Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard. Poème
This first separate book edition of Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard is one of the decisive moments in the history of the modern book. Mallarmé turns the page from a neutral support into an active field in which silence, white space, type size and rhythm participate in meaning. The poem appeared here in 1914 from the Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, shortly before the major typographic experiments of the twentieth century would unfold with full force. The restrained wrappers printed in black and red preserve the tension between classical French publishing culture and radical formal innovation. This ordinary copy on papier vergé d’édition represents the wider circulation of a work that must initially have seemed both enigmatic and prophetic. Even without deluxe paper or numbering, the book remains a milestone: the moment at which poetry becomes visible space. For collectors of the avant-garde, visual poetry and the artist’s book, it is a source-text.
Quantity
Mallarmé, Stéphane
Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard. Poème
1914 | Paris | Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française
A foundational book in which the modern poetic page was reinvented. This copy from the ordinary issue preserves the historical core of Mallarmé’s typographic revolution. It remains an indispensable landmark for any collection devoted to modernism, visual poetry and book art.
This first separate book edition of Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard is one of the decisive moments in the history of the modern book. Mallarmé turns the page from a neutral support into an active field in which silence, white space, type size and rhythm participate in meaning. The poem appeared here in 1914 from the Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, shortly before the major typographic experiments of the twentieth century would unfold with full force. The restrained wrappers printed in black and red preserve the tension between classical French publishing culture and radical formal innovation. This ordinary copy on papier vergé d’édition represents the wider circulation of a work that must initially have seemed both enigmatic and prophetic. Even without deluxe paper or numbering, the book remains a milestone: the moment at which poetry becomes visible space. For collectors of the avant-garde, visual poetry and the artist’s book, it is a source-text.
€580
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
Unnumbered copy from the ordinary issue, one of 2,200 on papier vergé d’édition after 10 hors-commerce copies on papier pur chanvre de Monval and 90 on vélin d’Arches.
Print Run
2200
Paper
papier vergé d’édition
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
The poem begins from the image of a throw of dice, but it does not unfold as a linear narrative. A voice, solemn and fragmented at once, moves through a field of thought shaped by chance, shipwreck, cosmos, abyss and possibility. The words are spread across double-page openings, with changing type sizes and broad areas of white space that create pause, tension and distance. The central idea is that no act, not even a decisive throw, can fully abolish chance. The reader follows no plot with characters, but a mental and typographic constellation in which images and phrases continually enter new relations. The poem ends not in resolution, but in an open star-like configuration of meaning. Thematically, the work stands at the intersection of Symbolism, modernity and the birth of a spatial poetics.
Aragon, Louis
Anicet ou le panorama
With *Anicet ou le panorama* (Paris, NRF, 1921), Louis Aragon delivers an early, deliberately hybrid novel written at the hinge between Dada disruption and the rise of Surrealism. The book proceeds by visions and sequences—a “panorama” in which identity, desire, and the act of looking continually shift. In this bibliophile form (“tirage de tête” reserved for NRF bibliophiles), the novel also becomes a collectible object intended for a small inner circle. This copy is specifically designated “pour le Dr. Sourdel” and numbered XLVIII, underscoring the selective, personalized nature of the issue. Published under the NRF imprint, Aragon is anchored in the literary center while keeping the book’s formal audacity intact. A key item for understanding the nervous modernity of the early 1920s.
Book
€1,150
Cocteau, Jean · Marie Laurencin
Poésies. 1917-1920
*Poésies. 1917-1920* gathers poems from a decisive period in Jean Cocteau’s development, at the intersection of poetry, music and the Parisian avant-garde. The collection was published in 1920 by Éditions de la Sirène, a house closely associated with Cocteau during these years. The poems belong to the period of his involvement with Erik Satie, the Groupe des Six and artists connected with Cubism, although Cocteau himself resisted identification with any single movement. Marie Laurencin contributed the printed illustration for the original wrapper, giving the volume a significant visual dimension. In this copy that wrapper has been preserved within an attractive contemporary half-leather binding. Most notably, Cocteau inscribed the book to a friend named Marcelle, possibly the pianist Marcelle Meyer, potentially connecting this individual copy with the artistic circle in which the work originated.
Book
€950
Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges
Ariane
A remarkable copy of *Ariane*, published in the *Les Cahiers Nouveaux* series, inscribed with a poetic and enigmatic message by Ribemont-Dessaignes to Jacques Matarasso. This deluxe Japan paper edition was elegantly rebound in 1994 by Georges Leroux, in a restrained style that echoes the work’s Dadaist spirit.
Book
€1,100
Gracq, Julien
Au château d'Argol
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.