Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Apollinaire, Gillaume (i.e. Guillaume Apollinaire Albert de Kostrowitzki). Les mamelles de Tirésias. Drame surréaliste en deux actes et un prologue. Avec la musique de Germaine Albert-Birot.

With 7 full-page drawings by Serge Férat . 108, (4) pp. Small 8vo. 20th-century red half morocco with marbled boards (Altermatt, Paris). Orig. illus. wrappers bound in. Uncut. – Paris, Éditions SIC, 1918.

First edition of Apollinaire’s first play produced at Théatre Mabel in 1917 under the direction of Pierre Albert-Birot who at the same time was the publisher (éd. Sous Images Couleurs) and sponsor of the play. In the preface to the play, Apollinaire (after having used it in the program for “Parade”) qualifies his play as “surréaliste”, a term which, from here on, starts his career as definition for a whole literary movement: “J’ai écrit mon drame surréaliste avant tout pour les Français comme Aristophane composait ses comédies pour les Athéniens”. Five preceeding poems are dedicated to the actors who played the principal roles. Only illustrated book by Serge Férat (i.e. S. Iastribov, born Moscow 1881) who, at the same time, created the stage costumes for the play. – Monod 358; Skira 124. – With ms. dedication on flylieaf by the Swiss-born Paris bookbinder A.V.A. Altermatt to a unnamed person, dated 1931. Slight browning throughout, a clean and nice copy. – Best.-Nr. 26802