EXCEPTIONAL FIRST FOUR ISSUES OF VERVE, AMERICAN EDITIONS, 1937-39, WITH EXHIBITION-SIZE COLOR LITHOGRAPHS BY MATISSE AND OTHERS,FEATURING THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF WORKS BY JOYCE AND HEMINGWAY

TÉRIADE, Efstratios (ELEFTHERIADES, Efstratios). Verve. Volume 1, Number 1 (December 1937). BOUND WITH: Verve. Volume 1, Number 2 (Spring 1938. March-June ). BOUND WITH: Verve. Volume 1, Number 3 (October-December). BOUND WITH: Verve. Volume 1, Number 4 (January-March 1939). Paris: (Imprimerie des Beaux-Arts), 1937-1939. Folio, period style full blue morocco gilt, red morocco spine label, raised bands, marbled endpapers.

First American editions of the complete first four issues of Verve, published in Paris from 1937-1939, featuring cover art by Matisse (No. 1), Georges Braque (No. 2), Pierre Bonard (No. 3) and Georges Rouault (No. 4), along with numerous heliogravures (many full color), original lithographs by artists such as Matisse, Chagall, Miró and Klee, and the first publication of select writings by Hemingway and Joyce, along with articles by Valéry, Gide, Bataille, Sartre and much more, assembled in one folio volume with four original lithographic front wrappers bound in.

“Fifty years ago in Paris, the magazine to look for was Verve, which first came out in December 1937 and kept going in one form or another till 1960. That first cover (by Henri Matisse) sang out from the other side of the street in a way that made us run across the road to look at it more closely. And when we turned its pages, Verve had a bosomy, full-fleshed, slightly slithery quality that this former subscriber would know in his sleep” (John Russell). Art critic Efstratios Eleftheriades, under the nom de plume “Tériade,” founded Verve, with the financial assistance of David Smart, publisher of Esquire. “The magazine, a quarterly review of arts and letters, was lavish in design and challenging in content. Teriade’s view of the world of art and literature was personal, bold and compelling” (Rick Gagliano). Once called “the most beautiful magazine in the world,” Verve contained original lithographs by the most famous artists of the day— Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Léger, Miró, Chagall— with numerous lithographs appearing for the first time. Within these pages, as well, are the first publications of works by Hemingway and Joyce, and much more.

In addition to the original lithographic front wrapper by Matisse, this volume’s premiere issue of Verve (Vol. 1, No. 1) features original lithographs by Miró and Leger, heliogravures of photographs by Man Ray, Brassaï, articles by Matisse, Gide, Dos Passos and Garcia Lorca, previously unpublished letters and drawings by Cezanne, and the first printed illustration of Picasso’s Guernica. The second issue (Spring 1938, March-June), with original lithographic front wrapper by Braque, presents the first publication of Hemingway’s The Heat and the Cold (46), his piece on the filming of The Spanish Earth that was later included in the book The Spanish Earth (1938). Also herein is the first publication of James Joyce’s A Phoenix Park ‘Nocturne, “the final and entirely rewritten version of a detail of a fragment from Work in Progress which appeared originally in Transition No. 22 (1933) and later in the de luxe edition at the Servire Press, The Hague, under the title The Mime of Mick, Nick and the Maggies (26)”. This exceptional issue also includes original lithographs by Kandinsky and Masson, and heliogravures of photographs by Brandt, Brassaï and others. Issue Number 3 (October-December), with original lithographic front wrapper by Bonnard, offers original lithographs by Chagall, Miró, Rattner and Klee, together with articles by leading writers such as Valéry, Malraux, Claudel and Bataille. The culminating issue in this exceptional collection, Number 4 (January-March 1939), features an original lithographic front wrapper by Rouault, and an original double-page lithograph of Matisse’s The Dance, along with heliogravures of photographs by Brassaï, Bill Brandt and others, together with articles by Michaux, Garcia Lorca, Sartre and much more. First American edition, published same year as the French, with text translated into English by Robert Sage. Hanneman C278. Slocum C93. See also Slocum C70, C90. With trace of gold seal removal from title page of first issue.

Text, plates and wrappers fresh and bright; beautifully bound.