formerly Shakespeare and Company Books, now VIcarious Experience

Little Poems in Prose by Charles Baudelaire. Translated by Aleister Crowley

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Little Poems in Prose by Charles Baudelaire. Translated by Aleister Crowley. Published by Edward W. Titus at the sign of the Black Manikin Paris, 1928. Number 95 of 800 copies. With twelve black and white copperplate engravings by Jean de Bosschère. A 'Misprints' page facing the limitation page, then a page stating Chiswick Press before a 4 page catalogue of books from the Black Manikin Press in the back of the book. Cloth covers with 'felt' spine and front label. The Spine has worn smooth, making it barely possible to see remnants of black ink where there must have been a title printed. The top and bottom of the spine show rear revealing the underlying cloth. The printing on the front label is clear. Some edge wear to the cover. A reddish foxing(?) inside the front and back covers. Also inside the front cover is a former bookseller's pencil pricing. The first blank page has a small fold on the bottom tip. Bookseller's sticker inside the back cover. Otherwise, no previous owner markings. No tears, folds or creases to pages. Binding is tight with no looseness to pages. Not ex-library, not remaindered and not a facsimile reprint. For sale by Jon Wobber, bookseller since 1978. DE31a

"Crowley's translation of these wonderfully pithy pieces by Baudelaire. Crowley apparently had the sheets for the book printed by the Chiswick Press in 1913 with the intention of issuing it under the Wieland imprint, however for reasons unknown that edition was never published, and a couple copies that almost certainly represent a proof-issue survive. The unbound sheets remained in storage until the 1920s, when Crowley had them transferred to Edward Titus of Paris. Titus added new preliminaries and advertisements, along with ten erotic black and white copperplate engravings by renowned decadent artist Jean de Bosschère, and published the work in the current format. Several different issues and binding variants exist, although no order of precedence has been established." - from a listing posted by Samuel Weiser