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Les Idylles, Théocrite, J. A. Gullet trans., Méaulle illus. (A. Quantin, Imprimeur-Éditeur, Paris 1884) 5.75″ X 4", 192pp, three-quarter leather over marbled boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, boards rubbed quite a bit, binding good, top-edge gilt, others deckled, ex-libris of Dr. phil. Rudolf Ludwig designed by Franz von Bayros (voluptuous naked woman surrounded by books with men in shackles enthusiastically bringing her more. A child with a magnifying glass astride a penis decorated with a world globe/map.) Theocritus (c 300 BC- c 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry. Unlike Homer, Theocritus did not engage in heroes and warfare. His idylls are limited to a small intimate world and describe scenes from everyday life. -
Ovid's Art of Love. In Three Books. Together with His Remedy of Love. Translated Into English Verse By Dryden, Congreve, and Others. To Which are Added The Court of Love, a Tale, from Chaucer and the History of Love, Ovid, Maynwaring, Hopkins, translated by Dryden & Congreve (Printed for Jacob & Richard Tonson, London, 1764) 4″x6.75″, 7+265pp, gilt edges, beautiful decorative full red Moroccan leather binding by master binder Canape, 5 raised bands, gilt titles and decorations including boarder of paste-down, marbled boards, very good condition for age, frontispieces for each work, engraver unknown. This book contains an English translation of Ovid’s Book of Love and two works in the style of Ovid: Chaucer’s The Court, by Arthur Maynwaring, and the History of Love by Charles Hopkins. The Art of Love (Ars amatorial) is an instructional elegy series written in 2 AD in three books by the ancient Roman poet Ovid. Book 1 shows a man how to find a woman. In book two, Ovid shows how to keep her. The third book, written two years after the first books were published, Ovid gives women advice on how to win and keep the love of a man. Arthur Maynwaring (1668-1712) of Ightfield, Shropshire, was an English official and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1706 to 1712. He was also a journalist and a polemic political author. In this work he paraphrases Chaucer’s The Court of Love using the poetic style of Ovid. Charles Hopkins (1664?–1700?) was an Anglo-Irish poet and dramatist. The elder son of Ezekiel Hopkins, bishop of Derry, he was born about 1664 at Exeter and was taken early to Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and then at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1688. Returning to Ireland Hopkins engaged in military service. He subsequently settled in England, and gained some reputation as a writer of poems and plays. Giles Jacob in the Poetical Register says that he might have made a fortune in any scene of life, but was unmotivated. His death aged 35, about the beginning of 1700, was put down to a “debauched lifestyle”. The full title to his contribution to this work is History of Love. A poem in a letter to a lady. The letter is addressed to “Her Grace the Dutchess of Grafton” who was Isabella Bennet FitzRoy (1668 -1723). It was originally published in 1695. Considered one of France’s master binders, Georges Canape, Georges (1864-1940) is the son of the bookbinder Pierre Jules Canape established in rue du Bac. He inherited his father's workshop in 1894 and also became a gilder. Canape follows the Art Nouveau movement of its time. Around 1927, he joined forces with the bookbinder Corriez.
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Metamorphoseon libri XV cum notis Th. Farnabii, P. Ovid Nasinis, (Paris, Pierre Esclassan, printed for Joan Blaeu, Amsterdam, 1763) 3.5″x5.75″, 380pp+2, full leather with gilt decorations, 5 raised bands,gilt titles on spine, marbled boards, very good condition for age, frontispiece presumably engraved by Joan Blaeu, some are fold-outs, text in Latin with numerous notes. Joan [Johannes] Blaeu (1596 - 1673) was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of tne noted cartographer Willem Blaeu. Pierre Esclassan (1643?-1718) was a bookseller and printer. He was born in Garans, Toulouse, France and apprenticed with Claude Thiboust, eventually becoming a partner. He was imprisoned in 1674-75 for the printing and trade in prohibited books along with his brother and fellow printer Dominique Esclassan and accomplice Louis Prussurot. He was sentenced to a fine and a 9 banishment but then the same year pardoned by the court. He continued to work in association with Claude Thiboust and then 1694 Caude’s son, Claude-Louis Thiboust, until his death in 1718. Decorations on the front and back covers say "IESVS MARIA" which could possibly indicate that it is from Congrégation des Religeuses de Jésus-Marie (founded in 1815, in France by Claudina Thévenet) or possibly bound for Francisco de Jesus Maria Sarmento (1713-1790), (author, jurist, theologian) or someone from the Jesus Maria family originally from Coimbra, Portugal. More research would need to be done to determine the true meaning of the decoration. Ovid (Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō, 43BC – 17/18AD) was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, in 8AD the emperor Augustus banished him to a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. The first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus, Ovid is today best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology. The Metamorphoses (from Ancient Greek: μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is an 8 AD Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising 11,995 lines, 15 books and over 250 myths, the Metamorphoses is comprehensive in its chronology, recounting the creation of the world to the death of Julius Caesar, which had occurred only a year before Ovid's birth; it has been compared to works of universal history, which became important in the 1st century BC. In spite of its apparently unbroken chronology, scholar Brooks Otis has identified four divisions in the narrative: Book I – Book II (end, line 875): The Divine Comedy Book III – Book VI, 400: The Avenging Gods Book VI, 401 – Book XI (end, line 795): The Pathos of Love Book XII – Book XV (end, line 879): Rome and the Deified Ruler Ovid works his way through his subject matter, often in an apparently arbitrary fashion, by jumping from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central events in the world of Greek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions. It begins with the ritual "invocation of the muse", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, it leaps from story to story with little connection. The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor (Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon, who is the closest thing this putative mock-epic has to a hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god out of reason. The work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor. The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue (Book XV.871–9), one of only two surviving Latin epics to do so. The ending acts as a declaration that everything except his poetry—even Rome—must give way to change: Now stands my task accomplished, such a work As not the wrath of Jove, nor fire nor sword Nor the devouring ages can destroy. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music.
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Manual of Classical Erotology (de figuris Veneris) by Fred. Chas. Forberg, trans. Alcide Bonneau (Privately Printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A. and Friends [Charles Carrington], 1884, one of 100 copies) vol. 2 only, half-bound in tan vellum over marbled boards, spine is labeled "Carrington" who is the presumed publisher. Top edge gilt, other edges deckled, binding loose but holding. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. First edition of this important parallel English, Latin and Greek version. This very rare edition was translated by Alcide Bonneau and published by Charles Carrington. Each page has latin (and where appropriate, Greek) on the right side and the English translation on the left. This is the second volume only and includes the following chapters: IV. —Of Masturbation V. —Of Cunnilingues VI. —Of Tribads VII. —Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. —Of Spintrian Postures (a list of 95 sexual positions) Considered the gold standard English translation of the time, this edition followed a poor piracy of 1882 badly translated from Liseux’s French edition of 1882. The name of the publisher is missing (most likely to avoid prosecution) and the limitation statement says 100 copies were "printed for Viscount Julian Smithson M. A., the Translator, and his Friends" and further states that "None of these Copies are for Sale" (also to avoid prosecution). Through later statements (mostly by association) we know it was published by Charles Carrington and translated by Alcide Bonneau. Carrington, in his 1902 catalogue, Forbidden Books wrote (thus promoting the sale of his clandestinely published book): ‘Were I a bookseller, I do not think I should ever take the trouble to print such a book as I have now before me. Here is a Latin work, full of notes, and bristling with Greek quotations. A most careful and masterly translation has been placed opposite every page of the original text, and it needs no literary critic to see that no one but a real classical scholar—an old Oxford man—could ever have successfully struggled with such a task... The two stout volumes have evidently been printed on the Continent—and for very good and valid reasons, as no English printer would dare to undertake such a work,— therefore each page would have to be submitted to the translator, at least three or four times, foreign compositors working mechanically. Many months would thus pass in wearisome proof-reading, and when at last the hundred copies are struck off, and each man receives his due, what margin of profit awaits the silly bookseller-publisher? He is insulted in every way and laughed at if he dares to wonder that the British Customs seize any copies...’ In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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Manuel d'érotologie classique (De figuris veneris). Traduit littéralement du latin par Isidore Liseux et illustré de 20 compositions originales, by Fred. Chas. [translated by d'Alcide Bonneau and not Liseux as noted] (np [Charles Hirsch], Paris, 1906, #106/500 one of 120 printed on Hollande paper) 8.5" X 11.5", viii+167(1)pp, bound in half burgundy morocco over marbled crimson boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, 5 raised bands, good+ condition, some bumping/rubbing to boards, very famous b&w frontispiece and 19 illustrations by Paul Avril, some soiling/foxing to illustrations, a beautiful and rare book in very good condition. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. Chapters are: I. Of Copulation II. Of Pederastia III. Of Irrumation IV. Of Masturbation V. Of Cunnilingues VI. Of Tribads VII. Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. Of Spintrian Postures In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hirsch's printed 500 copies of this 1906 edition. 20 were on Japan paper, 120 were on Holland paper, 340 were are Arches paper, and 20 were on "anglais" paper. This is one of 120 on Holland paper.
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Manuel d'érotologie classique (De figuris veneris). Traduit littéralement du latin par Isidore Liseux et illustré de 20 compositions originales, by Fred. Chas. [translated by d'Alcide Bonneau and not Liseux as noted] (np [Charles Hirsch], Paris, 1906, #106/500 one of 120 printed on Hollande paper) 8.5" X 11.5", viii+167(1)pp, bound in half burgundy morocco over marbled crimson boards, gilt titles and decorations on spine, 5 raised bands, good+ condition, some bumping/rubbing to boards, very famous b&w frontispiece and 19 illustrations by Paul Avril, some soiling/foxing to illustrations, a beautiful and rare book in very good condition. De figuris Veneris (On the figures of Venus) was an anthology of ancient Greek and ancient Roman writings on erotic topics, discussed objectively and classified and grouped by subject matter. It was first published by the German classicist Friedrich Karl Forberg in 1824 in Latin and Greek as a commentary to Antonio Beccadelli's (1394-1471) Hermaphroditus (commonly referred to as Antonii Panormitae Hermaphroditus), an erotic poem sequence of 1425 in renaissance Latin, though it was later also published as a separate work. Chapters are: I. Of Copulation II. Of Pederastia III. Of Irrumation IV. Of Masturbation V. Of Cunnilingues VI. Of Tribads VII. Of Intercourse with Animals VIII. Of Spintrian Postures In 1882 Forberg's work was translated into English and published by Charles Carrington as De figuris Veneris, Manual of classical erotology, and again in 1907 by Charles Hirsch, and into French, German and Spanish. The French edition by Alcide Bonneau was titled Manuel d’érotologie classique. One French edition of 1906 was illustrated by Édouard-Henri Avril, which concludes with a list of 95 sexual positions. Most of the editions were restricted to high society or censored; one of the copies edited in France was immediately deposited on the secret shelves of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Hirsch's printed 500 copies of this 1906 edition. 20 were on Japan paper, 120 were on Holland paper, 340 were are Arches paper, and 20 were on "anglais" paper. This is one of 120 on Holland paper.
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Venus in Furs, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, trans. Fernanda Savage (Privately Printed For Subscirbers Only. 1921, [first english translation?] limited first edition thus, #1045/1225) Venus in Furs (German: Venus im Pelz) is a novella by Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), an Austrian writer and journalist. It is now his best known work and because of its themes the term masochism is derived from his name, coined by the Austrian psychiatrist, Krafft-Ebing. The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series. It was published in 1870. The novel draws themes, like female dominance and sadomasochism, and character inspiration heavily from Sacher-Masoch's own life. Wanda von Dunajew, the novel's central female character, was modelled after his mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor. In December 1869 the two signed a contract making him her slave for a period of 6 months. In 1873, after the publication of Venus in Furs, Sacher-Masoch married Aurora von Rümelin who he pressured to continue the lifestyle he wrote about in his book. After 10 years they divorced. Rümelin, using the pseudonym of the books title character, "Wanda von Dunajew", wrote Meine Lebensbeichte (My Life Confession) published in 1906. It detailed Sacher-Masoch's private life and her relationship with him. During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English. Until recently, his novel Venus in Furs was his only book commonly available in English.
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Pudeur [Modesty], André Billy (Jean Vigneau, éditeur, 1946 [Philadelphia?] limited edition #61/450 first edition) 9.5″ X 11.25″, 97pp, original state, unbound loose signature, soft wraps enclosed in a cream & green loose hardcover which fits into a slipcase, some very slight foxing on wraps and slipcase but otherwise a very clean copy, small rip at bottom of spine. André Billy (1882 - 1971) was a French writer. He was born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne. After completing secondary studies at the Collège de la Providence in Amiens, he studied under the Jesuits at Saint-Dizier. He began writing in 1907, occasionally using the pseudonym Jean de l'Escritoire. Billy used ecclesiastical settings for the novels Bénoni, L'Approbaniste, Introïbo, and Le Narthex. He was inspired by the story-tellers of the 18th for the essay Pudeur and a few other works. For many years he was the literary critic for L'Œuvre. He edited the collection Leurs Raisons. Billy became honorary president of the Société des amis de Philéas Lebesgue. Retiring to Lyon during the Occupation of France, he worked on a series of imposing biographies: Vie de Balzac, Vie de Diderot, and Vie de Sainte-Beuve. He was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1943, but could not take his seat until 1944 because of the hostility of several members, some of whom he had criticised in his writings. After the War, he wrote the Chroniques du samedi for Le Figaro littéraire. The collection Histoire de la vie littéraire (éditions Tallandier) was published under the direction of André Billy, who contributed L'Époque 1900. In total, during his career he was to write 11,000 articles for over one hundred European newspapers.
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Petting as an Erotic Exercise: a study of the significance and techniques of pre-coital play, D. O. Cauldwell, M.D. (Haldeman-Julius Publications, Girard, Kansas, 1948) 5.5” x 8.5″, 32pp. pamphlet, slight sunning/soiling, very good for age, interior clean. This is one of many books written by David O. Cauldwell (1897-1959), and published by Haldeman-Julius Publications. Dr. Cauldwell was a self-described sexologist who is usually credited with being the first person to use the term 'transsexual' and 'transsexualism'. Although that claim has been widely disputed, he did write some of the first works examining transgender issues. In this pamphlet Dr. Cauldwell writes about foreplay in most all its forms and a call for the normalization of activities that were often described as perversions.
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Petting as an Erotic Exercise: a study of the significance and techniques of pre-coital play, D. O. Cauldwell, M.D. (Haldeman-Julius Publications, Girard, Kansas, 1948) 5.5” x 8.5″, 32pp. pamphlet, slight sunning/soiling, very good for age, interior clean. This is one of many books written by David O. Cauldwell (1897-1959), and published by Haldeman-Julius Publications. Dr. Cauldwell was a self-described sexologist who is usually credited with being the first person to use the term 'transsexual' and 'transsexualism'. Although that claim has been widely disputed, he did write some of the first works examining transgender issues. In this pamphlet Dr. Cauldwell writes about foreplay in most all its forms and a call for the normalization of activities that were often described as perversions.
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Out of stock
Emmanuelle, Bianca, and Venus in Furs, Emmanuelle Arsan, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Guido Crepax, introduction by Paolo Caneppelle and Günter Krenn [Evergreen/Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 2000, Germany, 1st edition thus] 8 x 10.5", 463pp, Hardcover w/DJ, red boards with white lettering, like-new condition. Published in 2000, and nolonger in print, designed by Lambert & Lambert, this edition has become rare and sought after. It was published with another volume “Justine and The Story of O”. This book has three of Crepax’s graphic novels. All three (like most of Crepax’s works) are very sexually graphic stories of sexual self-discovery under varying circumstances. Guido Crepas (1933-2003), better known by his nom de plume Guido Crepax, was an Italian comics artist. He is most famous for his character Valentina, created in 1965 and very representative of the spirit of the 1960s. The Valentina series of books and strips became noted for Crepax's sophisticated drawing, and for the psychedelic, dreamlike storylines, generally involving a strong dose of erotism. Marayat Rollet-Andriane formerly Marayat Krasaesin (1932-2005), known by the pen name Emmanuelle Arsan, was a French novelist of Thai origin, best known for the novel featuring the fictional character Emmanuelle, a woman who sets out on a voyage of sexual self-discovery under varying circumstances. It was later claimed that the real author of the book was her husband, Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. The novel Emmanuelle was initially published and distributed clandestinely in France in 1959, without an author's name. Successive editions were ascribed to Emmanuelle Arsan, who was subsequently revealed to be Marayat Rollet-Andriane. Though the novel was sometimes hinted to be quasi-autobiographical, it was later revealed that the actual author was her husband Louis-Jacques Rollet-Andriane. Several more novels were published under the Emmanuelle Arsan pseudonym. Venus in Furs (German: Venus im Pelz) is a novella by Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), an Austrian writer and journalist. It is now his best known work and because of its themes the term masochism is derived from his name, coined by the Austrian psychiatrist, Krafft-Ebing. The novel was to be part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series. It was published in 1870. The novel draws themes, like female dominance and sadomasochism, and character inspiration heavily from Sacher-Masoch's own life. Wanda von Dunajew, the novel's central female character, was modelled after his mistress Baroness Fanny Pistor. In December 1869 the two signed a contract making him her slave for a period of 6 months. In 1873, after the publication of Venus in Furs, Sacher-Masoch married Aurora von Rümelin who he pressured to continue the lifestyle he wrote about in his book. After 10 years they divorced. Rümelin, using the pseudonym of the books title character, "Wanda von Dunajew", wrote Meine Lebensbeichte (My Life Confession) published in 1906. It detailed Sacher-Masoch's private life and her relationship with him. During his lifetime, Sacher-Masoch was well known as a man of letters, a utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his fiction and non-fiction. Most of his works remain untranslated into English. Until recently, his novel Venus in Furs was his only book commonly available in English.
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The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde, Latimer J. Wilson illus. (F.M. Buckles & Company, New York, 1907) 6.5”x9.75″, 55pp, grey/violet cloth with gilt and black and white decorations and titles, top-edge gilt others deckled, corners bumped, binding and internal pages are in excellent condition. The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading after being convicted of gross indecency with other men in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison. During his imprisonment, a hanging took place. Charles Thomas Wooldridge had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife earlier that year at Clewer, near Windsor. He was aged 30 when executed. Wilde wrote the poem in mid-1897 while staying with Robert Ross in Berneval-le-Grand. The poem narrates the execution of Wooldridge; it moves from an objective storytelling to symbolic identification with the prisoners as a whole. No attempt is made to assess the justice of the laws which convicted them, but rather the poem highlights the brutalization of the punishment that all convicts share. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". Wilde too was separated from his wife and sons. He adopted the proletarian ballad form, and suggested it be published in Reynold's Magazine, "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes – to which I now belong – for once I will be read by my peers – a new experience for me". The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 under the name "C.3.3.", which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde's name – by then notorious – did not appear on the poem's front cover. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.3.3. was actually Wilde. The poem brought him a small income for the rest of his life. This edition, beautifully decorated by Latimer J. Wilson and published by F.M. Buckles & Company appears to be a very rare. There are no other copies of this edition currently on sale. I have found a few in private collections and libraries using WorldCat database but no copies appear to be in circulation.
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1601 A Tudor Fireside Conversation As Written by the Ingenuous, Virtuous and learned Mark Twain, wit., Embellished by the worthy Alan Odle, Mark Twain, illustrations Alan Odle (Land's End Press, USA, 1969, stated "At London, Printed for Subscribers Only and are to be sold at ye beare Back-Side in Maiden Lane") 8.75"x11.25", 24pp (unpaginated), hardbound with mylar-protected dust jacket, red boards with gilt titles [Date: 1601.] Conversation, as it was the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors is the title of a humorous work by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880. Edward Wagenknecht once referred to it as "the most famous piece of pornography in American literature." Its content is irreverent and vulgar rather than obscene, and its purpose seems to be comedic shock rather than erotic arousal. It would thus qualify as ribaldry rather than pornography. Twain wrote 1601 during the summer of 1876 (between writing Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn), for the amusement of his closest friend, Reverend Joseph Twichell, 1601 was later first published by another friend, John Hay, who later became Secretary of State. The work circulated among printers (due to it's often archaic type font) and many small batches were printed, however the authorship of the work remained unverified until Twain finally acknowledged he wrote it in 1906.
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Fanny Hill's Cook Book, Lionel H. Braun & William Adams, illustrations by Brian Forbes (Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1971 [first edition]) 9 3/8" X 6 1/8", 137pp, hardbound with DJ, good condition, binding tight, some soiling to front boards, few tears in dust jacket Rare and raunchy 70's cookbook. Highlights include "Whores d'oeuvres and snacks" featuring "Dildoughs with Warts in Hot Lips", "Pickled Peckers" and Marquise d'Salade with Crafty Ebbing Undressing". In the "Meat Dishes" section there is "Suc d'Meat", "Rump Roast or Backside Entree", and "Fellatio Mignon". There is a whole section "On Stuffing." The pasta section features "Cunnilinguini with Pietro's Tongue" and the dessert features among others "Jock's Strap", "The Nutcracker Sweet" and "Virgin's pushups with a few bawdy stories thrown in between the recipes. The illustrations are very fun. Very 70's. A good copy of a rare book.
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Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure or The Life of Fanny Hill, John Cleland (Hoboken, np, 1929 [Philadelphia?] limited edition #621/700 first edition) 5 3/4″ X 8 1/4″, 211pp, quarter-bound red cloth over decorated boards, white label affixed to spine, color illustrations (rare) in an “art deco” style in similar to Aubrey Beardsley [or Elliot Dodd], excellent condition for age. Written while the author was in debtor’s prison in London and first published in 1749, Fanny Hill is considered the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel. One of the most prosecuted and banned books in history, it has become a synonym for obscenity. The Hoboken copies of Fanny Hill are quite rare. This is the first edition original published c. 1929 with color illustrations and is extremely rare. An other edition appeared c. 1932 with the illustrations in black and white. It is unknown who the artist is but the illustrations are quite detailed and good.
This is a store for those who prefer the old to the new;
who prefer character to shine;
who value owning and using a piece of history.
This is a store for those people and the ones who adore them.