Journal & Drawings
London (1966). sm 4to. The painter's first publication of his journals, which are extensive and highly provocative. Numerous illustrations and some beautiful photographs of his friends at the beach. Very good in very good jacket.
Featured Items
Souvenir Voor Burg
(1947). Jaap Vegter (1932-2003) was a highly regarded Dutch satirist and comic artist who worked for numerous newspapers and magazines. He often gave a clever and humorous comment on events and people from political, social and cultural life. This is one of his early works, a pen and ink drawing on paper of a group of men and boys arrayed before a naked recumbent boy wearing a sailor's cap. The artist has also decorated the frame in pen and ink with the caption: "JongelingenVereeniging op Gereformeerde Grondslag" and his signature in the lower frame. The subject relates to the "League of Youth Associations" a youth movement associated with the Dutch Reformed Churches where boys were made acquainted with the anti-revolutionary principles.
Fredi s'amuse
Five of the original photo-engraved printing blocks for the illustrations for the novel. The engraved metal plates are mounted on to the original woodblocks used in the production of the book, all of which bear the title of the book on the side. The plates are in very good condition, several are lightly worn and have residue of the inks used in the letterpress process. All of the blocks are capable of being used for printing in contemporary letterpress printing. Included are the cover illustration for the book and the plates from pages 143, 155, 169 and 207.
L' écho des fantaisies
NP: ND [1946]. 2 vols. Louise de Vilmorin (1902-1969) was a French novelist, poet and journalist, known for her mordant wit and various love affairs (including Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Orson Welles, Count Paul Esterhauzy, Duff Cooper and André Malraux). Her works, particularly her most famous novel, Madame de, have been described as possessing a sense of libertinage and impertinence and are often set in aristocratic milieus. She was feared by many and her reputation as "femme de lettres and saloniste, legendary clotheshorse and tastemaker, brilliant hostess and home-wrecking man slayer" remains in tact today. Her most impressive production is this lavishly produced assemblage of 60 original photographs by the decorator and antique dealer Victor Grandpierre, mounted on cardboard with rounded corners and gilded, each of which is accompanied by a short poem by Vilmorin. The photographs are a rather surrealistic assemblage of ordinary household objects, as well as assorted antiques arranged to evoke the spirit of her poetry. Issued in an edition of 225 copies, the book was primarily created as a gift for her friends. Two large clamshell boxes with marbled boards, paper labels. Very good, light edgewear, Quite uncommon.
Wilhelm von Gloeden- A Monograph for an exhibit of his original vintage photographs celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising
Los Angeles: Elizabeth Taylor Medical Clinic (1994). A long folded sheet of 10 pages of photographs and text on Von Gloeden's work. One of 500 numbered copies. An attractive production, fine, as issued.
Sonnette an Freunde
Leipsic: E. Rowohlt (1911). 35pp. Attractively produced volume of these homoerotic poems, printed in two colors and bound in linen. With the bookplate of Gerrit Komrij on upper pastedown. Drugulin-Druck 8. Redenbacher 96.
Allure
New York (1980). Hardcover. 4to. 208pp. Vreeland's most attractive book, witth over 200 reproductions of the photographs of Horst, Avedon, Beaton and Penn among others with commentary by the author. Very good in very good jacket.
Purpurne Schmerzen
Rutli Verlag: Zurich (c.1924). 4to. 60pp. A collection of erotic poetry and illustrations (by Carl Hermannes), which includes several explicitly gay poems. Of particular interest is the poem “Sein Lustknabe” about a beautiful effeminate boy who is ridiculed by all (his father demands that he become a blacksmith) until he leaves home and makes a profitable living as a travesty and then he lives in a beautiful house and everyone respects him. . Good in brown wrappers, a bit of edgewear, the inscription page has several small holes.
Les Bals de Paris
Paris: Les Éditions Crès (1922). An uncommon book on the famous costume balls of Paris, with illustrations by the author. Warnod descibes in detail many of the fin de siècle balls and those of the post-War period with amusing vignettes. This edition (as opposed to the trade edition of the book) was available to subscribers only and contains four controversial sections on "Les Bals d'Invertis", "Le Dernier Grand Écart", "Grandeur et Décadence de la Danse du Ventre a Paris" and Les Filles de Maisons Closesau Bal Public". This edition also contains four addiitional images illustrating these sections laid into the text (see illustration). Limited to 200 numbered copies, very good in original illustrated wrappers, pages uncut.
Brave & Cruel
London (1948). Welch's last book, published just before his untimely death. A collection of short stories, including the widely respected "When I was Thirteen", hailed by Edmund White and William S. Burroughs. Very good in a very nice Gothic jacket designed by the author, minor edgewear. One of a limited number of copies printed for contintal E#urope and so designated on verson of title page.
L'Amour Homosexuel
Lyon: Archives d'anthropologie Criminelle de Criminologie et de Psychologie normale et Pathologique. Tome XXV; #197 15 Mai 1910. Soft cover. This review contains a chapter of Westermarck's The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas dealing with homosexuality, here translated into French. Exhaustively documented with 228 footnotes. Very good in wrappers, edgewear and light sunning.
Wüstenträumer: Ein Freundschaftsidyll (Desert Dreamers. A Romance of Friendship)
Berlin-Wilhelmshagen [Bismarckstr. 7]: Adolf Brand. Der Eigene (1922). 111pp. The first German edition of this suppressed homosexual novel set in Algeria, originally published in English in 1914. The author was the eccentric Gerald Hamilton, perhaps best known for his portrayal some years later as "Mr. Norris" in Isherwood's Berlin novels. One of Adolf Brand's quite rare editions, published by his Der Eigene publishing house, most of the editions of which were destroyed by the Nazis. Very good in lightly worn and spotted wrappers. Rare.
A Sample of Aesop
London: Bertram Rota (1993). A recollection by Laurence Whistler, illustrated with two images and printed in an edition of 150 copies (this being #20). Printed letterpress and sewn into illustrated yellow wrappers.
Poems of Oscar Wilde Ravenna. Poems. The Sphinx. The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Portland, Maine Thomas B. Mosher (1903). Three-quarter crushed blue morocco binding, gilt top edge, marbled endpapers. A very nice copy, spine a little sunned, bookplate. Limited to 600 copies printed on Van Gelder Paper.
Echoes from Kottabos
London: Grant Richards (1906). 328pp. There are nine contributions (poems) by Wilde, including "Theocritus" and "The True Knowledge." Very good in gold stamped boards, wear to head and tail of spine, edgewear.
Oscar Wilde A Study. From the French of André Gide
Oxford: Holywell Press (1905). 110pp. Gide first met Wilde in 1895 and this collection presents several essays by Gide, along with letters that he wrote to Gide and bibliographical material by Mason. Illustrated. Half vellum and blue cloth boards, title in gilt to upper and spine, slight spotting to vellum, light browning to preliminary pages. One of 50 special numbered copies (#2) signed by the author. An uncommon book in this state.
Apologia Pro Oscar Wilde
William Reeves: London (1895). The first ediiton of this scarce pamphlet presenting "some considerations in opposition to the mass of general vituperation with which the irresponsible public has thought fit to demonstrate its own virtue and superiority to the author of Dorian Gray." Mason 679. Light brown wrappers, a bit of sunning to wrappers.
Publications allemandes sur les questions sexuelles
Lyon: Archives d'anthropologie Criminelle de Criminologie et de Psychologie normale et Pathologique 15 april 1912 (#220). Tome XXVII. The author reviews the medical literature in Germany on sexological issues, with a particular discussion of the work of Magnus Hirschfeld. Very good in wrappers, light sunning and edgewear.
The Myth of the Boy
Saskatoon: Stumble Jumper (1977). 31pp. Gay poetry, signed by the author on endpaper. He has also written out a poem not included in the collection. Very good in fine paper covered wraps. Young 4190*.
Servants with Torches
Privately Printed: New York (1955). 24pp. This gay story was issued in a quite small ediiton of 117 copies, acompanied by an original signed serigraph by Paul Cadmus. The story, set in Italy was published by Windham's longtime lover, Sandy Campbell, in one of a series of handsome letterpress productions. The book is a quite beautifully produced, oblong in shape, illustrated black paper over boards, black paper jacket. Good condition, some loss to spine, boards a bit marked, the black paper dust jacket does not bear the printed title as is called for, but is in near fine condition with glassine wrappers. Signed and numbered by the author (# 32 of 100 copies). A quite rare book as many were destroyed by water damage (interview with the author). Young 4204*.
Home from Sea
London: Hutchinson (c. 1944). A record of the British journalist and broadcaster's service in the Royal Navy. The book is warmly inscribed on the endpaper to Evan, Viscount Tredeger. Laid into the book is a 2pp TLS from Wynn to Tredeger concerning the latter's hospitilization. Also included are several notes in Tredeger's hand relating to bets on horses. Tredeger, also known as Evan Morgan, was a Welsh poet, patron and friend of many literary and artistic figures such as Huxley, Augustus John, Firbank, and the Sitwells. Very good in very good jacket with some chips and edgewear.
High Diver
London (1977). Memoir by the accomplished British painter, onetime lover of the notorious male courtesan and opium addict, Denham Fouts. Illustrated. very good in very good jacket. Warmly inscribed by the author on title page. Young 4212.
Oscar Wilde: A Memoir
London: The Eighteen Nineties Society (1979). 21pp. One of 50 specially bound copies signed by John Betjeman and the editor, G. Krishnamurti, this copy A2. Fine in very good wrappers, illustrated. Laid in is a letter from the publisher to Brian Reade.
L'impossible sincérité
Paris: Calmann-Lévy (1905) (2e édition). 318pp. Hélène Betty Louise Caroline de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, née de Rothschild (1863-1947) was a lover of Renée Vivien, with whom she published a number of books under the pseudonym Paule Riversdale. She also published several works under her own name and this is one of the few novels that she penned. Very good in crimson morocco binding, signed Creuzevault with lovely engraved doublures, silk endpapers, top edge gilt, original wrappers present, some spotting to foredge. Laid into the book is a 1 page ALS from Nyevelt to an unknown recipient (date 2 April 1907).Uncommon.
A thirty-two page notebook with numerous clippings and genealogical research on the Zuylen-Nyevelt/Rothschild family, much of which dates to the 1930s. One of the most well known families in Holland, the ancestral home at De Haar remains a great tourist attraction. Hélène van Zuylen-Nyevelt was a lover of Renée Vivien and the author of several books with her. Very good in decorative paper wrappers.