A truly pristine item of ephemera, and a most welcome addition to my collection. This is a perfect example of the material that I am seeking, this one is courtesy of Arcana Cabana in the Netherlands, who kindly agreed to seperate the price list from an edition of Justine, where it had sat between the leaves, untouched for over 50 years. You can view the Arcana Cabana site below.
https://www.arcanacabana.com/erotica.html
Paris Olympia Press, Price list and Order form, Spring 1962.
Printed both sides in black and red on a single sheet of pale yellow card, measuring 27×9 cm. Paris bookshop sticker affixed to base of the form on the verso.
The titles in red are highlighted as new editions due to be published, interestingly, the low number Traveller’s Companion Series titles had been in print since 1955/56, therefore at TC 13 ” The Secret Life of Robinson Crusoe” was formerly entitled “The Sexual Life of Robinson Crusoe”, at TC 29, “Helen and Desire” was actually reissued as “Desire and Helen”, and at TC 40 ” The Organisation” was reissued as “The New Organisation”. Legend has it that the changes in title of these reprints was a ploy to confuse the Brigade Mondaine, who worked to lists of Olympia titles that had been banned in France, but as few, if any of the officials could read English a simple ploy such as above was enough to throw them off the scent.
You can also see that at TC 57, the sixth volume of Juliette was about to be issued, the slot for TC 58 was held vacant,eventually (in 1965) was occupied by “Juliette” volume seven, but at one stage in (catalogue 1958) it had been scheduled fo a TC edition of Becketts” Watt”. The title at TC 90 planned as ” The Sex Life of Ulysses” eventually came out as “A Bedside Odyssey”.
Another anomaly, under the Othello Books series (numbered 111-116), which were all to be published in 1962, at 116, sits “Sextet” by Hume Parkinson, which was not issued in this series, and appears to been passed over in the Danish imprint “Odyssey Library”, where it was supposed to be published in 1963, eventually turning up as TC 94 the last title to be published in the Travellers Companion Series in 1965.
No mention on this list of any of the Ophelia Press titles, which generally appear to have been run as a seperate enterprise the Ophelia titles are generally themed around flagellation and sado masochism which traditionally sat outside of mainstream erotica.
Such a significant amount of information from such a small piece of paper, and perhaps something of an explanation for my fascination, with the Olympia Press ephemera material.
Paris Olympia Press, Price list and Order form, Spring 1962.
Please also See
New into The Collection: Olympia Press 1959 (Catalogue)
Books Wanted Ephemera: The Teasers