his first exhibition in 1981 as part of a collective of artists, Expression 14. Joël Hubaut supports his first solo show two years later. Painter and video artist, he is also known for his illustrations of music album covers, including those of post-punk group The Fall. His pictorial universe, influenced by the movement of Free Figuration, lets us see an unpretentious, simple and colourful phantasmagoria.
Based in Paris since 1987, Pascal Le Gras multiplies collaborations. He publishes in 2006 a book with Michel Bulteau: Contreblasons . His work is closely tied to music.



More informations on Pascal Le Gras website & Facebook's page.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Le Gras (Pascal) - Bulteau (Michel). Contreblasons. L’Hay-les-Roses, Aux dépens de deux amateurs : Alain-Paul Diaz et François Gleize, 2006, in-4, in leaves, covers. First edition with three original compositions by Pascal Le Gras. Limited to 40 copies on Rives paper, signef by the author and the artist.

May 21, 2010

Valery Larbaud, "forgotten of the 20th century"

Larbaud Valery (1881-1957), only son of a pharmacist who owns the sources of Vichy Saint-Yorre, lost his father at age 8 and is raised by his mother then his aunt. Bachelor of Letters he published anonymously in 1908 a first book, Poèmes par un riche amateur. Leading a dandy life despite his fragile health, he travelled a lot, nourishing his culture. Fermina Marquez, his first novel, is published in 1911. Renowned translator, he introduced in France authors as James Joyce, William Faulkner. In Ce Vice impuni la lecture - Domaine Anglais, famous essay published in 1925, Valery Larbaud explained his consuming passion for books. He leaned on his experience of a compulsive but also critical reader to describe the steps that lead to the status of "fine scholar". A magazine asked him what his favorite English book was. In response, Valery Larbaud sent a photograph of the English department of his personal library with the comment : "Certainly I do not like them all equally, but there is not one I want to get separated. I assume that this room is British territory in the same manner as a consulate." In 1935, stricken by a cerebral hemorrhage, Valery Larbaud became hemiplegic and aphasic. He was forced in 1948 to sell his property and ceded his library of fifteen thousand volumes to the town of Vichy.
(Source : L'Express)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Poèmes pour un riche Amateur ou Œuvres françaises de M. Barnabooth. Précédés d'une introduction biographique. Paris, Léon Vanier, 1908, in-12, covers, full red Levant binding by Alix, case. First edition, no deluxe printings. This copy with a dedication to H. Buriol.
  • Enfantines. Paris, N.R.F., 1918, small in-4, covers. First edition. One of the 70 copies reset on Lafuma paper.
  • Amants, heureux amants. Paris, N.R.F., 1923, in-4, semi-industrial binding called "Revorim" by J. de Gonet. First edition. One of the 108 first copies in "in-quarto tellière" format on Lafuma Navarre vellum paper.
  • Les Poésies de A. O. Barnabooth. Paris, Gallimard, 1923, in-12. First separated edition of these poems. Limited to 100 copies on Lafuma Navarre vellum paper.
  • Ce Vice impuni, la lecture…. Domaine anglais. Paris, Albert Messein, collection « La Phalange », 1925, in-12, covers, red half Levant binding by P.L. Martin. First edition. Copy on vellum paper.
  • Paul Valéry et la Méditerranée. Paris, Stols, 1926, booklet in-8, covers. First edition. One of the 300 first copies on Holland paper.
Correspondence :
  • Larbaud (Valery) – Stols (A.A.M.). Correspondance 1925-1951. Paris, Éditions des Cendres, 1986, 2 volumes in-8, covers, publisher's case. First edition. One of the 30 first copies on Ingres Arches paper.

Illustrated editions :
  • Beauté, mon beau souci… Illustré de 37 gravures par Laboureur. Paris, NRF, 1920, in-8, illustrated green covers. First edition limited to 412 copies on Lafuma-Navarre paper, and illustrated with 37 original engravings by Laboureur. These copy contains an original colored pencil drawing iand a dedication to J. E. M. Manuel.
  • Enfantines. Illustrés par Jeanne ROSOY, Germaine LABAYE, HALICKA, Hermine DAVID. Paris, Gallimard, 1926, 4 volumes in-8, illustrated hard covers in "chromotypographie", case. First illustrated edition with 24 original engravings by Jeanne Rosoy (volume 1), Germaine Labaye (volume 2), Halicka (volume 3) and Hermine David (volume 4). One of the 300 numbered copies on Holland paper.
  • Caderno. Orné de huit pointes sèches, hors-texte, gravées par Mily Possoz. Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1927, petit in-8, covers. First edition with 8 original engravings by Mily Possoz. Copy on vellum paper.
  • Le Palais de Cristal. Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 2002, petit in-12, covers. Édition illustrated with 11 original calligraphies by Jean Cortot. Limited to 500 copies. On of the 30 first copies including a hand emphasized calligraphy by Jean Cortot, dated and signed.

May 12, 2010

Saint-Denys and the first theories on dreams

Marie-Jean-Léon Le Coq, Baron d'Hervey de Juchereau, Marquis de Saint-Denys (1822 – 1892), sinologist, published anonymously in 1867 a singular book : Les Rêves et les moyens de les diriger (Dreams and how to direct them). Avant-garde, the Marquis de Saint-Denys described dreams in which the dreamer is conscious of dreaming and he suggested techniques to control these dreams. At the age of 13 years, the author began to keep a diary. He noted deficiencies in the conduct of his dreams. After six months of monitoring, he managed to fill holes in his dreamlike memory. For him, images of our dreams come from snapshots of memories, memory functioning as a camera. The spirit then recombines, during sleep, these snapshot souvenirs. In practice, the Marquis de Saint-Denys managed to control his "lucid"dreams.
This book is one of the first serious research on the subject. Marcel Proust will use it to write certain portions of A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). In 1899, the work of Saint-Denys will be cited by Sigmund Freud in his Intepretation of dreams. The book will also influence the surrealist André Breton, who names the Marquis de Saint-Denys in the first pages of Les Vases communicants (The Communicating Vessels).

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • St-Denys (Marie-Jean-Léon Le Coq, baron d'Hervey de Juchereau, Marquis de). Les Rêves et les Moyens de les diriger. Observations pratiques. Paris, Amyot Éditeur, 1867, in-8, Bradel binding in cream half-vellum (Paul Vié). First edition. Frontispiece in colours. From the library of the french writer Anatole France with a hand-written note.

April 28, 2010

Surrealist tracts from the Aragon case

In 1927, following Paul Eluard and with André Breton, his two friends from Surrealism, Louis Aragon joined the Communist Party. In 1930, he went to the USSR, to represent the Surrealists Congress of Revolutionary Writers in Kharkov. Vladimir Mayakovsky, critic of the new regime, has just committed suicide. The Communists of strict obedience suspect the surrealists to drift to Trotskyism and anarchism. Aragon took sides and, on his return to France, published a poem, Front Rouge, which broke with surrealism aesthetic. His tone is provocative [Pliez les réverbères comme des fétus de pailles / Faites valser les kiosques les bancs les fontaines Wallace / Descendez les flics / Camarades / descendez les flics / Plus loin plus loin vers l'ouest où dorment / les enfants riches et les putains de première classe/ Dépasse la Madeleine Prolétariat/ Que ta fureur balaye l'Élysée] and, in 1931, Aragon is charged for inciting to murder.
If Breton defends him by publishing L'Affaire Aragon, he also denounced in Misère de la poésie how Front Rouge is "poetically regressive". The break -up between Surrealists and Aragon is consumed.

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Certificat. Paris, 1932. 1 leaf in-4, recto. Printed in black on green paper. Famous tract against Aragon signed by Paul Eluard who ends with a Lautreamont quote : « Toute l’eau de la mer ne suffirait pas à laver une tache de sang intellectuelle. »
  • L’Affaire Aragon. Paris, january 1932. 2 leaves in-4, the second removable, printed in red on velum white paper. Tract asking for solidarity with Aragon, signed by 12 members of the movement.
  • Paillasse ! (Fin de « l’affaire Aragon »). Paris, Éditions Surréalistes, March 1932. stapled booklet, in-8. Pamphlet against Aragon by Char, Crevel, Dali, Eluard, Ernst, Péret, Tanguy et Tzara.

April 14, 2010

Catalogue 2010

The librairie Loliée offers you to download the catalogue 2010 :

April 01, 2010

Salammbô illustrated by Rochegrosse

Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938) grew up surrounded by artists and man of letters. His widowed mother remarried the poet Théodore de Banville, then in the top of his celebrity.
In the family apartment, the young Rochegrosse met with the intellectual elite of the time: Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire and the Parnassians whom Banville is one of the leaders. From childhood, he liked to draw and his sketches are subjected to passing friends. Gustave Flaubert, charmed by a set of views of Carthage, said incidentally :
- Once you have the talent, I'll order you the illustrations of Salammbô.

This remark as a joke come true though 25 years later when the publisher Ferroud inquired Rochegrosse, now established and recognized, to illustrate Salammbô. It was in Barbizon, village of the pre-impressionists, that the illustrator achieved his work, supported by his friends, including the actress Berthe Bady who helped to make a relief map of Carthage inspired by Flaubert's description in the novel's opening. To give life to Salammbô, Rochegrosse is inspired by the bust of the Lady of Elche, discovered in 1897. In the Orientalist's style, Rochegrosse worked with retail the charm of local colours and highlighted what the novel contains of non-European exoticism.
(Source : Georges Rochegrosse, sa vie, son œuvre par J. Valmy-Baysse - Paris, F. Juven, 1910)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Rochegrosse (Georges) - Flaubert (Gustave). Salammbô. Compositions de Georges Rochegrosse, gravées à l’eau-forte par Champollion. Préface de Léon Hennique. Paris, Ferroud, 1900, 2 volumes, large in-8, full Levant binding by Gruel. First impression. 52 compositions in black. Exemplaire H.C. on vvellum paper with two more states of the engravings.

March 25, 2010

The flambloyant Walasse Ting

Walasse Ting, a Chinese-American artist, was born in Shanghai in 1929. In 1946, he left China for Hong Kong and then moved to Paris in 1952. He got close to the avant-garde movement CoBrA. In 1957, he moved to New York and was influenced by Pop Art. He participated in the publication of One Cent Life, a major illustrated book of Modern Art. Walasse Ting, master of acrylic, has a characteristic style : colourful palette, intense light. In 1958, Ting wrote a series of poems My Shit and My Love, which was be published for the first time in 1961 by the Smith Gallery in Brussels.

JUST LOVE

I live white skeleton
Meet love
Blood jump
Rain flood night
We drink three thousand wine cup
Make one million love
Ten Thousand paintings
Sex cyclone
Conquers fire :
Six suns crash
Nine volcanoes spit
Seven oceans leap
Ninety nine dragons roar
Eight thousand thunders open in one second
Life great happy
Death not sad
Why I tremble?
Walasse Ting - in My Shit and My Love - 1961




Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • TING (Wallasse). My Shit And My Love. 10 poems. Bruxelles, Galerie Smith, novembre 1961, in-4, stapled, illustrated cover. First Wallasse Ting 's publication with 2 original lithographs in colour. Limited to 1099 copies.

March 03, 2010

Dorothea Tanning : a surrealism woman

Born in 1910, Dorothea Tanning left his family in 1930 to follow the course of the Academy of Arts in Chicago. She then moved to New York and lived from advertising works. She is strongly impressed by the 1936 exhibition "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" and, in 1942, she joined the New York surrealism's group led by André Breton in exile. She met Max Ernst, who is then married to Peggy Guggenheim. She became, in 1946, the fourth wife of the German artist, during a double ceremony which also united Man Ray to the dancer Juliet Browner. In 1953, Ernst and Tanning settled in France. Two years after the death of Max Ernst in 1976, Dorothea Tanning returned in New York.
Her work is anchored in Surrealism but focuses more specifically, in the 50s, on the figure of the woman, of the muse. In 1974 a retrospective is done in Paris, at the Center Pompidou, by Pontus Hulten.

At nearly 100 years, Dorothea Tanning is one of the last living members of the surrealist movement.
(source: dorotheatanning.org)

Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • Tanning (Dorothea) - Sartoris (Ramon). Three Plays. S.l [Washington], The Black Sun Press, 1944, in-4, hardcover. First edition with 3 original drawings by Dorothea Tanning. This copy is dedicated by Tanning to Paul Eluard.

February 17, 2010

Pleasant illustrations by Mister Boucher

Born in Chartres, Lucien Boucher (1889-1971) studies at the School of Ceramics in Sèvres and makes his debut as a cartoonist for the magazine Le Rire. He also works for the magazine Fantasio. After the First World War, he participates in the revival of the illustrated book by working for the publisher Marcel Seheur. Thus appears La Batrachomyomachie (1920) or Boutiques de la Foire (1926) by Pierre Mac Orlan, author for whom he illustrates many first editions. He pursues a parallel career as a poster for the film and fashion industry. He is known for his long collaboration with Air France, a company for which he produces posters and world maps.
Thick lines, simplified shapes, contrasting colours : the style of Lucien Boucher is typical of that of the interwar.


Currently, the librairie Loliée offers :
  • [Boucher (Lucien)] - Homère. La Batrachomyomachie. Poème attribué à Homère. Translaté du grec en français par Mario Meunier, orné de bois gravés par Lucien Boucher. Paris, Chez Marcel Seheur, 1920, in-8, covers. Limited to 525 copies. One of the 100 coloured up copies , with originals wood engravings by Lucien Boucher with a suite in black on Holland paper.
  • [Boucher (Lucien)] - Mac Orlan (Pierre). Boutiques de la Foire. Paris, Marcel Seheur, 1926, small in-4, , covers. First edition with 37 original lithographs in colours by Lucien Boucher. Limited to 516 copies. One of the 500 copies on Arches paper.