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Details
CAHUN, Claude. Aveux Non Avenus. Paris: Éditions du Carrefour, 1930. Quarto (220 x 170mm). 9 black and white photographs. Original printed paper wrappers (spine chipped at ends and splitting, faint dampstain at spine foot overlapping onto sides, early glassine heavily chipped at the spine and yellowed). Provenance: Claude Cahun (presentation inscription to:) -- Havelock Ellis (1859-1939, writer and sexologist).
FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 25 COPIES OF CAHUN'S FIRST BOOK. A REMARKABLE ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED TO HAVELOCK ELLIS: 'who has been a warm light on my desolate path, to the master I admire and love, to the friend who never failed me. Claude Cahun (whom he has known more real perhaps under the birth name of Lucie Schwob -- as a translator of: The Task of Social Hygiene). Paris. Juin 1930'. Cahun had translated Ellis's book into French in 1928. There is a close creative affinity between Ellis and Cahun: Ellis believed that individuals construct identity and patterns of meaning in their own lives, while Cahun's work is an exploration of the making and masking of identity. Ellis's controversial and influential masterpiece, the seven volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (published 1910-1928), opened with Sexual Inversion, the first serious study of homosexuality published in Britain. His ideas on the construction of sexual identity had a profound impact on the work of a generation of lesbian authors and artists, including Radclyffe Hall and Claude Cahun. Cahun's photography is an important influence on contemporary artists, like Cindy Sherman, investigating issues of identity. One of 25 copies printed for review, this one lettered 'X'. 101 Books, pp.62-63; The Open Book, pp. 92-93; Regards à travers le livre 37.
FIRST EDITION, ONE OF 25 COPIES OF CAHUN'S FIRST BOOK. A REMARKABLE ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED TO HAVELOCK ELLIS: 'who has been a warm light on my desolate path, to the master I admire and love, to the friend who never failed me. Claude Cahun (whom he has known more real perhaps under the birth name of Lucie Schwob -- as a translator of: The Task of Social Hygiene). Paris. Juin 1930'. Cahun had translated Ellis's book into French in 1928. There is a close creative affinity between Ellis and Cahun: Ellis believed that individuals construct identity and patterns of meaning in their own lives, while Cahun's work is an exploration of the making and masking of identity. Ellis's controversial and influential masterpiece, the seven volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex (published 1910-1928), opened with Sexual Inversion, the first serious study of homosexuality published in Britain. His ideas on the construction of sexual identity had a profound impact on the work of a generation of lesbian authors and artists, including Radclyffe Hall and Claude Cahun. Cahun's photography is an important influence on contemporary artists, like Cindy Sherman, investigating issues of identity. One of 25 copies printed for review, this one lettered 'X'. 101 Books, pp.62-63; The Open Book, pp. 92-93; Regards à travers le livre 37.