Une saison en enfer

12mo (18x12,4cm), paperback (three small stains on the cover.)

Cover printed in red and black in lieu of title, and 53 pp.

Very good copy of the first edition of Une saison en enfer, the only collection published during Arthur Rimbaud's lifetime.

Probable edition of 450 copies on ordinary vellum paper.

First edition printed at Rimbaud's expense, then young unknown poet of nineteen years old, and only collection published during his lifetime.

The printing of this thin collection was finished in October 1873, and some copies were distributed by Rimbaud himself to his friends. Not having honored his debt towards his Brussels printer M.-J. Poot, the latter kept the stock which was forgotten until 1901, when the Belgian bibliophile and patron Léon Losseau discovered 425 copies stored since 1873 in the printer's stock. Sought after and collected by bibliophiles ever since, this mythical edition of Une saison en enfer is of great rarity, the discovered stock having been purged of a few copies that had become damp (were destroyed) and of a few others distributed to institutions and bibliophiles.

Our copy is in very good condition and as issued: with the black and red printed cover in place of the title, without flyleaf, and with the 14 pages (7 leaves) left blank for some unknown reason - censorship, imposition error or author's will. It is covered with the publisher's crystal paper and is kept unbound in a slipcase signed by P.L. Martin.

En français dans le texte, 299; Ch. Galantaris, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé. P., 2000, n° 220; Carteret II, p. 271