THE BOOK OF JADE. London: Durtro At the Sign of the Sigh, 1998. Octavo, publisher's pictorial black cloth, front panel stamped in red and yellow, spine panel stamped in yellow, dark green endpapers, all edges trimmed (the binding is a facsimile of the 1901 edition). First British edition. One of 300 numbered copies. A new edition of the author's first and only book, which was originally published anonymously by Doxey in 1901 a few weeks prior to the author's fatal heart attack at age twenty-three. The book was dedicated "To the Memory of Charles Baudelaire." This expanded Durtro edition contains an additional poem by Barnitz, an essay ("The Art of the Future") by the poet, an introduction by Mark Valentine, and an afterword ("Thoughts Concerning a Decadent Universe") by Thomas Ligotti. "Of the 59 poems in the book, about a dozen are worth salvaging. When contrasted with the best, the worst are really bad. One poem, 'Danse Macabre,' is in such atrociously bad taste that it was finally omitted from the book, probably at the insistence of the publisher [i.e., Doxey]. It exists now only in a clipping taken from galley proofs. But our chief interest is the good poems. And the good ones reveal an undeniable lyric gift, a pure melancholy which reminds us of Dowson, a perverse and near-perfect despair which faintly recalls Les Fleurs du mal ... Barnitz remains, with his scant handful of successful poems, as America's only 'Yellow Nineties' poet. He possessed, indisputably, 'the point of view.'" - Joseph Payne Brennan, "David Park Barnitz, America's 'Yellow Nineties' Poet," Fresco, 9 (Summer 1959), 14-19. A fine copy. (#159559).
Price: $300.00
"This edition is limited to 300 numbered copies, of which this is number [ ]."