ALFRED JARRY OU LE SURMALE DES LETTRES. 1928.

Paris: Grasset, 1928

19 x 12cm, 223pp. Frontispiece portrait by Cazals. Original wrappers. First edition of this intimate biographical study by the (at times) scandalous author of ‘Monsieur Venus’. Rachilde was a close friend to and enthusiastic supporter of Jarry’s work her short story ‘Le Mortis’ (collected in ‘Contes et Nouvelles’, 1900) was dedicated to Jarry. The title of the work (offered here) refers to his brilliantly absurdist novel ‘The Supermale’, which concurrently tracks the progress / regress of a cross-country bicycle race, which concludes in an orgiastic contest of sexual endurance.

During the previous year (1927), Rachilde published the volatile ‘Why I Am Not a Feminist’. This example from the numbered issue on alfa. (one of 550 copies). Some minor wear to wrappers and some nascent foxing apparent, else a very good copy of this uncommon work.