I have here for sale the very rare ( only 330 copies published ) 1947 edition of Pierre Louys' Les Chansons de Bilitis, never before offered on the internet. This is published on watermarked Johannot velin paper and its 180 pages are uncut but loose as originally published; so are the covers and the twelve drawings that follow. Paper size is 32x25 cms. and overall condition of the book is very fine plus. It includes the 171 Songs of Bilitis.
( In the late 19th. century the French novelist Pierre Louys claimed that he had discovered the poems of an ancient poetess named " Bilitis", a contemporary of Sappho, and he indeed published several ' translations' of her works; but never produced the original texts of Bilitis' poems. The Bilitis hoax took Europe by storm..... Bilitis was made into a movie in the 1970's starring gorgeous nymphet Sylvia Crystel [ of ' Emmanuella' fame.... and most middle aged Cypriotes' dream mate :-) ]. The Bilitis popularity has not subsided ever since and there are today fun clubs of Bilitis all over the world.... translated into Korean, Japanese... with Indian poets making references to Bilitis/ Louys.... more than 10000 pages in cyberspace/ search results. Bilitis, Pierre Louys tells us, was born of a Greek father and a Phoenician mother somewhere in Caramania and the slopes of Mount Taurus; a stones' throw from the island of Cyprus which she visited [ the Amathus area in Limassol] and wrote more than 50 songs whilst here. I am not going to comment on Miss Bilitis' sexual inclinations or indeed Louys' poetical skills; what I am really interested is whether G. Hadji- Minache, whose sketches I have here for sale, was indeed a Cypriote. I was told some time ago that he was a Paphian, from Panayia village who emigrated to France before the War.. makes sense as the sketches are all dated 1945. Ever since I have been asking around whether anyone had heard of a ' Yiorkos Hadjiminas pou tin Panayia tis Paphou' to no avail.... I just hope this does not prove as reliable information as the one that Comrade Gorbachev was a Cypriote. Mind you..... his drawings are absolutely lovely... especially the full of expression eyes of the girls.. Very rare too. The whole volume is offered at $ 2350.00 NETT until the end of October. Afterwards, and if not sold, each print is offered separately at $ 275.00 each, with my usual volume discounts applicable here too.)