Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

8vo. 9 x 5.75 inches. 206 pp. Bound in original red cloth, with black titles, in pictorial dust wrapper, which has edge wear and loss, including at head and tail of spine. Lower edge rough cut. Spine sunned at head and tail, fly leaves a little browned and page edges foxed; otherwise a very good copy. Decorated by publisher's device on title page. Biography of the French fin de siecle symbolist poet, Paul Verlaine (1844-96), who took part in the Paris Commune of 1871. The title references his first collection of poetry, Poemes saturniens, published 1866. By Marcel Coulon (1873-1959), French magistrate, poet and literary critic. Translated and edited by Edgell Rickwood (1898-1982), poet, critic, editor and journalist. After his war service, he took up a literary career, also becoming a communist activist in the 1930s and after.