Beschreibung:

A virtually complete collection of the Olympia Press, The Traveller's Companion Series and associated imprints.
A nearly complete collection of 435 volumes devoted to the Paris publications of the Olympia Press, Collection Merlin, the Teasers, the Atlantic Library, The Traveller’s Companion Series, the Ophelia Press, La Grande Séverin, Ophir Books, Far Out Books, Olympia Magazine, Othello Books, and the Odyssey Library. a comprehensive collection containing first and subsequent printings, variant states, and rare, ephemeral titles. Son of Obelisk Press publisher Jack Kahane, Maurice Girodias began his first publishing ventures during the war and had his brushes with libel and censorship indictments after publishing Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn under his Editions du Chene series. After some financial difficulties, Paris wanderings, and an incident in which a doctor injected him with ten monkey glands, Girodias launched the Olympia Press in 1953 and became the publisher that famously instructed his authors “three sex scenes per chapter. anything less and you’re fired.” Girodias turned to Henry Miller again in this new venture, the first Olympia Press title being Miller’s Plexus which was followed quickly by Sade’s Justine, or Good Conduct Well Chastised. The erotic nature of many of the novels led to the books being banned in the United States and Britain. Scandal, banned novels, and censorship battles aside, the Olympia Press and the associated imprints is one of the most important and influential publishing ventures of the 20th century and launched the careers of many literary greats and their novels; Vladimir Nabokov and Lolita , Samuel Beckett and Watt , William Burroughs and Naked Lunch , and James Patrick Dunleavy with The Ginger Man . Collection includes: The Olympia Press Paris: 1955-62. Contains first printings, many in duplicate and subsequent printings of all titles except Lolita, 120 Days of Sodom, Count Palmiro Vicarion’s … Limericks, these provided in second printings. The Black Diaries lacking dust jacket. (22 titles, 55 copies). Kearney 1.1- 1.22. Collection Merlin Paris: 1953-55. A full run of first printings of all book titles, lacking only the periodical Merlin (Vol. 2, no. 4). includes first printings in jacket of beckett’s malloy and genet’s the thief’s journal. (6 titles, 9 copies). Kearny 2.1-2.6. The Teasers Paris: 1953-54. First issues of four of six titles, lacking only Paris Exotique and The New Stripteaser. includes the rare the paris teaser, unseen by olympia press biographer, patrick kearney. (4 titles, 4 copies). Kearney 3.1-3.6. The Atlantic Library Paris: 1954. a full run of first issues , including a possible variant printing of The Carnal Days of Helen Sefris bound without a title page. (10 titles, 12 copies). Kearney 4.1-4.10. The Traveller’s Companion Series. Paris: 1955-65. a virtually complete run of first issues of the olympia’s most popular series. Contains first printings, many in duplicate, subsequent printings, and variant states of all titles except those noted below. Original wrappers (see note on dust jackets below) or publisher’s binding, many titles bound in later green cloth with white lettering label to spine and the original wrappers bound in. series includes the rare dust jackets for the american express and the ginger man. Titles with dust jacket: The Ginger Man (second issue as called for, no. 7), I Hear Voices (three copies in dust jacket, no. 60, Night (no. 81), Steiner’s Tour (no. 83, 2 copies), The American Express (no. 85), Titles present but lacking dust jacket: The Naked Lunch (five copies, no. 77), The Young and Evil (no. 80), The Soft Machine (no. 88), The Ticket that Exploded (no. 91). Titles lacking from series: Darling (no. 19), Melting (the second issue of Dissolving, no. 59), Nexus (never published, no. 72), Sextet (no. 93), Malloy (never published, no. 96) Titles provided in second printing only: The World of Sex (no. 47), The Bedroom Philosophers (no. 49), and The Fetish Crowd (no. 73). (94 titles, 239 copies). Kearney 5.1-5.96. Ophelia Press Paris 1956-65. Conta