Cultural life in fin de siecle Paris
BRYHER. Paris 1900: Traduction par Sylvia Beach et Adrienne Monnier. Paris: La Maison des Amis des Livres. 1938.
8vo. Original buff wrappers, front wrapper lettered in black, edges untrimmed, pp. 62, [2], slight creasing to the spine, pushing to spine ends, Housed in a custom made white cardboard folder, spine label lettered in black, front cover of folder reproduces the original front wrapper; otherwise very good.
First French edition.
Paris 1900 was first issued in English in 1937 in Bryher's literary magazine, Life and Letters Today. Bryher is well known to have been the lover of the poet H.D, in an open relationship spanning 40 years. Predominantly though, she is regarded as a powerful pioneer of creativity who lived life at the very epicentre of modernism, serving as patron to multiple experimental projects and personalities. This short memoir begins with her concept of "geographical emotions", an exploration of the importance of place in the writing of the self, and offers an intimate acount of the prestigious Great Exhibition in Paris. Walter Benjamin and Bryher exchanged letters during the 1930s and, through the writer Monnier, the British author was able to send money to the German Jewish Philosopher in order to assist his escape from Paris.
This edition is partiuclarly prescient as it binds together the lives of three integral queer modernists who were both close friends and intellectual allies. It was translated by Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company and Monneier, published by the latter and most likely promoted in their shops. In one of Bryher's final essays entitled, What Shall We Do in the War?, she issues a plea to the creative world to preserve both art and science against the very possible reality of a Facist world. Both in her writing and her personal life she upheld this pledge and was responsible for coming to the aid of many refugees in escape from Nazi occupation.
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