Asphodel Editions: North Pomfret. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 153pp. The first compilation of the photographic works of Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo). One of 200 numbered copies printed in color on Mohawk Superfine and bound in Japanese cloth. Fine as issued. The book went out of print quickly after publication and is uncommon. More
Paris, La Centaine (1926). These 222 letters from Remy de Gourmont addressed to Natalie Clifford Barney during the years 1910 to 1915, serve, as the recipient wrote, both of "preface, comment and conclusion to Letters to the Amazon", published in 1914. Illustrated with 52 original lithographs by Rouveyre. One of 100 special copies on Japon, this example #3. Warmly inscribed by the illustrator, and signed by Edouard Champion and Natalie Barney on title page. Bound in 1/2 morocco, front panel very weak, light wear to boards, some light foxing on tissue guards. More
NP (1924). Hardcover. Second edition, expanded and with a new Foreword by the author. One of 2000 numbered copies printed of this collection of gay stories by the important gay activist, who was prosecuted for many of these stories when they originally appeared some years earlier. A very nice copy in original unprinted jacket and numbered slipcase, light sunning to spine. More
Detroit: Artists' Workshop Press (1966). 4to. 27pp. A collection of poems by Sanders, Ken Weaver, Tuli Kupferberg and others, printed on multi-colored papers. Includes such Sixties classics as "Group Grope," "The Harness Queen" and assorted other drug-inspired lyrics. The name of the group was apparently inspired by Norman Mailer and the lyrics combine politics with literary and drug allusions.Very good, covers a bit darkened, light wear, unstapled (original staple snot present). Signed by Sanders on title page. More
A vintage 1930s photograph of Tony Sansone (9.5" x 7.5") taken by Townsend, who produced many images of the bodybuilder and gay icon. Very good, unmounted. More
Paris: Librairie Generale Catholique (1922). 287pp. A fictionalized version of the events leading up the the eruption of Mt. Pele in 1902, which resulted in the death of 30,000 people around St. Pierre, the capitol. St. Pierre has been described as the Sodom of the Caribbean, a town rife with prostitution, decadence, blasphemy, homosexuality and unbelief and many believed this was the reason for the eruption. The author portrays assorted sacrileges and "decadent behavior" that occurred immediately before the eruption. Very good in original wrappers, light wear to covers and spine, pages uncut. Quite rare. More
London: Kegan Paul, Trench (1885). 59pp. More
Paris: La Table Rond (2009). 60pp. A facsimile edition, along with a transcription and introduction, of this previously unknown story involving a lesbian romance. Schwob, who was at the center of Symbolist movement in France and an intimate of Oscar Wilde (and assisted with his Salomé) apparently wrote this work toward the end of his life. A fine copy in original wrappers, one of only 30 numbered copies (this being #5) printed on on Vélin d'Arches. More
Paris: Messein (1931). A collection of poetry by the author of several gay books. This was his last production- he was killed by one of his lovers the following year. One of 500 copies issued, a beautiful example in wrappers with the original wraparound band present. More
Quebec (1982-1984). A series of seven Signe de Piste periodicals (#62, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79) each of which are 24pp in stapled wrappers with numerous illustrations by Pierre Joubert and others, as well as numerous photographs of scouts. More
Cahiers du Monde Interieur. Paris (1964). Fine in illustrated sewn wrappers. More
Paris: Imprimerie A. Lanier et ses fils, 1888. (76 p.). This very uncommon doctoral dissertation on "sexual anomalies" undertaken under the direction of Valentin Magnan. Serieux proposed that a great number of people with "aberrant sexuality" were in fact insane « anormaux constitutionnels ». More
Clermont-Ferrand: Les Éditions du bon vieux temps (1954). 68pp. An uncommon erotic text with six explicit illustrations, which originally appeared in 1926. This edition was limited to 150 numbered copies and is quite uncommon. Very good in wrappers, light wear and fading to covers. Dutel, 1624, Pia 298-299, Perceau 337 (1926 edition). More
London: Duckworth (1929). 63pp. Two long poems and several songs with a "macabre and terrifying beauty" (according to the jacket). Warmly inscribed to Pavel Tchelitchew on endpaper. Sitwell was besotted with Tchelitchew for many years and he painted several portraits of her. Very good in lightly worn wrappers. More
[London]: Duckworth, 1931. Sitwell's only collection of short stories, frontispiece by Pavel Tchelitcheff. original brick red cloth stamped in gold, t.e.g., other edges untrimmed. First edition. Limited to 110 numbered copies signed by Sitwell.. A fine copy in plain brown wrappers. More
New York (1924). 83pp. The first, and extremely uncommon, anthology of homosexual literature to be published in America. The author, a professional chemist and graduate of Columbia University, compiled the anthology anonymously and remains somewhat of a mystery today. His identity has been revealed by the research of several scholars (notably Timothy d'Arch Smith and Donald Mader) and the story of the anthology has been discussed in the only reprint of the edition (Coltsfoot Press, 1978). The anthology commences with works from ancient Hebrew literature and progresses throught the poetry of the 1920s. Included are a selection of known Uranian poets, such as Digby Mackworth Dolben, Edward Cracroft Lefroy, Edward Emmanuel Bradford, John Gambril Nicholson, John Moray Stuart-Young, Edmund John, "Philebus" (John Leslie Barford) and John Addington Symonds. But there are also some surprising contributions from more traditional poets, such as Ernest Myers, William Alexander Percy, James Fennimore Cooper, Jr., Victor Starbuck, Katherine Mansfield, Willard Wattles as well as the anthologist himself. Described by Timothy d'Arch Smith as a "startingly thorough and well-informed anthology" it remains a classic in the field of gay literature and a cornerstone of collecting in the field. According to a prospectus issued by the anthologist, the book was issued in an edition of 150 copies, but relatively few are known to exist. This is a very good copy with the original uncommon half-title page (referencing the author's pseudonym and identifying the work as a scholarly dissertation), a few penciled notations in text. Laid in is a 1pp typescript of three poems that are included in the text on page 64, perhaps by Slocum. This copy bears an inscription from the author to Herbert Boyce Satcher (signed "E.E." [his pseudonym Edwin Edwinstone]). Satcher and Slocum were friends and shared similar homosexual interests. See Rosenthal, An Arcadian Photographer in Manhattan for a thorough examination of Slocum's work. More
London: Chatto & Windus (1889). The first published collection of Uranian poetry, according to the scholar Timothy d'Arch Smith in his definitive treatise on the subject, Love in Earnest (pp.24-27). The book was issued while the author lived in exile in France after a scandal involving a seventeen year old boy with whom he had become besotted had forced him to leave England, leaving a scandal in his wake. The poems in this volume deal directly with this ill-fated love affair and were reviewed by Oscar Wilde in the Pall Mall Gazette in the year of publication (‘He has nothing to say and says it’.) Some have argued that the aristocrat who perverts Dorian Gray in Wilde's novel (Lord Henry) was in fact modeled after Somerset. Very good in original parchment boards, light cover wear, spine gutters cracking a bit, spine a bit dulled. More
Colombes (S.) Éditions Athanor, 1930. 15pp. Very good in wrappers. More
Leipzig Klinkhardt [1920]. 62pp. Essays on the future of love after the Great War. Stocker, a feminist and sexual reformer and the first woman on the board of Magnus Hirschfeld's SHC. Here discusses the ethics of having relationships with enemy soldiers and other ethical quandaries. Very good in somewhat browned wrappers, pages uncut, first page has a small closed tear. Uncommon. More
One 3pp ALS from Sturgis to a cousin (dated Queen's Acre Windsor, 1917), enclosing an ink portrait of the recipient's mother done by Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley KCB KCMG (1824 –1893). Sturgis is perhaps best known for his controversial novel "Tim, published in 1891. More
