253 - [Croatian Poetry]. NEVJESTIC (Virgil, ill. and engr.), SIMIC (Antun Branko). Poems. Paris, n.p., 1974. In-4, loose-leaf format with a replaced color-illustrated cover, in a slipcase.

[Croatian Poetry]. NEVJESTIC (Virgil, ill. and engr.), SIMIC (Antun Branko). Poems. Paris, n.p., 1974. In-4, loose-leaf format with a replaced color-illustrated cover, in a slipcase. A rare work printed in an edition of 39 copies at the expense of a collector; this is one of the 6 copies reserved for contributors and signed by the artist on the colophon. The volume also includes a dedication to Jacques Guignard and an original drawing in mauve-colored pencil. It is further illustrated with 7 color prints and numerous end-leaf illustrations. This first edition of poems translated into French for this volume was conceived and produced by Virgil Nevjestic, a French engraver, painter, and poet born in Yugoslavia; the engravings were printed on his own press. It pays tribute to the poetry of Antun Branko Simic, a Croatian Expressionist poet who died of tuberculosis at the age of 27 in 1925 and is considered one of the most important poets in 20th-century Croatian literature. Experts: Loup Axmann and Jean-Luc Boisseau