*Stéphane MALLARMÉ. Divagations. Paris, Fasquelle, Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1897 [January 15]; in-12 bradel half green perc. card, spine gilt filleted, small gilt fleuron, dark green chagr. label, cons. cover (Paul Vié). Partly first edition. Ex. of the current edition, complete with errata. The errata, accepted by Fasquelle, delayed publication a little, and Mallarmé had to hand it in on Thursday January 7, asking Thadée Natanson if he had yet "dislodged some new parasite from our text" (Marchal Corr. 2823). It was Natanson who possessed the famous autograph prière d'insérer, once published by Mondor/Jean-Aubry (Pl. OC. p. 1538): "Under this perhaps ironic title, Divagations, M. Stéphane Mallarmé brought together in one volume [...] pieces made famous by the outcry they caused: - they were accused of incoherence, unintelligibility... [...] for having, simply, excluded clichés, found a proper mold for each sentence and practiced purism" (Marchal OC. II p. 1610). "A book," writes Mallarmé in his Avant-dire, "as I do not like them, those scattered and deprived of architecture [...] the Divagations apparentes treat a subject, of thought, unique - if I see them again as a stranger, like a cloister though broken, would exhale to the walker, its doctrine". Autograph letter signed on f.-t. in ink: "A / Paul Hervieu / Stéphane Mallarmé". No known letter of thanks from the novelist and playwright, whose friendly relationship with his "delicious Mallarmé" goes back many years. A fine choice ex. which, in Vié boards, stands out from all others.