Robert DESNOS.

La Liberté ou l'Amour ! Paris, Éditions du Sagittaire 1927. In-12, soft eggplant chagrin, smooth spine, entirely untrimmed, covers and spine preserved (period binding). First edition. Copy on japan, not justified: it has the reputation of being the author's. (The first edition on japan is limited to 35 copies.) Dreamlike tale mixing eroticism and subversion. The editor had to remove the most crude pages, especially when Desnos imagines a "Club of sperm drinkers" in an underworld Paris. Complete copy of the censored pages. "The doubt remains: did Kra anticipate the condemnation by printing the work without the incriminated pages, or did he set up a bibliophilic "coup" by making believe that he anticipates a possible condemnation and by censoring himself? In those days, one did not condemn a book before it was printed. Today, no trace of any judgment obliging the Kra to censor the volume has been found but, if letting people believe that one is censored is not a crime, it is on the other hand a trick which gave the book a nice notoriety" (François Laurent and Béatrice Mousli, Les Éditions du Sagittaire, IMEC, 2003, p. 113. 113.) Attached are two original drawings in Indian ink on a sheet of strong Japanese paper: one depicting a balloon with a tower and a flag is captioned; "La Liberté ou l'Amour! chapter." A fine copy with full margins, in a soft binding of the time.