jeudi 24 mars 2016

Bibliophlie : The Book-Hunter in Paris (1893). Studies among the bookstalls ans the days by Octave Uzanne. With a Preface by Augustine Birrell. (illustrations par Emile Mas). One of only 25 copies on large paper. Rare.


Octave UZANNE

THE BOOK-HUNTER IN PARIS. Studies among the bookstalls ans the days by Octave Uzanne. With a Preface by Augustine Birrell. (illustrations par Emile Mas).

Chicago, A.C.McClurg and Co., 1893 [Elliot Stock, London]

1 volume grand in-8 réimposé in-4 (29,5 x 22 cm) de XII-232-(3) pages. Nombreuses petites vignettes en noir dans le texte.

Reliure éditeur demi-chagrin marron, plats de toile bleu nuit. Reliure frottée au dos et aux coins. Charnières intérieures fendues et fragiles, relié sur brochure, non rogné. Exemplaire à très grandes marges imprimé sur papier vélin teinté.

TIRAGE A 25 EXEMPLAIRES SEULEMENT SUR GRAND PAPIER, POUR LES ETATS-UNIS.



Il a été fait un tirage ordinaire pour l'Angleterre la même année sous l'adresse d'Elliot Stock. Bien qu'il porte l'adresse de McClurg à Chicago, ce volume sort des mêmes presses d'Elliot Stock à Londres.



"These vocal days, when there are books about almost everything under the sun, no one need wond er that so quaint a fraternity as the stall-keepers on the quays of the Seine should have a volume all to themselves. They have a place in French history, these men; their trade, which by the beginning of the seventeenth century had learnt to cluster round the Pont Neuf, has traveled through vicissitudes peculiar to itself, and survived revolutions destructive of interests vaster than its own; these humble vendors of old books have been proclaimed as nuisances, obstructing the highway, denounced as receivers of stolen goods, and informed against as cheapeners of the well-housed stock of the authorized booksellers who kept shop, and paid rent, rates, and taxes. M. Uzanne makes us acquainted with the precise terms of royal edicts and decrees leveled at the heads of these open-air traders, who, however,as was indeed befitting, seem usually to have had friends at Court, who managed to prevent such an administration of the law as must have exterminated the whole tribe." ; Selected chapters: The Stall-keepers of To-day. Characters and oddities -- No prevalent type - The shoeblack as bookseller - Chevalier -- Corroenne -- Vaisset -- Gallandre -- Rigault and the Revue des Buloz -- Antoine Laporte -- Humel -- Jacques -- Chanmoru -- His projects for the reform cf the bookstalls--His notices to customers and others--A reminiscence of the siege of Paris--Jean Frollo on Chanmoru--A new way of beginning -- A find and a bargain--Schanne on another new departure -- Ferroud -- Rosselin -- The dealer in spectacles -- Tisserand -- Book-hunters and Book-huntresses. Characters and faces -- The chase is the image of war -- The passion in different forms -- Delights of book-hunting -- -The scarcity of bargains, and the reason why - - The art of dressing a stall -- Certain books for certain classes -- The book-huntress -- -Learned ladies -- The student -- Gausseron's experience -- The woman of fashion never goes book-hunting -- The priests -- The casuals -- The wealthy collecto r -- Hunting by catalogue -- Amddde Pommier -- Some noted book-lovers -- Hippolyte Rigault on the love of books -- Bibliophile Jacob as described by Du Seigneur -- His store-room -- Pere Rembrandt -- Fillet's enormous library -- Boulard's 300,00 0 books -- General Pittid -- Chantelauze -- Champfleury -- Feuillet de Conches -- Michel Chasles -- Captier -- Xavier Marmier -- His will -- Anatole France -- Fontaine -- Comte de Toustain -- Mouton- Duvernet -- Delzant and his books on happ iness -- Du Desert -- Making up sets -- Droz and the Templars -- Humbert -- Huysmans -- A batch of book-hunters -- Grand-Carteret -- Demand for specimens of good printing -- Dr. Nicholas -- Chineurs -- Guffroy -- Morel, otherwise Chipo teau -- The humbler book-hunters -- The Book-stealers. Notes and observations -- The lowest depths of thieving -- Breaking into the boxes -- Thefts in the daytime -- Robbery made easy -- The thief's devices -- A conspiracy among the book-binders -- Jules Levy's mistake -- The ' incomplete copy' swindle -- People who require watching -- The Physiology of the Bookstall-keeper. His origin and his career -- The old class of stall-keepers -- The introduction of the fixed boxes etc."



Ce volume a paru la même année que l'édition originale française : Bouquinistes et Bouquineurs, Physiologie des Quais de Paris, du Pont Royal au Pont de Sully (Paris, Ancienne Maison Quantin, 1893). Ce volume avait été imprimé à 1.600 exemplaires. Octave Uzanne dresse ici un historique anecdotier des bouquinistes de Paris, notamment ceux encore en activité ou qui l'ont été après la second Empire. Octave Uzanne aura retenu bien souvent des anecdotes graveleuses voire douteuses concernant bon nombre de ces hommes du livre, pour certains rudement traités. C'est le bouquiniste-bibliographe Antoine Laporte (maltraité plus qu'à son tour) qui répondra à ce livre par un pamphlet intitulé "Les bouquinistes et les quais de Paris tels qu'ils sont : Réfutation du pamphlet d'O. Uzanne." (Paris, chez tous les bouquinistes des Quais, 1893).

Cette diffusion anecdotique à 25 exemplaires seulement pour l'Amérique était certainement destinée aux seuls "amis" d'Octave Uzanne.

BON EXEMPLAIRE D'UN TIRAGE DE TOUTE RARETÉ.

Prix : 500 euros