*Teodor de WYZEWA. Mallarmé / Notes. Paris, Publications de La Vogue, [oct.] 1886; platelet in-8, bradel cart. full dark ochre percaline with small flaps, spine titled in smoked black, untrimmed, cons. orange cover with Vanier's pretty white label with black border (Strictly period binding). A magnificent copy of the original edition, with 4 enclosures. Limited offprint [200?*] of the pre-original edition of La Vogue in 2 issues of July 1886. Ex. of the current edition on bl. glacé vellum (at 1 fr.) from the same printer, A. Retaux in Abbeville, as Les Illuminations (published shortly afterwards in November, but much more expensive). There are a few ex. on Hollande laid paper at 4fr. (10 according to the covers of La Revue indépendante since June 1887, which belatedly specify 200 ex.) and not Arches (Galantaris, 2014 ed. addition, no. 402; id. Christie's, 4/11/2014, no. 253). Will be reprinted in Nos Maîtres chez Perrin in 1895 with a few variations. * Advertisements in La Vogue from September 6 (to be published) to December 1886 give a print run of 95 copies, including 15 in Hollande. First book published by the young Pole Wyzewa at the age of 24, first long plea of 20 pages of incisive writing: "Parisian friends, you all know a strange poet, who, for ten, twenty years, since always, periodically publishes, in obscure leaves, certain incomprehensible verses, under this name, - obviously a pseudonym: - Stéphane Mallarmé. You've memorized some of these verses, which, read in all directions, remain mysterious to you: you recite them at dessert, in your homes, when you're asked for a monologue. Then these many subtle criticisms [...]: Is M. Mallarmé a madman or a mystifier?" In fine: "He has built the pure temple of his art so far away that he has sheltered it from Glory itself. He will not see what Racine and Beethoven would see today, his works polluted by the debasing admiration of simpletons. And he will have the most holy and delightful joy of all, he will always, in the blissful serenity of his noble spirit, have the mockery and scorn of men for his incomprehensible madness". "No one, before Teodor de Wyzewa, had characterized the poet's heroism and the originality of his art with such precision and finesse", and was able to "extract from Mallarméan poetry a well-considered definition of the new literary art. [...] The first charter of the new poetry is Wyzewa's." (Paul Delsemme, Teodor de Wyzewa, Bruxelles, ULB, (1967), p.156 and 184). An eminent figure in Symbolism, a polyglot and polygraph, and a contributor to Ed. Dujardin's La Revue wagnérienne, Wyzewa published equally lengthy Notes sur Villiers in La Revue indépendante of [December 1] 1886, to which he assiduously contributed, as did Mallarmé for the theater, under Dujardin's direction. Two pieces were originally mounted in the copy: - Paul VERLAINE. Stéphane Mallarmé. Paris, Vanier [mars (et non, comme avancé, février) 1887], Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui n° 296, portrait-charge by Luque in blue and green color of the poet as a faun. Writing to Verlaine, who this time signed his name, Mallarmé railed against Vanier, even though he had been warned and threatened with prosecution: "our gracious publisher [Vanier], who, publishing a silly portrait* in Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui against my consent, has kept from me the proofs of my prose and verse" (Marchal Corr. 802). This was corrected in Les Écrits pour l'Art on April 7. * He did it again the following year in the lyre medallion of Mallarmé's new edition of Verlaine's Poètes maudits. Naturally folded but wonderfully fresh, to be compared with a flying ex. that we enclose. - T. by WYZEWA. L.a.s. to Rodolphe Darzens; 1p. on a double f. in-8 on the letterhead of the Revue wagnérienne. He wishes, as promised, to publish his study on Les Lauriers sont coupés by "mon ami" Dujardin. [It was to appear in the short-lived La Revue libre of May 1888, in which Darzens played a leading role (P. Delsemme, ibid., Bibliographie 158)]. Rodolphe Darzens' fin-de-siècle collection was renowned and coveted, particularly his Rimbaldian collection. He disseminated it among the greatest bibliophiles in the first half of the twentieth century. An impeccable, fine copy, desirable in every way. Provenance: Rodolphe Darzens (?). Also included: MALLARMÉ. Autobiography. Letter to Verlaine. Foreword by Dr. Edmond Bonniot. P., Messein, 1924, [Coll.] Les Manuscrits des Maîtres, in-4 br. hardcover, publisher's slipcase Facsimile e.o. of this famous letter of November 16, 1885, preparatory to the writing of Verlaine's study for Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui (cf. above).