92 - SEGALEN (VICTOR)

SEGALEN (VICTOR) Steles. Peking, Pei-T'ang Press, 1914. In-8 volume in folio (288 x 142 mm), accordion-bound, cream-colored paper cover with title label printed in French in the Chinese style, in a modern slipcase. 7 full-page reproductions of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ideograms in the text, 3 Chinese seals in red ink. Second edition, partly original. Print run of 640 copies; No. 276 of 570 on felted laid paper. A fine copy. First commercial edition, expanded to include 16 “steles” and a lengthy explanation of the layout, which had not appeared in the rare first edition of 1912. “ The ‘stele’ form adopted arose from a striking analogy between the stone tablets scattered throughout China and the ‘short, dense prose pieces’ he proposed to write even before he had seen them.” (In French in the text, no. 340)