158 - [BOLLIGER, René]. VERLAINE.

[BOLLIGER, René]. VERLAINE. Men. Created in Paris, February–March 1967. Large quarto (25 x 31 cm), (14) folios decorated with drawings and handwritten text. On sheets of thick vellum, in a folder. An impressive homoerotic manuscript by René Bolliger. With original red chalk drawings by René Bolliger. 11 large, highly free-form, full-page red chalk scenes and 5 red chalk figures, including one on the title page. Text of Verlaine’s poems, title, and running text entirely written in ink. A unique copy. Perhaps the last one created by the artist, as it is unfinished (the list of drawings is still only a pencil sketch), Autograph signature on the running text. Each figure signed with his cipher. On white Whatman paper, cut to shape. A native of Basel, Switzerland, René Bolliger (1911–1971) is known for his illustrations in erotic books—both published and underground—between the 1940s and 1970s. These drawings, which are highly explicit and of homosexual inspiration, circulated clandestinely among a circle of connoisseurs. Until the 1950s, censorship prohibited their sale through traditional commercial channels. “The poems are copied from the text published by Editions de Paris in 1925. This copy is entirely handwritten and adorned with original drawings by René Bolliger, some of which are enhanced with watercolor.” Gérard Nordmann Library (Christie’s 2006 Auction), for one of Bollinger’s other manuscripts from the same series. Included: BOULLET, Jean. Œdipe. Le Terrain Vague, 1958. In-12, (5)-XLV pp. and 45 reproductions of drawings, including scenes of nudity and homoeroticism. Paperback, plain cover with illustrated dust jacket with flaps (spine repaired, very slight wear from use). First edition. Includes a dedication by the author, “For Pierrot,” dated 1959. Provenance: from the library of Pierre Séjourné. Pierre Séjourné (1930–1993), a Parisian bookseller and lover of bookbinding, a flutist, and an enthusiast of literature and classical music, frequented both the Parisian artistic and literary circles and the world of the Arts Décoratifs and its schools through his uncle, the architect and academician Albert Laprade. Also an author and actor, he devoted himself to writing and performing his own plays, which were staged primarily in the Paris region.