Colette Colligan et Cécile Loyen

Who Was The
Mysterious Underground PublisherofGuillaume Apollinaire?1
Translated by Patrick J. Kearney

Scissors & Paste Bibliographies
Santa Rosa, CA2019

The first editon, c. 1907

The second edition, 1908.

From an early age, Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) was
passionate about forbidden literature. Known for his use of thevers libre, after Laforgue, Kahn, Krysinska or Régnier, and anavant-garde author in the artistic field at the beginning of the20th century, he was also throughout his career a curious man
and an avid lover of erotic literature. We know that he is thewell-known author of two erotic novels, Les Onze mille verges
and the Les Exploits d’un jeune Don Juan, which were published sub rosa around 1907.2 Apollinaire worked closely with
the Briffaut brothers as collector, editor, translator, and researcher, for the libertine series Les Maîtres de l’amours which
included works by the Marquis de Sade, Andréa de Nerciat, andPietro Aretino. With the assistance of éroto-bibliographicalcompanions, he compiled the first bibliography of L’Enfer de la
Bibliothèque Nationale (1913), a collection of books seized bythe French government beginning in 1836. He also had a strong
taste for the erotic literature of his time. In his personal library,which can now be found in its entirety in the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, he created his own little enfer withthe latest clandestine books published in French and other languages. Although he did not hide as an author, Apollinaire2never acknowledged his two erotic novels, Les Onze mille
verges and the Les Exploits d’un jeune Don Juan, which were
published only under his initials. The origin and production ofthese novels remain a mystery to this day. Who was the publisher and what was his relationship with the author? Faced withthis mystery, the shadow of an unknown printer/publisher began to appear. Following new research, we unveil here for the
first time the true portrait of this publisher, who hid behind areputation as a little pirate of unknown origin. A thoroughsearch of the French archives also allows us to throw a new lighton this secret literary culture, and on what we might call thebibliographie sentimental, which fascinated Apollinaire.
It is in 1913 that we find the first written trace of this mysterious publisher. The bibliography of the L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque Nationale, compiled by the three friends Guillaume
Apollinaire, Louis Perceau and Fernand Fleuret, reveals partially
his family name a few times, abbreviated to these three letters:
G...ch.. This person, mainly characterized in L’Enfer as a clandestine printer of contrefaçons and the occasional publisher oforiginal works, was not recognized as the publisher of Apollinaire’s two infamous novels until half a century later.3 In 1978,when he updated the bibliography of l’Enfer, Pascal Pia finallyrevealed this name, which was already circulating among bibliographers: Apollinaire’s pornographic publisher was called“Gaucher” and worked as a freelance printer in Vanves and Malakoff, suburbs of Paris.4 Peter Mendes, an English bibliographer, adds a new dimension to the publisher’s image, thanks
to a letter from Henri Michaux, an erotic bookseller with whom
he was in contact. In this letter, he described Gaucher as anitinerant broker selling the books he carried in his suitcase. Inaddition to this letter, Mendes discovered a profile that could
correspond to Gaucher’s description in the autobiography of an
expatriate collected in The Memoirs of Montparnasse5 in which3appears a sous le manteau publisher by the name of Elias Gaucher.6 Apollinaire’s biographers and literary critics followed thislead and, by repeating the same information, “Elias Gaucher” isto this day regarded as the presumed publisher of Apollinaire.
However, our research revealed that the biographical information on “Gaucher” collected over the past half-century wasincorrect.

Digging in the archives
It is Apollinaire himself who sets us on the path. The Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris has an important collection on Apollinaire, coming from his first biographer, PierreMarcel Adéma, in which there are unpublished proofs of
L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque Nationale. These proofs include
handwritten explanatory notes, as well as text elements, that do
not appear in the printed version of the bibliography. The codesthat replace the names of some publishers are not yet establishedthroughout the volume, so that the full names of pornographers
are sometimes unveiled, as well as details, hitherto unknown, oftheir clandestine activities. In these proofs there is a remarkableparagraph, which was removed from the printed version andthanks to which, for the first time, we can establish an explicit
link between the mysterious publisher and the Les Onze mille
verges of Apollinaire :Above all, this G... produced counterfeits, but he published a few original works, some English and German
novels, and an excellent fantasy, Les Onze mille verges,by G. A. (The copy is called Les Onze mille verges, ou
les amours d’un hospodar, and it is this extended title
which appears to be the correct one). A French novel
mixed with verse, it is said to contain the first libertine
poems in vers libre and it is one of the most amusing
erotic productions. It was written immediately after the4Russo-Japanese war for, as we can see, mention is madeof General Anatoly Stessel.7
A few pages later, the full name of the editor is revealed: itis “Gauché.” We also learn that he was established in Malakoff
and the brother-in-law of Charles Hirsch, another clandestine
publisher based in Paris, known for his clandestine edition of
the French version of Teleny (1934), a homosexual novel heattributed to the anglo-Irish writer Oscar Wilde.8 The proofs of
the Bibliographie de l’Enfer reopened the question of the identity of the publisher of Apollinaire. They also paint a very different picture of the man. Rather than a mere pirate, we learn
that we are dealing with a cosmopolitan, avant-garde publisher.
Long before the discovery of thisnew information, Jean-Pierre Dutel had
located the printing house of this publisher at 11 rue Danicourt in Malakoff,
thanks to an advertising card for thel’Imprimerie Artistique du Commerce.
Although it did not bear the name of theprinter, Dutel noticed that it had thesame typographical characteristics as thebooks produced by Gauché.9 By crossreferencing several references, we areable to confirm Dutel’s hypothesis. TheAn officielle Gauché
fact that the l’Imprimerie Artistique atpublication
Malakoff also published and printed abook on the Franche-Comté by Alfred Vielle, having the same
typographical ornaments as Les Onze mille verges, finally convinced us.10 Finally, it was the l’Annuaire Déséchaliers of paper
makers and printers of 1906,11 where a typographer named“Gauché” with the same address on rue Danicourt was listed,which naturally prompted us to direct our research towards Malakoff.
5Thanks to the address of the Malakoff print shop discoveredby Dutel, evidence of the mysterious printer-publisher was finally found. A 1911 census of the town of Malakoff indicatedthat a certain “Jules Eugène Gauché” lived at 13 rue Danicourt,
a stone’s throw from the printing house.12 After establishing thetrue spelling of the Gauché family name, we were able todeepen our research. Indeed, for years it had been establishedthat his name was Gaucher. Who would have thought that anacute accent and a simple address could have revealed the entire
life of a man whose existence had remained until then so controversial?
The census and civil records are truly fascinating. Thanks to
the digitization of the registers carried out by the archives services of the local authorities of France and their free online access, the essential elements to recount the story of a life are now
within easy reach. Taking advantage of this wealth of information, gathered from town hall to town hall, we were able torewrite the story of Jules Eugène Gauché.
It all starts in November 1854 at Attigny (Champagne-Ardenne region). Jules Eugène Gauché was born there, and hisbirth certificate is one of the few documents that display his
name in full.13 It does not reappear in the archives until 1911.
Gauché then moved to Malakoff for a few years, where heworked as a printer under Mme Angélina Leboucher, the young
widow of M. Bernard Mamet, and owner of the print shop at11, rue Danicourt. The Mamet/Leboucher family seems tohave always been immersed in the world of books. Indeed, thewoman typographer comes from a long line of book sewers, andhad a printer for a husband. The couple gave birth in 1891 tolittle Marguerite, who grew up in this bookish world and became a printer herself. After the death of her husband, thewidow Leboucher left Paris, moved to Malakoff with her family, and quickly became the owner of the printing house on Rue
Danicourt, where Gauché worked. Employee and boss lived a6few steps away from each other and worked under the sameroof. The birth certificate of Mme. Leboucher’s first son in
1904, born nine years after her husband's death, reveals thatGauché and Leboucher had more than professional relations.
Indeed, in 1920, sixteen years after his birth, Gauché officiallyacknowledged René Ulysse Charles Leboucher as his son,changing his name to Gauché. Madame Leboucher gives birth
to a second son in 1906 that Gauché does not recognize although it is probably his son.14 Gauché remained at the same
address as Madame Leboucher until her death in 1918. It is he
who registers her death, in the absence of his children. On thedeath certificate, he is described as the ami imprimeur of thedeceased.15 This love story did not involve a mariage; nevertheless, we shall see that some clues, left by Gauché himself, indicate to us the importance of Mme. Leboucher in his life andaffairs.
On 9 November 1922, Gauché died at his home in Malakoff.16 It took more than a century to discover the singular lovestory of this mysterious man. The Gauché/Leboucher couple
lived and worked in the suburbs and managed in secret one of
the most active clandestine businesses of the early 20th century,
publishing more than eighty surreptitious editions. Their greatest achievement was to see the publication of two novels by
Apollinaire, who was to become one of the greatest authors ofthe time.

Deciphering a bibliographie sentimentale
Even though some pieces of the puzzle are still missing, yet
we possess enough information – documentary and well as bibliographical – to better understand the clandestine cultural context in which the publisher of Apollinaire’s erotic novels operated.

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The discovery of the link between Gauché and Angélina
Leboucher is by far the most significant. On the clandestine editions that have been attributed to the Malakoff print shop, weoften find the brand “G. Lebaucher, libraire-éditeur, Montreal(Canada).”17 Until now, the bibliographers thought it was ahomonym for Gaucher, but the information we have gathered
indicates quite clearly a combination of Gauché and Leboucher.
This mark was not only a means of hiding and mystifying theauthorities, but also a secret code for their relationship. This latest finding does suggest that the couple, and not just Gauche,
was involved in this pornographic undertaking, perhaps even
including the family in the affair. Looking more closely at thestatus of Mme Leboucher, the possibility that a woman is at thehead of this pornographic business becomes entirely plausible.
In fact, she was listed as Gauché’s boss and had the professional
experience of her first husband, a printer, who died in 1895.
This hypothesis brings new nuances to the social model of pornographic trade, which was previously thought to be predominantly male.
This brand of G. Lebaucher, much more than a secret codefor the pair, is also the eternal inscription of their feelings, which
is displayed openly on the title pages of their books. On thecover of the novel Odor di Femina (c. 1900-1904), as well as
on other works bearing this mark, is printed a vignette representing a satyr who plays the flute under a banner whose lettershave been erased. This vignette is an adaptation of the one usedby Gay and Doucé, a Brussels couple who, a few decades earlier,published erotic French books. Originally, it was inscribed on
the banner the phrase “Gay and Doux C’est”, a homonym
combining their names with an expression of tenderness. Using
this modified vignette in their own erotic editions, the Malakoff
couple creates a link between their work and that of the Brussels
couple, while tracing a path of gay and sweet feelings. Ann
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Cvetkovich talks about a phenomenon of accumulation of feelings in sexual documents, as well as those that motivate the archivists of these documents.18 Thanks to the new information
found in the archives, we can now partially decipher the feelings
carefully encrypted by the bibliographic practices of pornographers such as Gauché and Leboucher.
The story of the meeting between Apollinaire, Gauché
and/or Leboucher remains a mystery to this day. No records ofthe cases of these three characters could be found. However, weknow that Apollinaire was familiar with this secret bibliographic
culture and knew the booksellers active in it, such as Gustave
Lehec, who is the subject of a portrait in Le Flâneur des Deux
Rives (1918), and Charles Hirsch, who provided him with information for his bibliography of L’Enfer. In the small enfer ofApollinaire’s personal library was a modest collection of books
published by Gauché and Leboucher, as well as other underground publishers of the time.19 The flâneur and the Malakoff
couple were part of different networks whose paths crossed regularly, but the nature of their encounters and their working
methods remain a mystery. Their application in this secret culture and bibliographie sentimentale is the common denominator of these three personalities. We find in them a desire to build
up for posterity this culture of forbidden erotic literature, while
hiding it behind codes that only wait to be deciphered. In theencrypted bibliography of Apollinaire as well as with the bibliographic mark of “G. Lebaucher”, the quasi-scientific impulse
behind the need to create a bibliography undergoes a transformation. Instead of accumulating a simple list of titles, the bibliographer collects a collection of secret feelings. As we dig into
the archives, we begin to decipher this clandestine bibliography
and to see it as a record of the intimate and sentimental cultureof pornography of the Belle Époque.
1
The original French text was published in Histoires littéraires,revue trimestrielle consecrée à la littérature française des XIXe et XXe

9siècles. Jan-March 2017 – vol. XVIII, no 69, pp. [115]-124. Translator’s note.
2Les Exploits d’un jeune Don Juan par G.A., Paris : En vente chez
tous les Libraires ; Les Onze Mille Verges par G... A..., Paris: En ventechez tous les Libraires. [Les Exploits d’un jeune Don Juan is strictlyspeaking not by Apollinaire. It is actually Apollinaire’s translation, oradaptation, of a German work, Kinder-geilheit. Geständnisse eines
Knaben, published at Berlin in 1900. – Translator’s note.]
3Guillaume Apollinaire, Fernand Fleuret, et Louis Perceau, L’Enfer de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Bibliothèque des Curieux, 1919, p.
127. This is the second edition of this work; the first was published in1913.
4
Pascal Pia, Les Livres de l’Enfer du XVIeme siècle à nos jours, C.
Coulet et A. Faure, 1978, vol 1, p. 241-42.
5John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse. Introduction by Leon
Edel (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1970). John Glassco (19091981) was a Canadian poet and novelist. Translator’s note.
6Peter Mendes, Clandestine Erotic Fiction in English 1800-1930,
Scholar Press, 1993, p. 40-41.
7Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Fonds Guillaume
Apollinaire, 4-APO-0196 (RES), p. 175.
8
Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, Fonds Guillaume
Apollinaire, 4-AP0-0196 (RES), p. 175,180.
9Jean-Pierre Dutel, Bibliographie des ouvrages érotiques publiésclandestinement en français entre 1880 et 1920, Chez l’Auteur, 2002,
p. 18-19,25, 654.
10
Alfred Vieille, Histoire D’Orchamps et Précis de l’Histoire de laFranche-Comté, Malakoff : Imprimerie Artistique, 1907.

L’Annuaire Déséchaliers: Répertoire des papetiers et imprimeurs, E. Déséchaliers, 1906, p. 210.
1112Archives & Patrimoine des Hauts-de-Seine, Recensement deMalakoff, 1911, p. 86-87.
13
Archives départementales des Ardennes, Registre des actes denaissances d’Attigny, 1854, p. 40.
14Mairie de Paris, registre des actes de mariage de Paris 14e, 1889,
p.78-79 (Bernard Mamet et Angélina Leboucher). The certificate
states that Mamet is a printer and Leboucher is a book sewer; Mairiede Paris, registre des actes de naissances de Paris 14e, 1891, p.123(Marguerite Mamet); Archives & Patrimoine des Hauts de Seine, registre des actes de naissances de Malakoff 1906, p.79-80 (RaymondJules Leboucher).

1015
Archives & Patrimoine des Hauts-de-Seine, registre des actes dedécès de Malakoff, 1918, entrée n°380 (Angélina Leboucher).
16
Mairie de Paris, registre des actes de décès de Paris 14eme, 1922,
entrée n° 280 (Jules-Eugène Gauché).
17
At least thirty-one books were published under this imprint.
18
Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings, Duke University
Press, 2003, p. 239-71.
19
For a catalogue of the works in Apollinaire’s library, see Catalogue de la bibliothèque de Guillaume Apollinaire, Editions duCNRS. 1983.

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