Various (Anderson, Margaret (Editor); Cocteau, Jean; Picabia, Francis; Pound, Ezra et al.)

The Little Review: A Quarterly Journal of Art and Letters (Autumn 1921)

New York, NY: The Little Review, 1921. First Printing. Sewn Wrappers. This vintage number of the iconic & prescient avant-garde literary & art journal, the "...ONLY American periodical that ever gives the reader something he hasn't learned to like somewhere else," (pg. 2) chiefly edited by Margaret Anderson (1886-1973), features three portfolios of images of sculptural artworks by Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), the great Romanian-French artist whose immortal works are the distilled essence of modernism. Also in this issue are contributions of poetry & prose by the canonical French author-artist-filmmaker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963); the great French artist-polymath Francis Picabia (1879-1953); the utterly cursed & despicable (but, alas, highly influential from a modernist literary standpoint) American-born treasonous exile Ezra Pound; & others. The Little Review is perhaps most famous for its inclusion of portions from James Joyce's then-work-in-progress Ulysses (1922) in previous issues, which caused them to be banned & suppressed. In this issue, it is stated, also on pg. 2: "As PROTEST against the suppression of the Little Review containing various installments of the "ULYSSES" of JAMES JOYCE, the following artists and writers of international reputation are collaborating in the autumn number of Little Review:," with Brancusi, Cocteau, Picabia, Pound & others' names following. Larger-format softcover journal in illustrated wrappers with sewn binding. From the collection of George Bornstein (1941-2021), scholar, author & academician here at the University of Michigan- a quintessential Man of Letters who was a dearly missed friend & mentor to this writer. An extremely rare & most collectible literary-art relic (we have otherwise encountered only facsimiles of this issue) in its original contemporary form & with distinguished provenance. In relatively quite fine condition for such a delicate, over-century-old item, with mild-to-moderate rubbing, faint scratching & occasional spotting to front, back covers & spine; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases, tiny chips & mostly short closed tears at/from edges & corners of same; small areas with loss of paper exposing sewn binding at blank white spine; mild browning & rubbing to edges of text block (all untrimmed as issued). Interior fine with mild browning, occasional spotting to inner covers & page leaves; very small holes, minor paper loss esp. at side & lower edges of some leaves (possibly as issued &/or slight deterioration from age). We note that some leaves are uncut at upper edges, joining two pages, as issued. Fine. [Item #6141]

Price: $400.00