Caresses et Blasphèmes
Paris: Impr. de J. Haumont (1945). 34pp.
Item #6241
Sir Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard (1885-1948) was educated at Eton and circulated in Oscar Wilde's milieu (his mother financed the Epstein memorial for him at Pere Lachaise). He was also a great friend of Ronald Firbank and Vyvyan Holland and for many years was Firbank's most ardent supporter and literary confidant. One of several publications issued during his lifetime and surely one of the oddest- it might be argued that the book is in fact a spoof, created by a third party, to denigrate Kennard or bring amusement to others. The poems herein, all in English, are erotic to some extent, a number quite homoerotic: "O! let me calm/ Your fevered blood / Quick! Let me drink,/ Deep in the chasm,/ The growing flood/ Of your vast spasm!"
One of 380 numbered copies, finely printed on Johannot, cream wrappers lightly worn. Rare.
Price: $600.00