Les Chansons de Bilitis (Limited Edition)   

Pierre Louys - Edouard Chimot Illustrated.  

Published in Paris by Les Editions D'Art Devambez, 1925. Limited Edition of 500, with varying issues, this copy being one of the examples numbered 101 to 200 printed on Hollande van Gelder paper, which comes with an additional suite of illustrations, one monotone, and the other colour. Originally published in wraps, this copy has been rebound in full red leather, with gilt lining to the boards, however, the original wraps have been retained and bound in, as well as the spine strip. The spine is titled in gilt, a little scuffing to the extremities, the binding otherwise in good condition. Marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt, with the fore and lower edges untrimmed. Block sound, with light age toning, as expected for its 100 years. Wonderfully illustrated with etchings in colour and monotone, engraved by Edouard Chimot, with tissue guards present. Printed on the presses of the Master Printer Robert Coulouma for the text in Argenteuil and by Roger Lacourière for the etchings in Paris. This book was the fourth title produced by the Devambez Art Society. Includes a decorated slipcase, which was most likely produced at the same time as the re-binding, given the matching leather edges to the boards, paper browned. Packed weight around 2kg. Good+ overall. 

From the Collection of the Late Barry Humphries (1934-2023), Australian comedian, actor, author, and satirist renowned for creating larger-than-life characters including Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.   

 During 1894 Louys published Songs of Bilitis (Les Chansons de Bilitis), an erotic collection of 143 prose poems, this time with strong lesbian themes. It was divided into three sections, each representative of a phase of Bilitis's life: Bucolics in Pamphylia, Elegies at Mytilene, and Epigrams in the Isle of Cyprus; dedicated to her were also a short Life of Bilitis and three epitaphs in The Tomb of Bilitis. What made The Songs sensational is Lou s's claim that the poems were the work of an ancient Greek courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, Bilitis; to himself, Lou s ascribed the modest role of translator. The pretense did not last long, and "translator" Lou s was soon revealed as Bilitis herself. This did little to discredit The Songs of Bilitis, however, as it was praised for its sensuality and refined style, even more extraordinary for the author's compassionate portrayal of lesbian sexuality.

Some of the poems were intended as songs for voice and piano. Lou s's friend Claude Debussy composed a musical adaptation of three of the poems as his Chansons de Bilitis (Lesure Number 90) for voice and piano (1897–1898)

La flûte de Pan: Pour le jour des Hyacinthies

La chevelure: Il m'a dit «Cette nuit j'ai rêvé»

Le tombeau des Naiades: Le long du bois couvert de givre.

Debussy also published Six épigraphes antiques during 1914 as piano pieces for four hands, commissioned as preludes to a recital of Lou s's poems:

Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'ete

Pour un tombeau sans nom

Pour que la nuit soit propice

Pour la danseuse aux crotales

Pour l'egyptienne

Pour remercier la pluie au matin

During 1955, one of the first lesbian organizations in America named itself Daughters of Bilitis, and to the present Lou s's Songs continues to be an important work for lesbians.

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