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ItemID: #40945
Cost: $300.00

Album de Vers Anciens

Paul Valery

VALERY’S ALBUM DE VERS ANCIENS—EMLEN ETTING’S COPY

VALERY, Paul. Album de Vers Anciens. Paris: Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1927. 12mo, orange paper wrappers. $300.

Limited edition of Valery’s Album de Vers Anciens, limited to 3478 numbered copies, of which this is number 3015. This copy is from the collection of American artist and illustrator Emlen Etting, with his signature stamp in purple ink.

“Valery’s verse flows in traditional metres and verse-forms, with a delight in sound-patterns which fully explains why he gave his famous… definition of Symbolism as ‘the common intent of several families of poets (otherwise mutually hostile) to recover their own birthright from Music.’ His own verse is certainly poetry-music, but it is also poetry-meditation of a kind in which the intellectual and the sensual are inextricably mingled. It is impossible to say which is leading the other.” Originally published in 1920, this collection of Valéry’s early poetry (1890-1900) helped to make his name and contributed to his election to the Académie Française in 1925. This special edition was published in 1927 in reaction to the increased demand for his work following his elevation to the Académie. Brereton, 305. American artist and illustrator Emlen Etting spent four years in Paris after graduating from Harvard University.

Wrappers slightly toned at spine, interior fine and bright.

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