Sotheby's: New York. 20 October 1980. The personal collection of De Meyer's photographs, stored in a trunk for many years. Images of Chanel, Josephine Baker, Rita de Acosta and many others. Illustrations. Very good in wrappers with prices realized.
London: Woolf (1964). A critical bibliography of erotic bibliographies and book catalogues. One of 500 numbered copies, this is #3. Very good in boards, a little spine sunned.
Barcelona: Pons (1867). 310pp. 3rd. ed. A compendium of every conceivable sin relative to sex, written for the use of priests in dealing with their errant flocks. The treatise on church doctrine includes great detail relative to the variations of sexual improprieties, including bestiality, sodomy, pederasty, masturbation (with extensive discussion of the details of this vice). A fair copy in original boards, extensive browning throughout, front hing cracked, signature and stamps on title page. Uncommon.
Paris: Pierre Horay (1950). Novel about a young boy, with photographs from the popular movie. Very good in full leather boards.
London: Thomas Tegg and Son (1835). 376pp. (12mo.). A reprint of the 1722 edition, with 4 engraved plates by George Cruikshank. Ownership stamp of Norman Douglas on front endpaper, with several penciled notations in his hand. Bound in 3/4 morocco, marbled boards with light wear, occasional light browning.
Paris: Union Internationale d'Éditions (1909). 155pp. This "roman militaire" is similar to Lucien Descave's portrayal of army life in "Sous-Off" in its descriptions of the seamier aspects of military life. Deverin, an accomplished artist as well as writer, describes in some detail visits to brothels and assorted sexual improprieties. Very good in original decorative wrappers, light wear to covers and spine. The author has illustrated the front endpapers with an original signed drawing depicting a seated soldier. Uncommon.
London: Fortune Press (1926). 4to. Hardcover. One of 500 copies printed by Maurice Darantiere. A very good copy bound in modern 1/4 leather and marbled paper boards, raised bands and gilt titling, top edge gilt with decoration, slipcase. Ownership signature of Islay de Courcy Lyons on endpaper. A lovely copy with very occasional light foxing. d’Arch Smith 165.
London: Martin Secker (1924). Written while Douglas was serving a six month prison sentence for his libel of Winston Churchill. Very good in lightly tanned blue linen boards, custom chemise and slipcase. Inscribed to Rupert Croft-Cooke, who wrote a rather favorable biography of Douglas in 1964.
Graz: Neugebauer (2016). 277pp. Volume 8 of the Norman Douglas Selected Correspondence series, the correspondence commences in 1928 and ends shortly before Douglas' death in 1952. Fine in red fabric boards, as issued. Photographic frontispiece.
Graz: Neugebauer (2017. 363pp. An extensive collection of letters between these close friends, covering the 1920s-30s, with a preface by Michael Allen. Fine as issued.
Paris: Chez Ladvocat (1824). 172pp. This anonymously published novel about a young black African woman and her life in a French household, considered to be the first effort serious effort by a white writer to explore the relationship of blacks and whites. Duras's novel Edouard followed in 1825 and explored similarly unconventional issues of sexuality. The original edition of Ourika appeared in a very small edition of perhaps a dozen copies- this edition appeared the same year. A very good copy contemporary boards, bookplates on front pastedown.
Paris: Mercure de France (1899). 261pp. The second edition of this controversial gay novel, which was prosecuted for pederastic content in a widely publicized case. After a storm of protest and support from numerous literary celebrities, Eekhoud was eventually acquitted and the book has remained one of the foundational works of modern gay literature. Very good in period binding, original wrappers not present, light wear.
London: The University Press (1897). 204pp. The rare suppressed edition of this collaboration between Ellis and Symonds. The second revised English edition with Ellis' Preface dated October 1897. Very few copies were ever circulated (at the behest of Horatio Brown, Symond's executor) and all later editions excised any reference to Symond's participation on the project. A very good copy in dark blue cloth, spine stamped in gilt, corners a bit bumped, covers lightly worn, hinges starting, bookplate on front pastedown.
Paris: Ambert [1902]. 281pp. 2nd ed. The first of several highly popular schoolboy novels with explicit gay themes written by this French writer, who befriended Count d'Adelsward Fersen and contributed to his journal Akademos. Very good in 1/4 leather binding, original wrappers (with cover photograph by Wilhelm con Gloeden) present, light cover wear, penned signature on endpaper.
An extroardinary letter from Rear Admiral David G. Farragut aboard the flagship Hartford at Mobile Bay, Alabama dated September 17, 1864 addressed to Acting Ensign, Robert H. Carey aboard the USS William G. Anderson, concerning the Court Martial of a man on charges of "Scandalous conduct tending to the destruction of good morals". The accused was found guilty of acts of sodomy; in part: "After mature deliberation, the court found the accused Guilty of the Charge and sentenced as follows; viz - 'And the Court do sentence the accused, Geo. W. Curtis, Landsman, to ten years confinement at hard labor in the Parish Prison, New Orleans, La. and to the loss of all pay and freeze money now due, or which may become due to him.' I have approved the sentence of the Court in this case. You will have the prisoner sent in irons by the first opportunity to New Orleans, to be transferred to the proper authorities for confinement. This communication to be read on the Quarter deck of your vessel at general muster." The charge of sodomy had been a capital crime up until 1831, although the military did not specifically outlaw it until 1921. Homosexuality was taboo at the time, and there are very few records of it during the Civil War. No punishments were recorded for any soldiers in the army, and only a few records have been found for sailors who were charged and dismissed from the Navy. Usual mail folds, with toning being darker at the folds, some foxing. Four small strips of tape have been placed along mail folds on interior pages. Some weakness along center fold has resulted in slight separation. Two pages of a bifolium, 7.75" x 10"
Paris: Librairie Universelle, 1904. Soft cover. This edition appeared without the cover illustration.
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. Very good in original wrappers, light browning and edgewear, occasional spotting.
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.
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.
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.
London: Printed for George Peacock (ND). Hardcover. No. 5 in a series of pamphlets from the Library Illustrative of Social Progesss from the original editions collected by the late Henry Thomas Buckle. Very good in grey boards, numbered at head of spine.
New York: December 1941-Jan. 1942 (Volume 1, Nos. 9-10). 10pp. An early edition of the groundbreaking American surrealist magazine, issued in a newspaper format. Works by Tchelitchew, Joseph Cornell, Leonora Carrington. Very good, light edgewear, folded.
Glasgow (1945). Text of a lecture given at Glasgow University. Very good in brown wrappers.
W. Heffer & Sons Limited, (Cambridge). 8vo. 96pp. A catalogue of 1,148 items from the library of E. M. Forster at the time of his death. Contains a section of presentation copies with particularly interesting runs of titles by Forrest Reid, Charles Mauron, William Plomer, and Siegfried Sassoon. Illustrated with a photographic portrait of Forster and of his library. Very good in wrappers.
Treptow-Berlin :Bernhard Zacks Verlag (1908). xv, 322p. + 88p. The second edition of the pioneering gay activist's magnum opus which served as a manifesto for the revival of Grecian male bonding, ranging from close friendship to homosexual activity. His Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (Community of the Exceptional), founded a year before the publication of Renaissance, "demonstated a decidedly hostile attitude towards the modern era [which made] difficult, if not impossible, the untiy of body and soul." A very good copy in original blue linen boards with decorative gilt titling, light wear to covers, penciled underlining throughout.
