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 Issue 6: 15 Juin (1909). FERSEN, Jacques d'Adelsward. Akademos: Revue Mensuelle d'Art Libre et de Critique. Paris Issue 5: 15 Mai 1909. . Akademos: Revue Mensuelle d'Art Libre et de Critique. Paris (15 Janvier 1909). 160pp. Issue Number 5 of this short-lived monthly literary review, considered one of the first gay magazines published. Good in original wrappers, light browning and edgewear, cracking to spine. More
Paris (15 November (1909). 160pp. Issue Number 11 of this short-lived monthly literary review, considered one of the first gay magazines published. Contributors include Marcel Boulestin, Fersen, Robert Scheffer, Charles verrier and others. Very good in original wrappers, light wear to covers. More
Paris (15 Juillet 1909). 160pp. Issue Number 7 of this short-lived monthly literary review, considered one of the first gay magazines published. This issue contains works by Marcel Boulestin, H. Gauthier-Villars and numerous others, as well as artwork. Very good in original wrappers, browning to covers, wear and light loss to ends of spine. More
Paris: L. Vanier (1901). 203pp. An early collection of "poemes de l'enfance" by Fersen, who fled from France to Capri when his "messes noires" with young men gained the attention of Parisian authorities. Very good in decorative jacket by Louis Morin, who also contributed several drawings in the text. Introduction by Edmond Rostand. 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. 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 decorative green boards with a tipped-on photograph of the author. The first hardbound copy of the book we have seen, in what appears to be a publisher's binding. Quite 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
Mercure de France, Tome CVIII, n° 404, 16 Avril 1914. Fersen contributes eight poems to the weekly literary magazine, most of which relate to opium. Other contributors include Georges Eekhoud, Rachilde, Appolinaire among others. Very good in original wrappers. More
Paris: Leon Vanier (1907). Two novellas, one of which was hailed by Rachilde as a minor masterpiece, both dealing with boys and thwarted love. The book was dedicated to Fersen's lover, Nino Cesarini, "blus beau que la lumière romaine." Edward Prime-Stevenson notes in his compendium The Intersexes called Une Jeunesse "the most artistic of Fersen's tales... It is a simple and graceful sketch of the passion of Robert Jélaine, a young French painter—sensual and prematurely disillusioned but not wholly embittered—for a Sicilian youth, Nino, with a head "like that of the David of Verocchio." The boy is living with his grandmother, at Taormina. Nino has inherited homosexuality, though he does not know it. But the instinct, and consequent incidents, bring his sudden separation from Jélaine." Very good in original wrappers, a bit browned, rebound in marbled paper boards. 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, Éditions de Pan (1911). (4to) 39 pp. One of the rarest books published by the eccentric writer, limited to 130 numbered copies (this example unnumbered). Many of the poems bear printed dedications to his fellow writers, Laurent Tailhade, Georges Eekhoud, Robert Scheffer, as well as his longtime consort Nino Cesarini. The title comes from the famous garden in Sri Lanka, which Fersen had visited several years earlier on an extended trip to the island. Very good in original wrappers. 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
Paris: Vanier (1905). 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, some wear and browning to covers, small closed tear on rear wrapper. More