[Rarebooks] FS: Pierre Louys, The Songs of Bilitis, Signed 2x

[Allington Books]

*Offered: The Songs of Bilitis [Signed by Pierre Louys and Signed by George
Seferis]*

*Louys, Pierre* *[Seferis, George]* [Fagan, James: Illustrator]. *The Songs
of Bilitis* *[Signed by Pierre Louys and Signed and inscribed by George
Seferis].* London and New York: The Aldus Society, 1904. First edition. A
Very Good copy of the first UK edition, first printing, and the first
edition of the book in English translation (some handling soil, tiny rub at
the spine foot, some pushing to the spine ends and bumping to the board
corners), SIGNED BY PIERRE LOUYS on the half-title and SIGNED BY GEORGE
SEFERIS on the front free endpaper with two drawings and a PRESENTATION TO
REX WARNER (a noted British author, Seferis' close friend, and a
highly-regarded translator of Seferis' poetry to English) placed by Seferis
in Storrs, Connecticut and with five lines written by Seferis in Greek. The
book was privately issued by The Aldus Society in a Limited Edition of
1,000 copies (consisting of nine hundred and seventy-one copies on a
special paper, with the watermark of the Society, and twenty-six signed and
lettered copies, and three author's copies on Imperial Japanese vellum with
the initials hand-illumined, of which this is Number 17 (of the 971). No
Signature was called for in this copy, yet it has been signed by Louys on
the half-title. There being only twenty-six copies expressly called to be
signed, excluding this copy, we believe it to be quite scarce. The page
edges are watermarked, and the title/limitation page, the frontispiece, and
the book's other three full-page illustrations are printed on vellum
leaves. While Pierre Louys was a heterosexual, he also was a good friend of
Oscar Wilde and Andre Gide and a noted champion of gay & lesbian rights.
His poetry and other writings are permeated with erotic and lesbian themes,
with "The Songs of Bilitis" being his most famous and most frequently
republished work. "Bilitis", the name Louys gave to his fictional Poetess,
is presented by Louys as a contemporary of Sappho (herself a Greek lyric
poet born between 630 and 612 BC on the Greek island of Lesbos). The book's
introduction alleges the 143 poems within to have been written by Bilitis,
whose tomb Louys claimed to have been discovered by (his fictional)
archaeologist Herr G. Heim. The work shows Pierre Louys' deep knowledge of
Ancient Greek culture, and, while written primarily by him, some of the
poems are reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology (discovered in
1606), and some of the verses were taken from Sappho's work. Upon the
work's initial publication (France, 1894), expert scholars were fooled and
considered the work to be genuine and the poems to have been authored by
Bilitis. Even after Louys' deception was unmasked, enthusiasm for the
book's poetry did not wane and the poems, which established Pierre Louys'
historic significance as a Poet, continue to be considered an important
literary work. The poems comprise three cycles, each of which represents a
phase of Bilitis' life: Bucolics in Pamphylia, representing her childhood
and first sexual encounters, Elegies at Mytilene covers indulgence in
homosexual sensuality, and the final section, Epigrams in the Isle of
Cyprus, covers her life there as a courtesan. As noted above, George
Seferis, a Greek Diplomat and Ambassador to the UK, one of the Twentieth
Century's most important Greek Poets, and the first Greek ever to receive
the Nobel Prize in Literature gave this copy to Rex Warner. Both authors
were deeply interested in all things related to Cyprus, thus explaining the
gift. Signed copies of Pierre Louys' works, issued in French, while not
rare, are relatively uncommon. However, signed copies of his works in
English translation are real hen's teeth and exceedingly difficult to find.
This copy, also having been signed and inscribed by Greece's first Nobel
Laureate in Literature, is an extraordinary find. SCARCE to RARE. Very
Good. Hardcover. (#00003355)        $3,450.00

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Best Wishes,

Stephen
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC

-- 
Stephen Johnson
Allington Antiquarian Books, LLC
Rare and Collectible Books, both Antiquarian and Modern
www.allingtonbooks.com
336-414-0435