EPHRAÏM MIKHAËL - EXCEPTIONAL SET Collection of works by Éphraïm Mikhaël (Éphraïm-Georges Michel, 1866-1890), a Jewish symbolist poet of Provencal origin, who graduated from the École des Chartes, died at the age of 23 and produced a highly original body of work: - L'Automne, s.n., s.l. [Paris] 1886, 16.5x25.5cm, hardback. First edition on current paper of the twenty-year-old poet's first collection, published the same year as Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations. This booklet of 14 poems, marked by an intense and profound melancholy, ensured Mikhaël's fame: "This young man, this child, left a book which, as long as the French language is spoken, will be read, reread and admired" (Catulle Mendès). This collection is often considered one of the founding acts of Symbolism. - L'Automne (idem, second copy), with a handwritten letter from the author to Belgian symbolist poet Georges Vanor. - Le Cor fleuri, féerie en un acte, Paris : Tresse et Stock, 1888, 19 p., performed at the Théâtre-Libre in Paris on December 10, 1888. Vintage boards. This play tells of the amorous rapture of a fairy metamorphosed into a woman, and was set to music by Fernand Halphen, a pupil of Fauré. - Le Cor fleuri (idem, second copy, in its original green paper cover). - Halyartès, Paris, Société du livre d'art, 1904. In-4° bound 5ff + 30pp+ 2ff +27 plates (suites). Bound in Bradel 1/2 basane with corners, smooth spine framed with red morocco semis, irons and medallions, date on tail. 13 color etchings, double suite in fine (including one etching in three states), i.e. 27 plates. No. 85 (of 100), of 15 copies offered to contributors. The illustrations for this work were entrusted to Paul Gervais, the color etchings were engraved by Xavier Maccard and printed by Henri Geny-Gros, the paper was specially manufactured by Perrigot-Masure at the Arches mills. Ephraim Mikhaël, considered by Victor Hugo to be "the hope of French poetry", was unanimously acclaimed by the Symbolists, of whom he was a leading figure. He died at the age of 23, but was so quickly forgotten that the Germans didn't even remove his statue from Place Wilson during the Second World War. This exceptional collection of first editions of the poet's works, including one with his handwritten letter, has been assembled by Elie Szapiro, who researched the poet (and devoted an exhibition to him in 1986, "Ephraïm Mikhaël et son Temps", at the Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse, whose catalog is still an authority) and contributed to his rediscovery.