Paris: L'Edition (1918). 284pp. Memoirs of the famous French tragedien, who befriended Cocteau at a young age and helped to launch his career as a poet. Illustrated throughout with 24 drawings of Jean Lorrain, Robert de Montesquiou, Henri Bernstein, Sacha Guitry, Sarah Bernhardt, Edmond Rostand and others by Cappiello, de Losques, Lucien Laforge, etc. One of only thirty numbered copies on Japon (after 12 on Chine), this copy is also adorned with a warm inscription from the author on a title page from another addition which is tipped onto endpaper. A very nice copy in original decorated wrappers. More

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. More

Paris: Garnier (1920s). Advice on sexual matters to young men, including a discussion of homosexuality, etc. A fair copy in rather tired wrappers. More

Golden Cockerel Press. [1933]. Hardcover. One of 325 numbered copies printed by Gibbings in Golden Cockerel type on Batchelor's hand-made paper with seven wood-engravings by Gibbings. A very good copy in morocco-backed decorated cloth, top edge gilt, light bump to one corner. More

Paris: Plon-Nourrit (1912). 64pp. A medical treatise on various aspects of "abnormal" psychology with emphasis on sexuality delivered at a medical conference in Tunis in 1912. Extensive discussion of "inversion" and related matters. Very good in wrappers, endpaper has one small corner clipped. More

Leipzig: Georg H. Wigand's Verlag (1896). 308pp. The true first edition of the author's classic text, Sexual Inversion, completed in collaboration with John Addington Symonds. Symonds and Ellis began working together on the book in June of 1892 and continued until Symonds' death in April of the following year. Following the arrest and conviction of Oscar Wilde in 1895, Ellis despaired of finding an English publisher for this book, which Symonds had insisted must be the first volume in his collaborator's Studies in the Psychology of Sex. This, the correct first edition, was published by Ellis' friend Hans Kurella in Leipzig in 1896, and acclaimed in the German press as a pioneering work. The first edition in English was brought out the following year, but suppressed before publication by Symonds' literary executor, Horatio Brown. A very good copy bound in contemporary marbled paper and linen boards, handmade label on spine, light edgewear. Quite rare. More

Paris: L'Assiette au Beurre (20 Juin 1908). A German edition of the weekly French satirical magazine with a cover illustration relating to the notorious Eulenburg scandal that engulfed Germany from 1907-1909. Maximilian Harden was the jingoist editor of the periodical Die Zukunf and accused Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg-Hertefeld, and General Kuno, Graf von Moltke of engaging in homosexual activities. Both men were members of Kaiser Wilhelm II's inner circle and the ensuing scandal had long lasting effects on the gay rights movement in Europe. The affair received wide publicity and is often considered the biggest domestic scandal of the German Second Empire. It led to one of the first major public discussions of homosexuality and was the first occasion that the word "homosexual" was introduced into common usage. Very good, spine cracking a bit. More

Paris: Editions de France (1935). 4to. 193pp. Fellowes was a celebrated 20th-century society figure and heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. This is her most acclaimed novel, issued in English as "Sundays" and illustrated with a suite of amusing drawings by Marcel Vertes. One of 20 copies of the tete de l'edition (#15) printed on Japon, signed by both the author and the illustrator, which also includes two states of the illustrations as well as an original illustration by Vertes. Original wrappers present, bound in a full morocco pink binding by Riviere, occasional very light spotting, light wear at joints. In addition, there is another original illustration by Vertes bound in to the text (not called for in the colophon). A lovely book. 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

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: Simon Kra (1926). The first translation of a Fitzgerald novel into a foreign language, this is the first French edition of the classic novel, translated by Victor Liona. The translation has been widely acclaimed and remains the only version in print. Jean Cocteau was among the most ardent admireres of the text and wrote to the translator that "c'est une livre céleste: chose la plus rare du monde." One of 400 numbered copies (#51), the book is quite uncommon in commerce. A very good copy in original wrappers, light browning to covers, photographic frontispiece, newspaper clipping tipped on to the inside of front wrapper. Rare. More

London: Leonard Smithers (1899). A collection of poems by a friend of the Sitwells and George Moore, published no doubt as a vanity publication by Smithers, "publisher to the decadents." Laid in is an ALS from the author to the singer Lady Maud Warrender, with her bookplate on front paste down. Very good in decorative blue boards, wear to edges, hinges weakening. More