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Quinze jours en Hollande

1893176 x 204 mm

FIRST EDITION.
UN DES 50 EXEMPLAIRES SUR JAPON SIGNÉS PAR VERLAINE.

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FIRST EDITION.

UN DES 50 EXEMPLAIRES SUR JAPON SIGNÉS PAR VERLAINE ET DONT LE PORTRAIT DE L'AUTEUR EST SIGNÉ PAR ZILKEN à la mine de plomb (seul tirage en grand papier).

Paul Verlaine and Phillipe Zilcken :
In October 1892, the painter, aquafortist, lithographer and art writer Philippe Zilcken wrote to Verlaine inviting him to give lectures on French poetry. Verlaine went to The Hague from 2 to 13 November 1892 and stayed with Philippe Zilcken. "Verlaine arrived at our house at the beginning of a dark and rainy November, with red and gold leaves, which pleased him immensely, especially as, from my house, he had a superb view of the "old, lonely and frozen park" of the Maison du Bois. My compatriots living in Paris had written to me saying 'be careful', 'think about what you're doing', and a thousand other similar warnings, based on Verlaine's reputation as an incorrigible bohemian. [...] By the time he had spent just one day with us he had won over the whole household, from my parents to my little daughter, then a year and a half old, although he did say somewhere that "although I am usually rather cold with children". One day he showed all the exquisite delicacy that was in him: taking my wife aside, he said to her: "so many things have been said about me that I don't want you to be unaware of who you've welcomed under your roof" [...]. [...] And then he confessed his whole life to her, or at least everything that would help her to admit it. When he left us, he left a void that was only slowly filled. (Philippe Zilcken, Souvenirs, Floury, Paris, 1900).

The lectures were a great success, bringing in nine hundred francs for the poet, as well as the order for a volume on his trip for the sum of a thousand francs from Mr Blok, a bookseller in The Hague. The two men began a correspondence of around thirty letters around the writing of the payment for the book recounting Verlaine's stay. It was published after Verlaine's death, in 1897, under the title: "Correspondence and unpublished documents relating to his book Quinze jours en Hollande with a letter from Stéphane Mallarmé . Co-published in The Hague by Blok and in Paris by Vanier, the poet's historic publisher, Fifteen days in Holland published in 1893, with a portrait of the author by Philippe Zilcken. The entire Zilken family features prominently in the work, especially Philippe Zilcken, who accompanied the poet throughout his stay. Verlaine included the sonnet written for the young René Zilcken. In January 1896, on Verlaine's death, Zilcken paid tribute to the poet in an article in De Amsterdammer Weekblad voor Nederland, Verlaine in Holland.

Paris, La Haye,1893. Bound,176 x 204 mm,108 pp.

Reliure à la Bradel signé Goy-Vilaine, plein papier décoré, pièce de titre, titre doré, couverture et dos conservé.

Bio

Paul Verlaine

(born in Metz in Moselle on 30 March 1844 and died in Paris on 8 January 1896)

 

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