Re-issue limited edition of this classic pseduo-Sapphic collection of verse, illustrated by Franz Feli.
Near fine.
Price: $150.00
"I left the bed as she had left it, unmade and rumpled, coverlets awry, so that her body's print might rest still warm beside my own."
Originally "translated from the Greek" by Pierre Louÿs, SONGS OF BILITIS was purported to be the "discovery" of a German archeologist: "M[onsieur Heim] penetrated to it by means of a narrow well, choked with earth, at the bottom of which he found a walled-up door which it was necessary to demolish. The low and spacious vault, paved with limestone, had four walls covered with plates of black amphibolite on which were engraved in primitive capitals all the songs which follow, with the exception of the three epitaphs, which adorned the sarcophagus" ("Life of Bilitis"). Actually the wholesale creation of Louÿs, BILITIS exists somewhere between a literary hoax and and fin de siècle metafiction. This edition follows the 933-copy limited edition from earlier the same year.
n.p. Privately printed for The Pierre Louÿs Society, 1928. 11'' x 8.5''. Original green paper boards with printed titled labels to front and spine. One of 1250 copies. Printed on rag Unicorn laid paper. With 25 color plate illustrations by Felix, all with titled tissue guards. xxxii, 188 pages. Minor shelfwear, toning. Tiny tear to spine label. Bright, sound overall.
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