“TO POSSESS THE TRUTH IN ONE BODY AND ONE SOUL”

MAPPLETHORPE, Robert. A Season in Hell. Translated by Paul Schmidt. With Photogravures by Robert Mapplethorpe. (New York): The Limited Editions Club, (1986). Small folio, original full red morocco, original cloth slipcase. $1950.

Signed limited edition, number 137 of only 1000 copies signed by Robert Mapplethorpe and translator Paul Schmidt, with eight superb photogravure plates after photographs by Mapplethorpe.

"Arthur Rimbaud was 18 years old when he wrote A Season in Hell (Un saison en enfer) in 1873. Mapplethorpe was 40 years old when he accepted the commission to make photographs in response to the prose poem. It was also the year that Mapplethorpe learned he was H.I.V. positive, which led to his death in 1989. Seven of Mapplethorpe's Hasselblad negatives were selected for this project and printed on handmade etching paper by Jon Goodman, in his studio in Florence, Massachusetts, a few miles from Dan Keleher's Wild Carrot Letterpress in Hadley, where the text was printed. The translation [with new introduction] is by librettist, poet, and actor Paul Schmidt (1934-1999) who published translations of Rimbaud's complete works in 1975" (Firestone Library, Princeton University). The original French text and the English translation by Paul Schmidt are printed on facing pages.

A fine copy.