Having suffered a stroke last year, I was forced to consider what would happen to my collection should I die. A serious enough issue, given tales of shark like dealers descending on the recently bereaved and picking off the prized items from remaining partners who have no idea of what to do with the books, and even less idea of the potential value.
This is especially true of erotica as there is an understandable embarrassment, attached to such material, especially illustrated books, and I have heard of some such material being destroyed to avoid having to deal with it, and though this is perhaps the best disposal for modern pornography, this is less of a problem with my Paris Olympia Press collection as they are 99% without illustrations.
Having explored possible methods of disposal, I had been in negotiation with Bonhams of London with a view to the collection going to auction this June, when a combination of my own health issues and an extended family crisis prevented me from cataloguing the books, a task that Bonhams offered to cover, but I really wanted to complete myself.
So i find myself delaying the selling of the collection, and almost immediately other items turn up, within the past month or so, I have obtained a catalogue that I do not have a copy of, one of the missing Teaser magazines and a much improved copy of “The Castle of the end of Love”, a very hard to find Ophelia Press title.
I must admit to a sense of relief at still having the collection, as after so many decades of collecting the loss would be hard to take. It my be that I will reconsider next year, which gives me more time to locate the few missing items that would allow me to complete. Which also means that I will continue with this site, given that its sworn purpose is to assist with completing my Paris Olympia collection, something that is easy to forget, given that the vast majority of the books that I list are nothing to do with the Olympia Press at all.
So to give me a reason to carry on, please remember to look out for Paris Olympia material for me. And if you have any erotica (not photographic pornography please) that you want rid of then complete a contact form and I may be able to assist.
Below is an image of my Paris Olympia Press collection as of today. Coming soon recent finds and some very rare illustrated erotica.
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.
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.
For me this is exactly what I have been looking for, in a very good year for extremely rare items to complete my collection, here is one item that is amazing to find, and is the real justification for this Blog.
Prospectus for ‘Watt’ a novel in English by Samuel Beckett. Collection Merlin 1953. 12mo. Single sheet prospectus. Fine condition.
The final title to complete my Atlantic Library set. An important addition to the collection, and increasingly difficult to find. Like other titles in the New into the Collection category this title is not for sale or trade.
4.7.1 THE CARNAL DAYS OF HELEN SEFERIS
Frances Lengel [Alexander Trocchi], 1954 FRANCES LENGEL | THE CARNAL DAYS | of | HELEN SEFERIS | THE ATLANTIC LIBRARY | published by |THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 13, rue Jacob, Paris Collation: 192 pp. [1]-128. 17.6 x 11.4 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1-4] blank. p. [5] THE CARNAL DAYS |of | HELEN SEFERIS, reverse blank. p. [7] title, as above. p. [8] Printed in France | [rule] | Copyright 1954 | by The Olympia Press, Paris. p. [9] Introductory note. p. [10] blank. pp. 11-183, text. p. [184] blank. pp. [185,6], catalogue of all ten volumes of The Atlantic Library series, with descriptive matter for each. p. [187] PRINTED MAY 1954 | BY IMPRIMERIE RICHARD, PARIS | Dépôt légal : 2e. trimestre 1954. pp. [188-192] blank.
Binding: Orange wrappers, trimmed flush. Front cover: [printed in black and all contained within a white oblong frame matching proportions of book:] FRANCES LENGEL | THE | CARNAL DAYS | OF | HELEN | SEFERIS | THE ATLANTIC LIBRARY‘.
Spine: [lettered in white up spine, and all within a black panel:] THE CARNAL DAYS | [in white across bottom of spine:] 7.
Back cover: [in black:] FRANCS : 660 | NOT TO BE INTRODUCED INTO THE U.K. OR U.S.A.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL Description provided courtesy of Patrick Kearney The Paris Olympia Press. The Liverpool University Press 2007.
An important addition to the collection, and increasingly difficult to find. Like other titles in the New into the Collection category this title is not for sale or trade.
4.6.1 YOUNG ADAM Frances Lengel [Alexander Trocchi], 1954
FRANCES LENGEL | YOUNG ADAM | THE ATLANTIC LIBRARY | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 13, rue Jacob, Paris Collation: 192 pp. [1]-128. 17.8 x 11.3 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper.Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] YOUNG ADAM. p. [4] THE ATLANTIC LIBRARY | LATEST VOLUMES | 1. THREE PASSIONATE LOVERS … | by René Roques | 2. HELEN AND DESIRE … by Frances Lengel | 3. LADIES AT NIGHT … by René Roques | 4. LUST … by Count Palmiro Vicarion | 5. MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF PLEASURE | by John Cleland | 6. YOUNG ADAM … by Frances Lengel | 7. THE CARNAL DAYS OF HELEN SEFERIS | by Frances Lengel |8. AN ADULTS STORY … by Robert Desmond | 10. MY LIFE AND LOVES (fifth volume) … | by Frank Harris| For complete catalogues | of Atlantic Library volumes and other titles, | Apply to: The Olympia Press | 13 rue Jacob, Paris, France.. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] Printed in France [rule] Copyright 1954 | by the Olympia Press, Paris. p. [7] PART ONE. p. [8] blank. pp. 9-81, text. p. [82] blank. p. [83] PART TWO. p. [84] blank. pp. 85-144, text. p. [145] PART THREE. p. [146] blank. pp. 147-[190], text with, at foot of p. [190], printing details: PRINTED IN FRANCE | [rule] | Printed April 1954 by Imprimerie Richard, Paris | Dépôt légal : 2e trimestre 1954 . pp. [191-192] blank. Binding: Orange wrappers, trimmed flush.
Front cover: [printed in black and all contained within a white oblong frame matching proportions of book:] FRANCES LENGEL | YOUNG | ADAM | THE ATLANTIC LIBRARY.
Spine: [lettered in white up spine, and all within a black panel:] YOUNG ADAM | [in white across bottom of spine:] 6.
Back cover: [in black:] FRANCS : [660] | NOT TO BE INTRODUCED INTO THE U.K. OR U.S.A. | PRINTED IN FRANCE.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL Description provided courtesy of Patrick Kearney The Paris Olympia Press. The Liverpool University Press 2007.
The latest batch of my Traveller’s Companion duplicates, as always available for trade against any of my Paris Olympia Press wants or any other rare or interesting items of erotica that might enhance the listing. All images are of actual books from my personal collection. The bibliographical description is courtesy of Patrick Kearney, The Paris Olympia Press, The Liverpool University Press. 2007, Index Numbers (example 4.41.1 are the actual location of the description in the bibliography)
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS BY POSTING A COMMENT.
5.70.1 TWO NOVELS BY GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE [THE DEBAUCHED HOSPODOR] [MEMOIRS OF A YOUNG RAKEHELL] 1959 *
*[Within a green border of type ornament:] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | THE | DEBAUCHED | HOSPODAR | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 Rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
**[Within a green border of type ornament:] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | MEMOIRS | OF A YOUNG | RAKEHELL | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 Rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
Collation: 208 pp. 70.1-70.138. 17.4 x 10.8 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wover paper. Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] TWO | NOVELS | BY |GUILLAUME | APOLLINAIRE. p. [4] This volume contains two novels | by Guillaume Apollinaire, translated | from the French, and previously | published by The Olympia Press | in two distinct volumes. They | are: THE DEBAUCHED HOS- |PODAR (p.7) and MEMOIRS | OF A YOUNG RAKEHELL |(p. 125). | PRINTED IN FRANCE | [rule] | Copyright by The Olympia Press, Paris, 1959. p. [5] title, as in * above, reverse blank. p. 7-121, text. p. [122] blank. p. [123] title, as in ** above, reverse blank. pp. 125-204, text. p. [205] Printed May 1959 by S.I.P., Montreuil, France | Dépôt légal : 2e trimestre 1959. pp. [206-208] blank. Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] TWO | NOVELS | BY | GUILLAUME | APOLLINAIRE |no 70 | THE | TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 70 [-] TWO NOVELS BY GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] Francs : 1.500. Notes: Reprints of translations published originally by the Olympia Press in separate volumes in 1953 (1.6 and 1.4, respectively).
2 copies one Very Good + one Very Good
5.70.2 TWO NOVELS BY GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE [THE DEBAUCHED HOSPODOR] [MEMOIRS OF A YOUNG RAKEHELL] 1962
*[Within a green border of type ornament:] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | THE | DEBAUCHED | HOSPODAR | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 Rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
**[Within a green border of type ornament:] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE | MEMOIRS | OF A YOUNG | RAKEHELL | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 Rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
3 copies: One Copy Very Good,+ One copy Very Good, One copy poor, full description of condition and extra images on request.
5.73.1 THE FETISH CROWD Akbar del Piombo [Norman Rubington], 1959
*[Within a green border of type ornament:] [breaking top of border:] AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | PAULA | THE | PIQUÔSE | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking bottom of border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5e
**[Within a green border of type ornament:] [breaking top of border:] AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | DUKE | COSIMO | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking bottom of border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
***[Within a green border of type ornament:] [breaking top of border:] AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | THE | DOUBLE-BELLIED | COMPANION | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION |SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking bottom of border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
Collation: 456 pp. Perfect bound. [1]-288, 294. 17.4 x 11.0 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1-2] blank. p. [3] A TRILOGY : | PAULA |THE | PIQUÔSE | DUKE | COSIMO | THE | DOUBLE-BELLIED | COMPANION. p. [4] blank. p. [5] title, as * above, reverse blank. pp. 7-177, text of Paula the Piquôse. p. [178] blank. p. [1] title, as ** above. p. [2] blank. pp. 3-131, text of Duke Cosimo. p. [132] blank. p. [1] title, as *** above. p. [2] blank. p. [3] PART ONE | A CRUMBLING FACADE. p. [4] blank. pp. 5-66, part one of The Double-Bellied Companion. p. [67] PART TWO | I HAVE COME BACK. p. [68] blank. pp. 69-143, part two of The Double-Bellied Companion. p. [144] [rule] | Copyright by The Olympia Press Paris 59 | Printed in France by Imp. G. Frère-Paris Dépôt légal no 26336 – 2e trimestre 1959. pp. [145,6] blank.
Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | THE | FETISH | CROWD | a Trilogy | no 73 | THE | TRAVELLER’S COMPANION |SERIES. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 73 [-] THE FETISH CROWD. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] Francs 2.400 | NOT TO BE SOLD | IN U.S.A. & U.K.. Issued in a mustard dustjacket, with an semi-abstract design of people in white silhouette standing on an uneven white base spreading round the upper half of the front and back panels, and spine. Superimposed over this motif on the front panel is a drawing of a mustached, bemedalled and monocled military figure with a cloak hanging off the left shoulder. To the right of this figure, and occupying a break in the silhouetted figures is: AKBAR DEL PIOMBO, lettered in black, each word enclosed within its own uneven white block. Below the uneven white base supporting the silhouettes is the following, in ornate, uneven black letters: THE FETISH | CROWD. Spine lettered in black; from top to bottom: [in horizontal caps:] AKBAR | DEL | PIOMBO. [In vertical caps reading up the spine:] THE FETISH CROWD.[In horizontal caps:] THE | OLYMPIA PRESS. The back panel has, centered at its foot in black caps: OLYMPIA PRESS. The front inside flap carries a short list of books published by The Olympia Press, a warning that none of the books may be sent to the United States or Great Britain and the address of the company. The back inside flat is blank. Notes: As must be evident, this is a re-issue of three of Akbar del Piombo’s earlier novels respectively, Who Pushed Paula, Cosimo‘s Wife and The Traveller‘s Companion under new titles, and retaining separate paginations. These paginations are quite different from the original printings, and whether they are taken from later reprints unknown to the compiler or original to this one-volume collection is not known.
2 Copies both only Good, Extra images and full description on request
5.73.2 THE FETISH CROWD Akbar del Piombo [Norman Rubington], 1965
*AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | PAULA | THE | PIQUÔSE | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
**AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | DUKE | COSIMO | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
***AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | THE | DOUBLE-BELLIED |COMPANION | THE TRAVEL-LER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
Collation: 456 pp. [1]-288, 294. 17.4 x 11.3 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1-2] blank. p. [3] title, as in * above. p. [4] OTHER WORKS BY WILLIAM BURROUGHS | PUBLISHED BY OLYMPIA PRESS: | THE SOFT MACHINE | THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED. p. [5] THE FETISH CROWD | A TRILOGY : | PAULA | THE | PIQUÔSE | DUKE | COSIMO | THE | DOUBLE-BELLIED | COMPANION. p. [6] blank. pp. 7-177, text of Paula the Piquôse. p. [178] blank. p. [1] title, as in ** above. p. [2] blank. pp. 3-131, text of Duke Cosimo. p. [132] blank. p. [1] title, as in *** above. p. [2] blank. p. [3] PART ONE | A CRUMBLING FACADE. p. [4] blank. pp. 5-66, part one of The Double-Bellied Companion. p. [67] PART TWO | I HAVE COME BACK. p. [68] blank. pp. 69-143, part two of The Double-Bellied Companion. p. [144], Printed by Imprimerie Croutzet, Paris, June 1965. | Dépôt légal 2e trimestre 1959 (No 26336), 2e trimestre 1965. pp. [145,6] blank Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] AKBAR DEL PIOMBO | THE | FETISH | CROWD | Three novels | no 73 | THE | TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 73 [-] THE FETISH CROWD. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] Francs : 30.
Notes: (1) The unfortunate reference to William Burroughs on p. [4] in the volume’s first section actually a printer’s or editor’s blunder has led to speculation that Burroughs and Akbar del Piombo are one and the same, a notion that reportedly failed to amuse either men. (2) A copy of this book in Mr William Ashley’s collection, in an altered state, has an adhesive sticker on the back wrapper with a change of price indicated thus: OLYMPIA PRESS | [rule] | 18 FRANCS.
One Very Good copy . Detailed description of condition and extra images on request.
5.75.2 HOUSES OF JOY Wu Wu Meng [Sinclair Beiles], 1965
One Copy Very Good, with OP 9 Francs Sticker full description of condition and extra images on request.
5.76.1 THE NAKED LUNCH William Burroughs, 1959
TC 76 Naked Lunch
[Within a green border of type ornament:] WILLIAM BURROUGHS | THE | NAKED | LUNCH | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5 Collation: 232 pp. 76.1-76.148; 76.154. 17.5 x 11.0 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper.
TC 76 The Naked Lunch Cover
Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] THE | NAKED | LUNCH, reverse blank. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] PRINTED IN FRANCE | [rule] | Copyright by William Burroughs, 1959. p. 7-[226], text. p. [227] Printed by S.I.P., Montreuil, France, in July 1959 | Dépôt légal : 3e trimestre 1959. pp. [228-232] blank. Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] WILLIAM BURROUGHS | THE | NAKED | LUNCH | no 76 | THE | TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 76 [-] THE NAKED LUNCH. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] Francs : 1.500 | NOT TO BE SOLD IN | THE U.S.A. OR U.K.. Issued in a white dustjacket, with a series of small black abstract designs in rows is printed horizontally across the front and back covers. [Frontover; within a purple panel running vertically the height of the book and occupying a little less than half its width, in white caps:] WILLIAM | BURROUGHS [within the purple panel, in gold caps:] THE | NAKED | LUNCH. [Spine; horizontally at bottom, in black:] THE | OLYMPIA |PRESS [vertically, in purple:] THE NAKED LUNCH [Vertically, in black:] WILLIAM | BURROUGHS. Inside flaps of dustjacket carry a B&W photograph of Burroughs, followed by a brief history of the book and some critical comments by John Ciardi extracted from an article he wrote for The Saturday Review (June 27th 1959). Notes: (1) The copy examined was in alatered state with the price of 1500 Francs overprinted with a rubber-stamp indicating a price increase to 18 NF.
TC 76 The Naked Lunch Back
(2) Five thousand copies were printed of this first edition, but the dustjacket wasn’t issued until some months after the book’s initial release, and was never used on subsequent reprints. A number of collectors and dealers have reported that the dustjackets are ill-fitting, suggesting that they were poorly designed. The standard bibliography of William Burroughs mentions the existence of a planned special edition, for which two sets of unbound sheets were held back. The edition was never published, but the two sets of sheets survive, one in a private collection and the other in the Burroughs Archive. (See, Joe Maynard & Barry Miles, William S. Burroughs, A Bibliography, 1953-73, Charlottsvile: University Press of Virginia, 1978, entry no. A.2a.)
One Copy Very Good + minor creasing and marking to back cover see images above. (No Dust Jacket)
FOR further discussion points on the dust jacket debate follow the link.
[Within a green border of type ornament:] LAWRENCE DURRELL | THE | BLACK | BOOK | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5
Collation: 304 pp. 77.1-77.198. 17.5 x 11.0 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] THE | BLACK | BOOK. p.[4] PRINTED IN FRANCE | [rule] | First published by The Obelisk Press, Paris, 1938. | Copyright 1938 and 1959 by Lawrence Durrell. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] Mos gus yod na | Khyl so od tung.ŗ | (Tibetan Proverb.) | Where there is veneration, | Even a dog’s tooth emits light. p. 7-9, Introduction by the author. p. [10] blank. p. [11] BOOK ONE, reverse blank. pp. 13-123, text of Book One. p. [124] blank. p. [125] BOOK TWO, reverse blank. pp. 127-215, text of Book Two. p. [216] blank. p. [217] BOOK THREE, reverse blank. pp. 219-301, text of Book Three. p. [302] blank. p. [303] Printed by S.I.P., Montreuil, France, in July 1959 | Dépôt légal : 3e trimestre 1959. p. [304] blank.
Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] LAWRENCE DURRELL | THE | BLACK | BOOK | no 77 THE | TRAVELLERS COMPANION | SERIES. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 77 [-] THE BLACK BOOK. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] Francs : 1.500 | NOT TO BE SOLD IN | THE U.S.A. OR U.K.. Issued in a black dustjacket, with an abstract painting on the front in red and purple. [Frontover; in white caps:] LAWRENCE DURRELL [in black caps outlined in white:] THE | BLACK | BOOK [in white caps:] OLYMPIA PRESS. [Spine, all in white caps; horizontally at bottom:] THE | OLYMPIA | PRESS [vertically:] THE BLACK BOOK [horizontally:] LAWRENCE |DURRELL. Inside flaps of dustjacket carry a B&W photograph of Durrell, followed by a brief history of the book and some critical comments by T. S. Eliot, Cyril Connolly and Henry Miller, and a short catalogue of other Olympia Press titles. Notes: First published at Paris in 1938 by The Obelisk Press, as part of the Seurat Series.
3 Copies one in DW, Very Good . 2 Printed covers Very Good. Extra Images and full description of condition on request.
5.78.2 THE THIEF’S JOURNAL Jean Genet, [1962?]
[Within a black border of type ornament:] JEAN GENET | THE | THIEFS | JOURNAL | THE TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES | published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | [breaking the border:] 7 rue Saint-Séverin, Paris 5 Collation: 296 pp. [1]-188; 194. 17.4 x 10.9 cm., all edges trimmed. Printed on white wove paper. Contents: pp. [1,2] blank. p. [3] THE | THIEFS | JOURNAL. p. [4] blank. p. [5] title, as above. p. [6] Published in agreement with the Librairie Gallimard. | [short history of book; see notes to 7.78.1 for text] | [rule] | Copyright 1954 by B. Frechtman | and The Olympia Press, Paris. p. [7-8], Foreword by Jean-Paul Sartre. p. [9]-291, text. p. [292] blank. p. [293] Printed July 1959 by Imp. Moderne du Lion | 75, Rue des Plantes – Paris 14e |Dépôt Légal 2e trimestre 1954 et 3e trimestre 1959. pp. [294-296], blank. Binding: Olive-green wrappers, printed in black, and trimmed flush with body of the book. [Front cover; within a frame of two borders, the outer consisting of fine linked chain of type device in black, and the inner a thin band of white edged in black:] JEAN GENET | THE | THIEF’S | JOURNAL | no 78 |Foreword by | JEAN-PAUL SARTRE | Translated from the French by | BERNARD FRECHTMAN | THE | TRAVELLER’S COMPANION | SERIES’. [Spine; within a white, black-edged panel, the series no. in horizontal digits at bottom and title lettered vertically up spine:] 78 [-] THE THIEF‘S JOURNAL. [Back cover, at bottom right-hand corner:] 18 francs | NOT TO BE SOLD IN | THE U.S.A. OR U.K.
Well a significant amount of progress has been made but still some way to go, I am continuing to list both Olympia press and other erotica for trade and a decreasing number of wants, but enjoying it very much, despite my shy and rather silent readership. See below for the collection as it stands today, and with a few more items on the way, its getting better every day.
Well an amazing find and not listed in Kearney. Nor to the best of my knowledge in any of the other collections auctioned in recent years. Something of a landmark, and almost definitely the last advertising pamphlet issued by the press from its Paris base.
Internal evidence suggests that this leaflet was prepared specially
for distribution at the 1966 Frankfurt Book Fair, which is held
annually in mid-October.
Scarce, late piece of Paris Olympia Press ephemera, from Sept. 1966,
comprising a single leaf of silver-coloured paper measuring 42 x 27 cm,
folded length-wise to create four pages. Page one carries the masthead
‘Olympia Press News’ superimposed over a photograph of what
appears to be Maurice Girodias walking down a Paris street with a
nun in the foreground.
Pages 2-3 comprise a note by Girodias, dated Sept. 22 1966, headed
‘Olympia Press News, Good and Bad,’ in which is discussed, among
other things, the success of American and English editions of many
of his books, a publishing deal with New English Library in London,
the proposed revival of Olympia magazine and plans for Japanese
and Swedish publications.
The balance of page 3
comprise a catalogue of the New English Library editions already
in print.
Reproduced here courtesy of the author. Originally published in Fine Books Magazine July 2010.
When my father died in 1995, I found a half-dozen green paperbacks in his office, his own book included—Bottoms Up—all volumes in the now infamous Traveller’s Companion Series. Not realizing what I was getting into, I thought it would be fun to collect the set. Thus began my ten-year odyssey with the Olympia Press.
From a handful of “greenies” to editing the definitive bibliography by Patrick Kearney, it has been a fascinating adventure—one day poring over obscure French laws, one day tracking down an unknown variant of Lolita. And one day opening a newly arrived package at the kitchen table. It was White Thighs by Frances Lengel (one of Alexander Trocchi’s pseudonyms). Of course, my wife Susan came into the room at that very moment. She looked at the book and then at me. I said, “It’s part of the series.” She turned and walked out of the room. “It’s part of the series,” I called after her, but she was gone.
The Olympia Press was founded by Maurice Girodias in Paris in 1953. Continuing his father’s legacy as a fearless, avant-garde publisher (his father, Jack Kahane, had published James Joyce, Anaïs Nin, and Henry Miller), Girodias (who took his mother’s maiden name during the war) was the first to publish The Ginger Man, The Naked Lunch, and—most famously—Lolita.
Girodias attracted the attention of the French authorities long before he founded the Olympia Press. Although he started his publishing career innocently enough in 1940 with a weekly directory of Paris theatres, Paris-Programme, and followed that with a number of high-quality art books published under the Editions du Chêne imprint, in 1946 he published a French edition of Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn that was immediately banned, the first time the French government had moved against a book since Flaubert’sMadame Bovary a century before. He won that battle, but then published (in English) Miller’s Sexus in 1949 under his father’s resurrected imprint, the Obelisk Press. That book was banned outright in all languages. Thus, by 1950, he had established a reputation as a publisher of the risqué if not the pornographic.
In 1951, Girodias lost control of Editions du Chêne (and thus also Obelisk Press) to Hachette, the largest publisher in France. Over the next few years he did very little (his own words) before launching the Olympia Press, named after Manet’s scandalous painting.
It was not long before he was once again in hot water. Indeed, the first book off the press was Miller’s Plexus, which more or less set the tone for the new enterprise. From the pornographic to the experimental, from first English translations to modern classics, Girodias published a bizarre mix of the good, the bad, and the obscene.
Ironically, Girodias was, to some degree, a victim of his own success. Once censorship laws in the U.S. and U.K. were repealed, the market for “dirty books” was never the same. Girodias moved to New York in the late 1960s to capitalize on new publishing freedoms in the U.S., but the company went bankrupt in the early 1970s. He published his last book in 1974 and died in Paris in 1990 at the age of 71
The Good, the Bad, and the Obscene
In 1998, having collected about half of the titles in the Traveller’s Companion Series, I arranged to meet Patrick Kearney, widely recognized as the bibliographic expert on the Olympia Press. I called him when I was planning to be in San Francisco—he lives in Santa Rosa. When I arrived at his house he immediately gave me a tour of his collection. That’s when I realized I knew next to nothing about the Olympia Press. I had not even heard of some of the books he showed me. And beyond books, there were catalogues, booklets, and magazines, to say nothing of cancelled dust jackets, freaks, and piracies.
It is safe to say, from a bibliographic standpoint, that no one knows more about the Olympia Press than Kearney. He has been collecting Olympia since the early sixties when he was a “runner,” smuggling copies of the Traveller’s Companion Series into England from France. He would sell them to “Sammy,” his London connection. Kearney recalled their meetings were like a scene from a bad spy movie. They would meet in an underground coffee shop and Kearney would hand over the goods in a brown paper bag. Sammy—who actually wore dark glasses for the exchanges—would slip the money across the table in a used window envelope for the North Thames Gas Board.
His most anxious moment as a runner came when he was travelling from Paris to London with his parents and he couldn’t fit all his contraband into his jacket. He had nowhere to put the seven-volume set of Juliette by the Marquis de Sade. “My father stuffed them in his pockets,” Kearney told me. “He was fine with it, but my mother nearly had a nervous breakdown. She was sure we would get caught.”
But they crossed the border without incident. In fact the only time Kearney was ever stopped by customs was on his way into France in 1960. “I was reading a book called La Gangrene,” Kearney recalled, “which was very critical of the French government and the role it played in Algerian affairs, up to and including torturing suspected terrorists. I had the book under my arm when I came to customs, the man there literally snatched it away from me. He said, ‘That’s not allowed here.’” If only he had known what books Kearney usually carried across the border between France and England.
Kearney met Girodias several times in Paris in the early eighties. Once, when Kearney mentioned he was having a hard time finding a copy of L’Affaire Lolita, Girodias gave him a signed copy the next time he saw him. “He was a real gentleman,” Kearney said. “Sadly, by then he was down on his luck and living in an awful, run-down government apartment. I remember he had scotch-tape on the cuffs of his jacket to keep them from fraying any further.”
Fortune would smile on Girodias one more time, though not for long. In 1990, after publishing the second volume of his autobiography—Une journée sur la terre: Les jardins d’Eros, which covered the period of the Olympia Press—Girodias was once again in the spotlight. Sadly, he died shortly thereafter during a radio interview.
Kearney published a checklist in 1975 and a short bibliography in 1987, but he had learned much since then. He showed me the updated version on his computer when I visited him in California. It was much more detailed than the 1987 edition and included a significant number of new titles, printings, and variants. I told him, “We have to get this published.”
Sex sells, but books about books that sell sex, don’t. Few bibliographies hit the bestseller list. We figured we would have to publish it ourselves. Print-on-demand services are rarely the way to fame and fortune for works of fiction (marketing and distribution being critical success factors), but they are well suited to reference works, where sales potential is limited, and—a bonus—the work never goes out of print.
Thus, we set up the work as a document to be published with a print-on-demand (POD) provider, formatted the materials, and discussed cover designs. The main shortcoming with a POD solution was that we could not have a color section illustrating the books. Nevertheless, we thought it our only option.
Over the next few years, literally thousands of emails went out to collectors, libraries, and booksellers. No fact was too small to be run down (“Does the tail of the ‘R’ in BEDROOM extend below the text on the title page of your copy of The Bedroom Philosophers?”). At the same time, we continued to make new discoveries: an issue of Merlin published by the Olympia Press; two large, coffee-table books on architecture published by Girodias in 1955 (Sicile Grecque andSaint-Philbert de Tournus). FedEx packages went back and forth between Kearney and Steve Mullins, a leading collector in London, and details were checked with John de St. Jorre, the author of Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and its Writers.
We were just wrapping up when our luck changed. Through the grapevine we heard Liverpool University Press was planning to publish a book on the Obelisk Press. A quick email to Liverpool resulted in a contract. They thought the Olympia Press bibliography the perfect companion to the Obelisk bibliography.
Our publishing problem solved, we focused on finalizing the manuscript. The bibliography covers hundreds of titles, printings, issues, and variants and every entry had to be double-checked. When the galleys came, we went over every word again. As any author or editor knows, it is impossible to catch every error. Because everyone was focused on the text, no one read the blurb on the back cover, which states Kearney is the author of A History of Gothic Literature, which, of course, should be Erotic Literature.
The Paris Olympia Press finally came out in early 2008, ten years after my visit to Kearney’s house in 1998. For Kearney, it was the culmination of a lifetime of collecting and study, a capstone to his career as an Olympia runner, collector, and ultimately, bibliographer.
Still, there was one last chapter to be written. Having completed his labor of love, Kearney put his collection up for sale at Christie’s. On Thursday, June 12, 2008, Lot No. 206—Kearney’s entire Olympia Press Collection, comprising over 400 volumes (it took eight full pages to describe)—went under the hammer.
The collection was bought by Princeton University Library. It is now part of Princeton’s rare book collection, not to be broken up and sold piece by piece, but kept together as a collection, a focal point for the study of censorship in the twentieth century.
In point of fact, it is only because it was a bibliographer’s collection that it caught the attention of Stephen Ferguson, curator of rare books at Princeton. “When a collection formed by a bibliographer, rather than by a collector, comes on the market, I take special notice,” Ferguson said. “The chief reason is that bibliographers tend to be more aware of what research libraries are interested in supplying to the scholar: variant issues, special issues, items in original condition, publishers’ catalogs and ads, etc., all of which are vital aspects of publishing history.”
No. 86 in the Traveller’s Companion Series was Bottoms Up, by Jock Carroll (the author’s father). The heroine of the book, Gloria Heaven, was based on Marilyn Monroe. Carroll, a photojournalist, had met Monroe on the set of the movie Niagara in 1952 while on assignment for Weekend Magazine.
Unable to get Bottoms Uppublished in Canada or the United States, Carroll turned to Girodias as a last resort. Unlike North American publishers who thought the book had too much sex in it, Girodias didn’t think it had enough. He asked Carroll to spice it up, which he did.
Princeton is no newcomer to the history of publishing. The University’s special collections include the archives of G.P. Putnam and Sons, Henry Holt, Charles Scribner’s Sons, D. Van Nostrand, Harper & Brothers, and many others. But the Olympia Press collection represented a special opportunity. “Civil authority versus individual liberty is an on-going conversation,” Ferguson said. “This collection helps document a fascinating chapter in that dialog, and as such can help support important future research.”
As the (self-proclaimed) Publisher Who Defeated Censorship, I think Girodias would have been happy to know that future scholars will use the Olympia Press collection to understand the history of censorship—and the role he played in it.
Of all of the Olympia items I have traded over the years, the greatest regret I have is parting with the ephemera, such stuff is difficult to find and seldom listed by book-dealers, usually tucked away in a box somewhere, usually found when browsing , rather than presented for sale.
Pat Kearney, Paris Olympia Press, Liverpool University Press. 2007, lists a range of items at page 356.
Rather than reproduce that detail here (though I may do later), suffice to say I am interested in any ephemera, related to the press, including (but not exclusive) sales catalogues, advertising fliers, book lists, order forms, letters, business cards, and anything else with a printed or pictorial link to the press.
Any of the above or similar items, please leave a comment on this blog and I will get back to you.
