MACFALL, Haldane. Aubrey Beardsley. The Clown, the Harlequin, the Pierrot of His Age.

The Pierrot of His Age

MACFALL, Haldane. Aubrey Beardsley. The Clown, the Harlequin, the Pierrot of His Age. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1927.

4to. Publisher’s black cloth, gilt vignette by Beardsley to upper board, spine and upper board lettered in gilt, in the publisher’s black paper slipcase, gilt paper spine label printed in black; pp. 270, [2 (colophon, blank)]; tipped-in photographic frontispiece and 53 illustrations by Beardsley, of which 8 tipped in; small mark to foot of upper board, very slight wear to spine ends, slipcase chipped and somewhat worn to extremities; else a near-fine copy in the scarce publisher’s slipcase; limitation page signed and numbered by MacFall in ink.

First edition, no. 15 of 300 large-paper copies signed and numbered by the author, of this monumental biography featuring fifty-three drawings by Beardsley, uncommon in the slipcase.

Art critic, illustrator, and British Army officer Haldane MacFall (1860–1928) was also the author of Aubrey Beardsley. The Man and his Work (1928). The work is dedicated to Wisconsin-born bibliophile, insurance agent, and casual literary agent Earl E. Fisk, prominent collector of works by Max Beerbohm, Holbrook Jackson, A. Edward Newton, and others. ‘Although Fisk lived in Wisconsin for all of his adult life, he maintained a connection to the British literary scene. He actively promoted the work of authors whom he enjoyed, and he helped to place books by Haldane MacFall and Holbrook Jackson with American publishers. He also wrote many articles for The Bookman’ (Archives at Yale, online).

This large-paper issue is thought by Gallatin to precede the ordinary issue.

Samuels Lasner 179.

SKU: 2126014