Paris (15 Janvier 1909). 160pp. Issue Number 1 of this short-lived monthly literary review, considered one of the first gay magazines published. This issue contains works by Laurent Tailhade, Colette, Robert Scheffer, Arthur Symons, Boulestin ("Chroniques Anglaise" referencing Wilde) as well as artwork. Good in original wrappers, browning to covers, wear to spine, marked "specimen" on front cover. More

Paris: Albert Messein (1921). The last book penned by the eccentric opium addict before his early death on the island of Capri several years later. The poems collected here largely inspired by opium and cocaine use, and one poem (Tocca a la Romanza) relates to Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas. One of 500 numbered copies (#168), near fine in decorated wrappers. Uncommon. More

Léon Vanier/Albert Messein: Paris (1903). 4to. 174pp. Soft cover. This volume of poetry was written the same year as the author's "Messes Noires" scandal. It was also the year of his friendship with Loulou Locré, a pupil at the Lycée Carnot and of his ultimately disastrous association with Albert François de Warren, a contemporary who appears in Peyrefitte's novel about Fersen. Very good in original green wrappers with a tipped-on photograph of the author. Quite uncommon. More

NP:ND [1911-1914]. 88pp. A rare and controversial work of pornography, which includes one chapter entitled "Chez le baron d'Alderswald" which was originally published in 1904 as a pamphlet and condemned by the Cour d'Assises in 1913. The author casts asperions on every one around Fersen: he had intimate relations with Oscar Wilde, Pierre Loti, and Jean Lorrain; he had an incestuous relationship with his mother who took his virginity at an early age; Jacques, in turn, deflowered a number of young boys upon the skeleton of his own mother. The piece ends with Jacques' death in the prison hospital at Fresnes as a result of "a delicate operation on his anus." This version, significantly revised, was issued as part of a series. Very good in 3/4 morocco binding, marbled endpapers, the initials "P.K.M." appear at foot of spine, lightly nicked spine, original wrappers present. Pia (@110) dates this publication to sometime between 1911 and 1914. More

Paris: Vanier (1905). 3rd ed. Fersen's semi-autobiographical novel about the decadent Lord Lyllian," a breathtaking mixture of truth and fiction" according to the scholar Will Ogrinc. Fersen includes among his cast of characters not only Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, but Friedrich Krupp, Péladan, Robert de Montesquiou, Jean Lorrain and many others. The author's legal battles with his own "messes noires" happened several years before this novel was published and Fersen had retreated to Capri. A good copy in the very appealing wrappers designed by Claude Simpson, modest browning to covers, spine a bit wrinkled, small tears to front hinge. The mention of a "troisieme edition" on title page may be fictive. An English translation of the novel, issued by Elysium Press, was published in 2005. More