BLOY Léon

BLOY Léon The Desperate Paris, Soirat, 1886 In-12° paperback. First edition without large paper, the 1st one put in the market (January 15, 1887). The cover is dated 1887, the title being dated, as always, 1886. Rare copy before the corrections, including even the disputed passage from the director of the Figaro. "Enriched with : - "the 'key' of Le Désespéré, written, revised and completed (in mauve ink and pencil) by a knowledgeable reader"; - a LAS from the author to Rodolphe Darzens, then editor of La Revue d'aujourd'hui, dated 17 April 1890, 1p. in-12° on squared paper: Bloy calls the addressee about an article he asks to be passed without cuts. This important letter is part of Bloy's express wish to have his article entitled Le Cabanon de Prométhée (The Cabin of Prometheus), dedicated to Isidore Ducasse - Lautréamont and his Songs of Maldoror, published at any cost. Bloy, having proposed this article as a preface to the new edition of Maldoror that the publisher Léon Genonceaux was about to publish, and faced with the latter's absolute refusal, notably because of the very bad reputation of the author of Le Désespéré, campaigned with Darzens so that his text would be published as quickly as possible in La Revue d'aujourd'hui in order to cut Genonceaux's ground. Delayed from month to month by Darzens who was holding back, the publication of Le Cabanon de Prométhée was finally done, not in La Revue d'aujourd'hui, but in La Plume of September 1st, 1890, only a few weeks before the Genonceaux edition of Les Chants de Maldoror was published. Covers a little faded, otherwise a very nice and rare copy.