Little Poems in Prose by Charles Baudelaire translated by Aleister Crowley. Published by Tietan Press, 1995. Hardcover lacking a dust jacket, as issued. Little Poems in Prose is a New Edition of Aleister Crowley’s reverential translation of Charles Baudelaire’s Petits Poèmes en Prose. Crowley’s translation was completed in the early 1900s, and went to press shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, although the collapse of Crowley’s personal finances, and his wartime travels, prevented them from being bound and distributed. In 1928 Crowley met Edward W. Titus, of the Black Manikin Press. After discussion Titus finally issued the work, with a new title-page and a suite of illustrations by the well-known decadent artist Jean de Bosschere, as a Limited Edition under his own imprint in Paris. This New Edition has been edited by Crowley scholar Martin P. Starr, who has also contributed a Foreword to the book. In addition to the text of the first edition, it contains various materials not found in the original edition, including the manuscript corrections made by Crowley in his own copy, as well as reproductions of eight previously-unpublished drawings by Crowley. The book is a high quality sewn hardcover, 8 1/4″ X 10 1/4″, 148 pages, printed on library-quality paper, with an 8 black and white reproductions of sketches by Crowley, and a frontis-piece portrait of Baudelaire after a sketch by Henri Mattisse. Cloth spine, with paper covered boards, delicately imprinted with a line portrait of Baudelaire. Condition: Fine, unmarked and unread.
