Patrick J. Kearney
A Bibliography of theClandestine Publications of

Jean-Jacques Pauvert

Scissors & Paste Bibliographies
Santa Rosa CA
2019Introductory Note

Jean-Jacques Pauvert was born in 1926 and spent his childhood at Sceaux, a Southern suburb of Paris about 10 kilometresfrom the centre of the City and famous for its landscaped gardens designed by André Le Nôtre (1613 - 1700). He began his
education at the Lycée Lakanal, where a love of literature was
encouraged in the young student by his teacher, José Lupin.
Other students who owed their future success to this school included Jean Giraudoux, Alain-Fournier and Maurice Allais, thewinner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for economics. He continued
his studies, briefly, at the école alsacienne on rue Notre-Damedes-Champs, Paris, where his paternal grandfather, Paul Pauvert, had been a teacher. Early in 1942, he joined the staff of the
Gallimard Bookshop on the boulevard Raspail where he soon
became acquainted with many famous publishers, authors andcollectors.
Somewhere, perhaps on my Scissors and Paste website, or insome equally public arena, I foolishly wrote that his 1949 edition of Sade’s Les 120 Journées de Sodome was “Pauvert’s
maiden effort as a publisher.” This is actually quite wrong, although it may have been his maiden clandestine publication. In
fact, he started publishing four years earlier, in 1945, when hefounded Éditions Palimugre. His first book was a reprint of Explication de l’étranger, an essay by Sartre on Camus’ novel that
had originally appeared in the cultural review Cahiers du Sud.
A plaquette of 31 pages, it was issued in January 1946 in a small
but unspecified number of copies on vélin de Lana, Lana supérieur and Japon.
2

This was followed, also in 1946, by Pour les femmes byHenri de Montherlant, a reprint of six essays - (Le Ménage deTolstoï - Don Juan satisfait - Sur les Femmes - Lettres deFemmes - Mères et Filles - Les Femmes et la Poèsie) - first published in April 1942 by éditions du Sagittaire. In the same year
Pauvert also published a pretty edition of Le Pauvre Bougre etle Bon Génie, a one-act play by Alphonse Allais that had firstbeen performed at the Théâtre des Mathurins on May 24th,
1889.
Montherlant was an author who greatly appealed to Pauvert
for in 1947 he issued Il y a encore des paradis and Pasiphaë bythe same author, the latter being illustrated with two plates by
Cocteau.
Pauvert’s interest in what might be called the underside ofliterature began when he was about sixteen or seventeen. Oneof his favourite books was already the archetype libertine novel
Liaisons dangereuses (1782) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos,
which he would reprint in a handsome, illustrated edition in
1959, but in the Winter of 1942-1943 a bookseller with whom
he had already done some business introduced him to his first
truly erotic books, Le Con d’Irène, l’histoire de l’Œil and Les
Cent vingt journées de Sodome in their original, clandestine
editions. He was at first puzzled by these texts, and impressedby their outspokenness, especially the latter, and it didn’t takelong for him to look seriously into the possibility of publishingan œuvres complètes of Sade.
He began modestly enough in early 1947, with an edition of
Idée sur les romans, an essay by Sade that had originally formed
the Introduction to Les Crimes de l’amour (1800). Pauvert thenventured for the first time into very murky waters indeed withthe first two volumes of an openly published edition of l’Histoire de Juliette, and therein lays a puzzle. In all copies of thisedition that I’ve seen referred to the work is described as being
complete in five volumes, and yet in his memoirs he writes: “Le3

dix volumes de l’Histoire de Juliette furent enfin terminés d’imprimer en Juillet 1949” (La Traversée du livre, p. 163). He also
states: “Je m’entêtai, et fin décembre 1947, mon imprimeur (quin’avait pas voulu mettre son nom : je le comprenais) me livrait
le deux premiers volumes de l’édition intégrale de l’Histoire deJuliette” (op. cit., p. 145), which seems to be a mistake sinceNovember 1948 is the date given in all copies of volume onethat I’ve encountered.
Ten volumes would seem to imply the whole of La
Nouvelle Justine for historically the novel comprises La
Nouvelle Justine (vols. 1-4) and its companion or sequel l’Histoire de Juliette (vols. 5-10), but so far as I can tell Pauvert did
not first publish the four volumes of La Nouvelle Justine until
May 1953. What appears to have occurred is that for some reason - possibly economic - Pauvert decided to take the traditional six volumes of l’Histoire de Juliette and split them into
two, creating in effect a 12-volume work. This idea is reinforced by the solitary copy of volume 1 in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, which is described at length by Pascal Pia (Les Livres
de l’Enfer, pp. 394,5). It is in two separate volumes or parts of
240 pages in all, part one having 128 pages and part two being
paginated 129-240. The two parts have white wrappers, withthe titlepages repeated on the front wrappers in red and black.
After the titlepage of part 2, Pauvert has added the followingnote:
A la demande de la plupart des souscripteurs, nous
avons conçu la fabrication de ces volumes de manière quel’on puisse les donner à relier deux à deux. C’est pourquoi le precedent volume ce terminait ainsi que celui-ci
commence: en pleine page. On aura d’ailleurs remarquéque le foliotage se poursuivait d’un volume à l’autre.
And at the end of part 2 is:4“La présente édition de l’Histoire de Juliette sera
complète en douze volumes” while at the conclusion of
volume 5 is: “Fin du dixième et dernier volume.”
At what point it was decided by Pauvert that the project
could be completed in ten rather than twelve volumes is uncertain, and nor is it clear whether the two parts of volume one in
the Bibliothèque Nationale are an isolated oddity since, as mentioned above, all the copies I’ve seen described have been infive volumes - two parts in each - and, as an additional mystification, are bound in black, paper boards with an abstract designin red signed ‘M.P.’ [Mario Prassinos].
For information’s sake, volume I of l’Histoire de Juliette wasprinted in November 1948 (pp. 240), II in January 1949 (pp.
240), III in April 1949 (pp. 368), IV in May 1949 (pp. 240), andV in July 1949 (pp. 355).
Post-WWII censorship in France was rigorous and unrelenting, and it curious that Pauvert should decide to publish something so outrageous as l’Histoire de Juliette with his name on it
and the address of his parent’s garage (39 rue des Coudrais,
Sceaux), but go ‘underground’ in 1948 with two books, theedition of Les 120 Journées de Sodome already referred toabove, and a more egalitarian edition of Genet’s novel Pompes
funèbres which had first been published the preceding year by
Gaston Gallimard in an expensive édition de luxe for collectors.
Unlike his contemporary Eric Losfeld, who relished the subrosa world and published dozens of books secretly in the 50s
and 60s, Pauvert seems to have been uneasy with the role and I
suspect that his ambition ran to grander things than the subterranean existence of a pornographer. His clandestine output waslimited to just ten works, all but one of them being reprints.
With the exception of Aventures lubriques, an anonymous 30s
novel, the books he published were all remarkable examples of
erotic writing. But to continue in this vein would have limited5

him and so he emerged from the darkness and attacked theforces of censorship head-on.
Using his own name he would publish books by authors
who preferred not to use theirs, such as Histoire d’O (1954) by‘Pauline Réage’ [Anne Desclos], Lourdes, lentes… (1969) by‘Steve Masson’ [André Hardellet], and Cruelle Zélande (1979)[by Jacques Serguine]. He was also a great leveller. The intellectual champions of literary freedom who are so quick to rush
to the defence of Great Literature – the cases involving Lady
Chatterley’s Lover and Ulysses spring to mind – seldom support
with equal zeal less celebrated works and in doing so deny toothers the liberty they demand for themselves.
Pauvert recognized this. Prompted by the prosecutions in1970 of Pour la liberation du Brésil (Paris: Seuil), a French translation of a book by Carlos Marighela, and of Pierre Guyotat’séden, éden, éden (Paris: Gallimard), he threw down a challenge
to the authorities in July 1971 with L’Enfer du sexe by ‘Youl
Belhomme,’ a pornographic novel which was accompanied byan essay of his own composition called Le Vrai problème de lacensure. Describing the novel in unflattering terms to ensure it
could not be defended on literary grounds, he wrote:
L’Enfer du Sexe est un petit roman pornographiqueécrite très vite, pour gagner de l’argent, par un auteur
débutant qui ne pretend pas au genie, ni même à une
grande maîtrise de sa langue. Si je le mets tel quel en circulation, sous mon nom, c’est pour protester à ma manière, c’est pour attirer l’attention…
The book of course fell afoul of the law the month it was
published. On page 7468 of the issue of the Journal officiel for
July 28th 1971 it was proscribed under the law of July 16th 1949
that limits what those under the age of 18 may be allowed toread.
6Provocations of this sort mark Pauvert as one of the true
champions of literary freedom. He deserves our gratitude.

References

Jean-Pierre Dutel, Bibliographie des Ouvrages érotiques Publiés Clandestinement en Français entre 1920 et 1970 (Paris:
The Author, 2005).
Jean-Jacques Pauvert, La Traversée du Livre (Paris: Viviane
Hamy, 2004).

Pascal Pia, Les Livres de l’Enfer du XVIe Siècle à Nos Jours(Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1998).

7

AVENTURES | LUBRIQUES | EN HOLLANDE |MCMXLVIII
Collation: 8vo. 18.8 x 12 cm. [1]-108, 114, 128. pp 184.
Printed on white wove paper. Six erotic plates, unsigned,
printed in brown.
Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3], ‘AVENTURES LUBRIQUES’. p. [4] ‘CET OUVRAGE A ÉTÉ TIRÉ | À PETIT NOMBRE SUR PAPIER | ALFA MOUSSE’. p. [5]Title, as above, reverse blank. pp. 7-183, text. p. [184] blank.
Binding: Coral pink wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title&c. from titlepage, all in black. Compiler’s copy has been rebound in plumb cloth, with front wrapper only preserved andlaid down.
Notes: Published in 1953 by Pauvert in collaboration with acertain “Madame Francoise,” a book-seller who imported andexported clandestine literature between Belgium and France,
and which was printed for them by Imprimerie de Nesle. According to J.-P. Dutel (Bibliographie des Ouvrages érotiques
publiés clandestinement en Français entre 1920 et 1970, entry

8

no. 1078), this is a new edition of a pornographic novel originally published at Paris about 1938 by Maurice Duflou, andcalled Aventures d’un Satyre, but the history of the book is confusing. At an auction at Nouveau Drouot on March 11th, 1987
a copy of Aventures Lubriques is offered as part of Lot 23. It is
described as an octavo of 179 pages, with no date or publisher
given, but the cataloguer suggests Paris, c. 1935. The note to
the entry reads: “Edition originale illustrée de 8 hors-texte signés Eres. La typographie du texte semble avoir été exécutée àla machine à écrire.” The original edition of Aventures d’unesatyre was credited to ‘Jane de Rozat’ and had the imprint ‘Édition privée.’ It had 159 pages and 11 coloured illustrations, andthe last four digits of the pressmark of the Kinsey Institute copy
confirm M. Dutel’s estimate of the date: 843.8 R893 a2 1938.)
Despite the print run being described as being ‘tiré | a petit
nombre’ 2,000 copies are believed to have been actually issued.
A reprint or reprints of Aventures d’une satyre were prosecutedin 1950 and 1952, and reprints of Aventures lubriques wereprosecuted in 1957 and 1958.

9

GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | LES | EXPLOITS |D’UN JEUNE | DON JUAN | A PHILADELPHIE | 1944
Collation: 8vo. 22.7 x 15.5 cm. No signatures, but [1-88].
pp. 128. Printed on heavy, white wove paper.
Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] ‘LES EXPLOITS D’UN
JEUNE | DON JUAN’, reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p.
[6] ‘IL A ETE TIRE DE CET OUVRAGE, | QUI NE SERA
PAS MIS DANS LE | COMMERCE TROIS CENTS
EXEM- | PLAIRES, TOUS NUMEROTES, | RESERVESAUX SOUSCRIPTEURS. | EXEMPLAIRE NO [machine
numbered]’. pp. [7] -127, text, p. [128] blank. Initial letters on
first words of chapters printed in red.
Binding: Cream wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title &c.
from titlepage, but all in red.
Notes: Printed for Pauvert in 1953 by Gaston Coquette using type set by Madame Brochard of rue d’Alesia. Although theedition is stated to be 300 copies, the number is in fact believed
to be 2,000. The novel is a translation, by Apollinaire, ofKinder-Geilheit. Geständnisse eines Knaben (Berlin: 1891). For
details of the German original, see Hayn/Gotendorf, vol. 3, pp.
10

551,2. Elias Gaucher originally published Apollinaire’s translation at Paris about 1905. The compiler’s copy is from the collection of the late Gershon Legman, who has written in his distinctive handwriting on the back wrapper: “[Paris: J.-J. Pauvert,
1953].” A piracy of this edition, done possibly by Eric Losfeld,
was published about 1958. It has the same imprint, but 133
pages.
Copy used: compiler’s collection.

11

GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | LES | ONZE MILLE |VERGES | EN HOLLANDE | MXMXLVIII [sic]Collation: 18.5 x 11.5 cm. [14], 2-118. pp. 168. Printed onwhite wove paper.
Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] ‘LES ONZE MILLEVERGES’, reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] ‘CET OUVRAGE A ÉTÉ TIRÉ | A PETIT NOMBRE SUR PAPIER| ALFA MOUSSE’. p. [7] ‘LA PRÉFACE QUE NOUSDONNONS | CI-APRÈS EST GÉNÉRALEMENT | ATTRIBUÉE A LOUIS ARAGON | ELLE FUT PUBLIÉE EN
1930’. p. [8] blank. pp. [9-17], Preface. p. [18] blank. pp. [19]168, text.
Binding: Light blue wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title&c., including the incorrect date, from title-page.
Notes: Published about 1953. Despite being typographically
identical to several of his other clandestine books (Aventureslubriques, &c.), Pauvert has inexplicably denied responsibility
for this title. It is true, however, that the paper on which it isprinted is not as good as his other publications, at least on thecompiler’s copy. This edition includes the Preface, unsigned,
12but generally considered to be by Louis Aragon, which first appeared in the edition of this novel published by René Bonnel
in 1930 and in most subsequent reprintings. Despite the print
run being described as being ‘tiré | a petit nombre’ 2,000 copies
are believed to have been actually issued. Les Onze mille verges
was originally printed and published by Elias Gaucher at Paris
about 1907; a second edition from the same publisher appeared
about a year later.
Copy used: compiler’s collection.

13

GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | POÉSIES LIBRES |CORTÉGE PRIAPIQUE | JULIE OU LA ROSE | AMSTERDAM | “A L’ENSEIGNE DE LA LIBERTÉ CHOISIE”| 1948.
Collation: 18.5 x 11.7 cm. No signatures, but [14], [2-38].
pp. viii+32. Printed on white wove paper. Compiler’s copy watermarked Lafuma Frères.
Contents: pp. [i,ii], blank. p. [iii] ‘POÉSIES LIBRES’, reverse blank. p. [v] title, as above. p. [vi] ‘CE VOLUME ÉTÉTIRÉ A 525 EXEMPLAIRES, | DONT 25 SUR PAPIER O’
ANNAM, ET | 500 SUR PAPIER LAFUMA FRÈRES. |Exemplaire No [machine numbered]’. p. [vii] ‘CORTÉGEPRIAPIQUE’, reverse blank. p. [1]-27, text. p. [28] blank. p.
[29] ‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | EN AVRIL | 1948 | AMSTERDAM’, reverse blank. pp. [31,32] blank.
Binding: Light cream wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title&c. from the titlepage.
Notes: Published in 1948 by Pauvert, and printed for him
by Gaston Coquette. Cortège Priapique was originally published in 1925 by René Bonnel and the bookseller René Picart.
14

Only the poems titled ‘Chapeau Tombeau’ and ‘696666…69’
are by Apollinaire. The remainder are unsigned pastiches by
Pascal Pia. Julie ou la Rose was first published by René Bonnel
in 1927. Only ‘Éphitalame’, ‘Petit Balai’ and ‘Le Teint’ are by
Apollinaire. The remainder are unsigned pastiches by Pascal Pia.
Despite the stated limitation, in the region of 1,000 copies wereactually printed.
Copy used: compiler’s collection.

15

IRÈNE | Chez l’Auteur | MCMLII
Collation: 8vo. 22.5 x 14 cm. No signatures, but [1-144]. pp.
110. The 5th leaf (comprising pp. 9,10) is wanting from all copies. Its existence is inferred from a stub remaining between pp.
[8] and 11. Printed on papier vélin, with running heads and page
numbers printed in red. No limitation is stated, but 2,000 copies
are believed to have been printed.
Contents: pp. [3-6] blank. p. [7] ‘IRÈNE’, reverse blank. p.
[9] title, as above, reverse blank. pp. 11-[108] text. pp. [109112] blank.
Binding: Pale cream wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title&c. from titlepage, but all in red.
Notes: Published by Pauvert in 1952. Copies have been
noted with dark blue wrappers on the front of which is a label
on which is printed the title Irène within a border or frame.
These are thought to be the handiwork of the printer or binder,
and are not legitimate. There is in addition a tirage de luxe of
this work printed on vergé d’Arches limited to 100 copies on
which the book’s original title is spelled in full, ‘LE | CON |16

D’IRÈNE’. This limited edition is openly copyrighted in Pauvert’s name, and has an engraved frontispiece by Hans Bellmer,
who also designed the book. In all other respects, including themissing 5th leaf, the tirage de luxe is the same as the trade edition. The compiler’s copy is from the collection of the late Gershon Legman, who has written in ink and pencil in his distinctive handwriting on the back wrapper: “[Paris, 1952]. [J.-J. Pauvert] | bought 1953 (Deluxe ed. w. full title).” Le Con d’Irène
was written by Louis Aragon, and originally published in 1928
by René Bonnel.
Copy used: compiler’s collection.

17

LORD AUCH | HISTOIRE | DE | L’ŒIL | NOUVELLE VERSION | BURGOS | 1941
Collation: 8vo. 18.6 x 11.7 cm. No signatures, but [1-88].
pp. 128. Printed on white wove paper.
Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] ‘HISTOIRE DE L’ŒIL’,reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] ‘Il a été a tiré de cet
ouvrage, qui ne sera pas | mis dans le commerce, cinq cents
exemplaires, | tous numérotés, réservés aux souscripteurs. |Exemplaire No [machine numbered]’. p. [7] ‘L’ŒIL DE
CHAT’, reverse blank. pp. [9]-15, text. p. [16] blank. p. [17]‘L’ARMOIRE NORMANDE’, reverse blank. pp. [19]-26,
text. p. [27] ‘L’ODEUR DE MARCELLE’, reverse blank. pp.
[29]-34, text. p. [35] ‘UNE TACHE DE SOLEIL’, reverse
blank. pp. [37]-44, text. p. [45] ‘UN FILET DE SANG’, reverse blank. pp. [47]-51, text. p. [52] blank. p. [53] ‘SIMON’,reverse blank. pp. [55]-60, text. p. [61] ‘MARCELLE’, reverse
blank. pp. [63]-68, text. p. [69] ‘LES YEUX OUVERTS | DE
LA MORTE’, reverse blank. pp. [71]-76, text. p. [77] ‘ANIMAUX OBSCÈNES’, reverse blank. pp. [79]-83, text. p. [84],blank. p. [85] ‘L’ŒIL DE GRANERO’, reverse blank. pp.
18

]87]-93, text. p. [94] blank. p. [95] ‘SOUS LE SOLEIL | DE
SEVILLE’, reverse blank. pp. [97]-102, text. p. [103] ‘LA
CONFESSION | DE SIMONE ET LA MESSE | DE SIR
EDMUND’, reverse blank. pp. [105]-110, text. p. [111] ‘LES
PATTES DE MOUCHE’, reverse blank. pp. [113]-120, text.
p. [121] ‘RÉMINISCENCES’, reverse blank. pp. [123]-127,
text. p. [128] blank.
Binding: Gray wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title &c.
from titlepage, but all in red.
Notes: Published by Pauvert in 1951, and printed for him
by Imprimerie de Nesle from type set by Madame Brochard ofrue d’Alesia. The text of the last section, ‘Réminiscences’, comprising pp. [123]-127, is printed in a smaller typeface than therest of the book because, apparently, Pauvert didn’t orderenough paper for the job. Despite the stated limitation of 500
copies, it is thought that 2,000 were actually printed. The compiler’s copy is from the collection of the late Gershon Legman,
who has written in his distinctive handwriting on the backwrapper: “[par Georges Bataille] | [Paris: J.-J. Pauvert, 1953].”
Histoire de l’œil was originally published at Paris in 1928 byRené Bonnel in an edition of 134 copies, with a frontispieceand seven plates by André Masson.
Copy used: compiler’s collection.

19

[Hand-written within a rough, abstract drawing by Jean
Cocteau:] Jean Genet | Pompes | Funèbres
Collation: 8vo. 18.5 x 11.7 cm. [1]-248. pp. [vi]+[1,2],3[378]. Printed on white wove paper.
Contents: pp. [i-iv] blank. p. [v] ‘Pompes | Funèbres’. p. [vi]‘Cette édition strictement hors - commerce | et réservé aux
seuls souscripteurs a été | achevé d’imprimer en avril 1948 etlimitée | à 1.500 exemplaires numéroté. | [machine numbered]’. p. [1] title, as above, reverse blank. pp. 3-[375] text. pp.
[376-378] blank.
Binding: Wrappers illustrated with a b&w photographic
montage designed by Pierre Jahan (1909-2003). The front
wrapper has the author’s name in an oblong white block withrounded ends above the title, which has shadowed caps and ispartially contained within overlapping white shields.
Notes: This is the second edition, and a joint venture published in an edition of 1500 copies in April 1948 by Pauvert andPaul Morihen, Jean Cocteau’s secretary. It was printed for themby Gaston Coquette, who a year earlier had printed the original

20

Édition de luxe for Gaston Gallimard, which had the false imprint ‘A Bikini, aux dépens de quelques amateurs.’

21

PIERRE LOUŸS | TROIS FILLES | ET [sic] LEUR
MÈRE | PARIS | A L’ENSEIGNE DE LA MAISON PERDUE | 308, Rue Saint-Jacques
Collation: 8vo. 18.5 x 11.8 cm. No signatures, but [1-198].
pp. [i,ii],[1-6],7-[302]. Printed on white wove paper.
Contents: pp. [i,ii] & [1,2] blank. p. [3] ‘TROIS FILLES |ET [sic] LEUR MÈRE’, reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p.
[6] ‘Le tirage de ce livre | est strictement limité | à cinq cent
exemplaires, | tous numérotés, | et réservés aux souscripteurs |EXEMPLAIRE No [machine numbered]’. pp. 7-295, text. p.
[296] blank. p. [297] ‘Achevé d’imprimer | en Février 1950 |sur les Presses | de l’Imprimerie Particulière | de l’Editeur |Dépôt legal 1er trimestre 1950.’ pp. [298-302] blank.
Binding: Off-white wrappers. Front wrapper repeats title&c. from titlepage, excluding the imprint and address.
Notes: Published by Pauvert about 1950, and printed forhim by Imprimerie de Nesle from type set by Madame Brochardof rue d’Alesia. Despite the stated limitation of 500 copies, it isthought that 2,000 were actually printed. There is a rue St.Jacques in Paris, but the numeration of the addresses doesn’t
22extend to 308. This novel was first published secretly at Paris in
1926 by Pascal Pia and René Bonnel, in facsimile of the author’s
holograph manuscript, written in his customary purple ink. The
title of the original edition was Trois Filles de Leur Mère, but
was altered to ‘et Leur Mère’ in error.

23

PIERRE MORION | L’ANGLAIS | DÉCRIT | DANSLE | CHATEAU | FERMÉ | OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE| MCMLIII
Collation: 8vo. 22.7 x 14 cm. No signatures, but [1-204]. pp.
[vi]+[1-8], 9-[154] Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp.
[i-iv] blank. p. [v] ‘L’ANGLAIS DÉCRIT | DANS LE |CHATEAU | FERMÉ’, reverse blank. p. [1] title, as above,
reverse blank. p. [3] ‘IL A ÉTÉ TIRÉ DE CE LIVRE | TROISCENT CINQUANTE | EXEMPLAIRES TOUS NUMÉROTÉS | QUI NE SERONT PAS MIS DANS | LE COMMERCE, ÉTANT RÉSERVÉS | A L’AUTEUR | ET AUX
SOUSCRIPTEURS | EXEMPLAIRE NO [machine numbered]’, reverse blank. p. [5] ‘A la mémoire d’E. J. | et pour laSociété (secrète) des amis d’Aubrey Beardsley’, reverse blank. p.
[7] ‘je prie que l’on veuille bien considérer ce | livre comme
une sorte de corrida.’, reverse blank. p. 9-145, text. p. [146]blank. p. [147] ‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | LE 2 JUINMCMLIII’. pp. [148-154] blank.

24

Binding: Gray card wrappers, with the title ‘L’ANGLAIS’printed in red within a double rule oblong frame on a cream
paper label on the front wrapper.
Notes: Published by Pauvert in 1953, and designed for him
by Hans Bellmer. The initials ‘E. J.’ in the dedication refer toEdmond Jaloux (1878-1949), the French novelist and critic. It
was planned to include seven engravings by Bellmer in thiswork, but the project was abandoned for technical reasons andthe plates were eventually published in Mode d’emploi (Paris:
Georges Visat, 1967). Although the limitation notice states that
350 copies were issued, it is believed that 1,000 were in factprinted. Two copies, in the collections of Jean-Pierre Dutel andthe late Gérard Nordmann, have autograph inscriptions by theauthor following the date in the achevé d’imprimer whichreads: “Coronation Day. Et merde pour la reine de l’Angleterre”. The compiler’s copy is from the collection of Gershon Legman, who has written in ink on the back wrapper: ‘[parAndré PIEYRE de Mandiargues] | [Paris: J.-J. Pauvert] 1953’.
And in pencil below this: ‘bought, 1953’. This is original editionof this important novel; a piracy published by Eric Losfeld appeared shortly afterwards.

25

D. A. F. de SADE | LES 120 JOURNÉES | DE SODOME| [this line appears only in vol. 1:] OU L’ÉCOLE DU LIBERTINAGE | (TOME 1) [ (- II), ( - III), ( - IV)] | BRUXELLES| MCMXLVIII
Collation (vol. I): 12mo. No signatures, but [1-144]. pp.
[i,ii], [1-6], 7-[110]. Printed on white wove paper.
Collation (vol. II): 12mo. No signatures, but [1-214]. pp.
[i,ii], [1-6], 7-[166]. Printed on white wove paper.
Collation (vol. III): 12mo. No signatures, but [1-294]. pp.
[i,ii], [1-6], 7-[230]. Printed on white wove paper.
Collation (vol. IV): 12mo. No signatures, but [14, 2-88, 96].
pp. [i,ii], [1-6], 7-[130]. Printed on white wove paper.
Contents (vol. I): pp. [i,ii] blank. p. [1] ‘LES 120 JOURNÉES DE SODOME’. p. [2] ‘TIRÉ A 750 EXEMPLAIRES| HORS - COMMERCE ET RÉSERVÉS | AUX SOUSCRIPTEURS | EXEMPLAIRE No [machine numbered]’. p.
[3] title, as above, reverse blank. p. [5] ‘INTRODUCTION’,reverse blank. pp. 7-105, text. p. [106] blank. p. [107]‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | EN AVRIL 1948 |BRUXELLES’. pp. [108-110] blank.
26

Contents (vol. II): pp. [i,ii] blank. p. [1] ‘LES 120 JOURNÉES DE SODOME’. p. [2] ‘TIRÉ A 750 EXEMPLAIRES| EXEMPLAIRE No [machine numbered]’. p. [3] title, as
above, reverse blank. p. [5] ‘PREMIERE PARTIE | Les 160
passions simples…’, reverse blank. pp. 7-162, text. p. [163]‘NOTE DE L’EDITEUR | [rule] | […text of note] p. [164]‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | EN JANVIER 1948 |BRUXELLES’. pp. [165-166] blank.
Contents (vol. III): pp. [i,ii] blank. p. [1] ‘LES 120 JOURNÉES DE SODOME’. p. [2] ‘TIRÉ A 750 EXEMPLAIRES| EXEMPLAIRE No [machine numbered]’. p. [3] title, as
above, reverse blank. p. [5] ‘PREMIERE PARTIE | (suite)’,reverse blank. pp. 7-[225], text. p. [226] blank. p. [227]‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | EN AVRIL 1948 |BRUXELLES’. pp. [228-230] blank.
Contents (vol. IV): pp. [i,ii] blank. p. [1] ‘LES 120 JOURNÉES DE SODOME’. p. [2] ‘TIRÉ A 750 EXEMPLAIRES| HORS - COMMERCE ET RÉSERVÉS | AUX SOUSCRIPTEURS | EXEMPLAIRE No [machine numbered]’. p.
[3] title, as above, reverse blank. p. [5] ‘SECONDE PARTIE |Les 150 passions…’, reverse blank. pp. 7-[122], text. pp. [123,4]‘NOTE SUR LES 120 JOURNÉES’ signed ‘L’EDITEUR’. p.
[125] ‘TABLE DES QUATRE VOLUMES’, reverse blank. p.
[127] ‘ACHEVÉ D’IMPRIMER | EN AVRIL 1948 |BRUXELLES’. pp. [128-130] blank.
Binding: Cream wrappers. Front wrappers printed in dark
blue, repeat titles &c. from the titlepage.
Notes: The copy described here is from the compiler’s collection. There is a suggestion – most notably in the descriptionsof the work provided by M. Dutel (op. cit. entries 1173,4)
which indicates variances in paginations and dates of publication– that as many as three editions or variant printings may exist of
this work. There were certainly problems experienced during
the printing process, as evidenced by a publisher’s note on p.
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[163] of volume II which reads, in part: “Nous nous excusonsde ces erreurs dues aux conditions nous devons travailler, et remerçions nos lec-de [sic] leur attention, de leurs encouragements, et de leurs critiques, dont nous tenons compte.”
Copyright © 2019 Patrick J. Kearney28