RIMBAUD (Arthur). - Lot 69

RIMBAUD (Arthur). Complete Poems with a preface by Paul Verlaine and notes by the publisher. Paris: Léon Vanier, 1895. — In-12, 182 x 117: XXIV, 135 pp., printed cover. Black morocco, covers lined with black, white, and red marbled paper, smooth spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine preserved (Alix). Galantaris, no. 230. Second collective edition, partly original, illustrated with two portraits of the author drawn by Paul Verlaine and reproduced as a frontispiece. Paul Verlaine had announced in 1884, in his *Poètes maudits*, that a complete collection of Rimbaud’s works “could only appear later.” It was this work that Léon Vanier completed in 1895, bringing together—following the 1892 edition that combined *Les Illuminations* and *Une Saison en enfer*—the poet’s *Complete Poems*. He excluded the apocryphal or falsely attributed pieces from the pirated edition of *Le Reliquaire* (1891), as well as the sonnets by Tailhade and Maurice du Plessys; he arranged the poems composed between 1870 and 1872 chronologically; and he included authenticated unpublished works as well as prose poems related to *Les Illuminations*. He did, however, retain—for documentary purposes—a few early works expressing ideas that Rimbaud, having returned to the faith, would have “deleted without regret”: the rebellious poet had become a merchant in Harar, in East Africa, where he had befriended the explorer Paul Soleillet. Nicknamed “La Juste Balance” by the locals for his wisdom and integrity, he died “like a saint” in Marseille from an arthritic tumor. Paul Verlaine’s preface appears here for the first time. A beautiful copy bound by Alix, with the front and back covers intact. A few scattered foxing spots.