Isidore Ducasse, dit LAUTRÉAMONT.

The Songs of Maldoror. (Songs I, II, III, IV, V, VI). Paris et Bruxelles, chez tous les libraires, 1874. In-12: black jansenist morocco, ribbed spine, black morocco lining, black velvet endpapers, covers and spine preserved, gilt edges, cover preserved, case (Leroux). First edition printed on a self-publishing basis. Second issue copy: title and covers renewed at the date of 1874. Isidore Ducasse (Montevideo, 1846-Paris, 1870) had entrusted his manuscript to the publisher Albert Lacroix who had it printed in Brussels at the end of the summer 1869, without a publisher's name. For fear of criminal prosecution, Les Chants de Maldoror were not put on sale; only about twenty copies were bound and given to the author, of which a good ten are listed today. The stock left in sheets in the warehouse of the printer Lacroix was acquired by a Brussels bookseller, Jean-Baptiste Rozez. He renewed the titles before putting the copies on sale in 1874, still without a publisher's name. The distribution seems to have been as modest as it was discreet. The publication did not have the slightest impact. In the meantime, the author had died on November 24, 1870 in Paris, at the age of twenty-three. (Bibliothèque nationale, En français dans le texte, n° 293.- Clouzot, p. 188: "Copies of the second state are quite rare.") A good copy, entirely washed. The preserved cover has been lined.